10 Hacks for MTB, Road, and Outdoors

Spring is right around the corner and for many of you that means better riding weather. So why not start the season with 10 more bike tricks for mountain,

road

and more? Use these tricks to fix, protect, and style your bike with things you may have lying around. Let us begin. Many cyclists attach an inner tube to their frame to have it on hand in case of emergency, but they are usually held in place with electrical tape or zip ties. Self-adhesive hook and loop is better. Not only is it reusable, but it comes in rolls and can be cut to size.

If you really want to ride lean, simply wind up the inner tube with a multi-tool, CO2 cartridge, and inflator. Now secure it with hook and loop so nothing falls off and finally secure it to your frame or under your seat. Self-adhesive stickers can be found at most hardware or craft stores in rolls or individual pieces. Speaking of doing trail repairs, have you ever been stuck without a valve core wrench? According to one of my subscribers, a locking grab collar can be used as an emergency substitute. Simply remove your grip and take off one of the collars.

Then remove the pinch bolt and use the gap to tighten the valve core. It's not the most convenient trick, but it's a hell of a lot better than getting stuck somewhere. Since most locking grips have a similar collar, this is a trick that many people could use. If you wear the helmet long enough, it will smell bad from all the disgusting sweat on your head. Fortunately, most helmets have removable pads that you can clean or replace. Since washers tend to eat things, take all of these pads and place them inside a clean sock. Simply machine wash it with detergent and throw it in the dryer as you normally would.

Your sanitary pads will be fresh, clean and easy to find. Pool noodles have many great uses, such as bringing back the BMX trends of the '80s. But on the more practical side, you can use them to protect your bike during transport. If you're packing a few bikes into your truck, SUV, or van, noodle pieces can protect parts that are dangerously close to being crushed. Simply use scissors or a cleaver to cut a noodle to the appropriate size and open it in half. You can even keep some noodles in your travel bag for added protection during shipping.

That's using your noodles. Hydration packs allow you to drink water on the go, but sometimes re-securing the hose is only slightly better than re-securing a water bottle. With a retractable badge holder you can automate the entire process. Simply clip the reel to the shoulder strap and clip the cable to the end of the hydration hose. As long as the badge holder has a good spring, the mouthpiece should snap into place as soon as you release it. You can also use a badge holder to prevent the spoke wrench from coming out of the alignment bracket. This trick was another request from a subscriber and I think it's really original.

What is the difference between these two pairs of cycling glasses? How about the fact that they are not cycling glasses at all? In fact, I bought them at the hardware store for balls plus VAT. Now, paint me unsophisticated in the realm of cycling glasses, but I don't see where the $100 disparity comes in here. In fact, hardware store glasses are lighter, more comfortable, and I think they are prettier. Yes, they are tinted, but you can also get them clear. What's more, you can find gloves and even foot pumps for a fraction of those marketed for cyclists. So if you're on a budget, the hardware store trick can save you hundreds of dollars if you keep your expectations in check.

Repairing suspension is actually not that difficult if you have the right tools, such as bike-specific sockets. On standard sockets, the rounded ends tend to slide off the top caps of the suspension forks. To make an existing socket work better, use a grinder to square the edges. This shouldn't inhibit the bushing's performance in other things, but will give you maximum grip in shallow top caps. Since you only need to do it in one socket, I'd say it's a pretty cool hack. If you have a lot of bikes, at least some of them will need maintenance at any given time.

Those of you with families can probably relate. So why not run your garage like a bike shop, writing work orders? This is a fun way to keep track of what needs fixing, and you can even bill your family members for household chores to pay for their services. While you're playing bike buying, try selling them with unnecessary upgrades. So, work orders, because they are much more interesting than sticky notes. Now two generations old, the GoPro Hero4 remains the camera of choice for mountain biking vloggers. Since you can't always find them anymore, you have to repair them to keep them working.

Today I'll show you how to replace the lens without disassembling the entire GoPro. As you can see, I purchased a replacement lens for a few dollars online. It is screwed to this housing, which is the same as the one inside the GoPro. It screws and unscrews to focus, which means the one on the GoPro does too. To unscrew the GoPro lens, you'll need to remove the rubber ring covering the lens and use some type of pliers, but as long as you're replacing the lens, messing it up shouldn't be a big deal. The new lens should screw on much easier and focus the same as the old one.

Performing a lens change using this unorthodox method is, in my opinion, much less invasive than doing it “the right way.” I have used this trick 5 times with a 100% success rate. You can make a mudguard from any piece of plastic sheeting, like a two-liter soda bottle, or this tracing paper I bought at the craft store. Simply print the template in the description, trace it onto your plastic, and carefully cut it out. Now customize it however you want. Smash! With four zip ties, you can secure it to the fork and prevent all the mud from collecting behind the uprights.

So much function, style and sophistication, all in one trick. And finally, it wouldn't be a Seth's Bike Hacks video without a food hack, so here's an extra hack for getting an extra taco. The next time you eat tacos, place an empty tortilla on your plate. As you eat, and inevitably get taco innards everywhere, your tortilla will accumulate the ingredients from your extra taco, which is a combination of all the other tacos you just ate. And that concludes this tricks video. Let me know which trick you found most entertaining or useful, and of course, let me know if you have any tricks you'd like to see next time.

But before you do that, check out the 10 Bike Tricks playlist to make sure it's not already covered. Thanks for traveling with me today and we'll see you next time.