rsbob 

OK, this is an inane thread but am suffering from triptophane poisoning post Thanksgiving. For decades I removed my fingerless gloves, like you would remove fingered gloves by working them off by the fingers. One day after riding, I was in a major rush to get to the WC (details omitted) and just pulled the gloves off by the palms, so they were inside out. Rather than spending 30 seconds to get the gloves off as usual, the new method was instant, and a snap to turn right-side out. All these years and I never knew. (And now I REALLY need to hear from all the people who never wear cycling gloves because their input is so critically important. <- You just know it will happen). The tips one never gets to make life easier.

Any short cuts/hacks you have learned to make something a snap, other than not bothering with cycling gloves? (Eg: Getting Velotoze on and off easily)

urbanknight

Tons of stuff I know now that seems to impress people despite me doing it the hard way for years.

When putting a tight tire on, put the unmounted portion on the bottom and grip the tire on both sides, pulling it down as hard as you can starting from the top and ending at the unmounted portion. It may look like you're not making any progress, but it will often settle just enough to let you get the last bit into place with just your fingers.

Shift to the smallest cog before removing the rear wheel. This allows the RD to be out of the way the most, and is often easier to align the wheel when putting it back on.

Store wheels with tubeless tires so that the valve stems are at about the 4 or 8 o'clock position. This makes gravity help you keep the sealant from clogging the valve. Any higher and gravity holds the sealant inside the valve. Too much lower and the sealant pooling at the bottom will possibly fill the stem.

Use hair spray to lubricate grips when installing them. It dries sticky so the grips don't move around when you're riding. Compressed air removes the grips without much risk of damage.

As mentioned here in a recent thread, use silicone tape to finish bar tape. No adhesive means it doesn't leave residue, but it adheres to itself strongly to hold the tape in place.

If you have a clamp-on FD that interferes with your chosen model of bottle cage, spare valve nuts make excellent shims.

Outline cleats with a white-out pen before changing them. Very easy to align the new ones the same exact way. Note, this was more useful when shoes didn't have markings on them.

As for the glove thing, I didn't learn that until I complained to someone about the ends wearing holes on them and someone said "Just pull them off like this".

Only loosen the top strap of your cycling shoes when removing them. Chances are you can get them back on that way and won't have to worry about adjusting the other straps.

Spit on the contact patches of your heart rate strap will get it to register sooner.

Trakhak

That's what I used to advise customers to do (those who asked, anyway) 40 years ago. I also pointed out that they could then either turn them right-side out or just put them on and peel them off again, reversing the reversing process.

indyfabz

Unbuckle your chin strap before trying to remove a helmet. Things go much smoother.

Use the best chain lube: NFS.

Use a beltl instead of saying “On your left!”.

Ride Gatirskinz to eliminate flats.

Ti is the best frame material.

Don’t carry anything on a front rack.

Wave.

Don’t waste your money on Rapha apparel.

And for the love of Pete, tie your jacket to your frame.

Did I miss anything?

Bruizer

Thanks so much I’ll be trying this tip after I ride this morning!

Maelochs

I was looking on hack to improve my fingerless cycling ....

Maelochs

Learn the proper method for carrying a gold club while riding?

indyfabz

I used to carry a gold card when they were all the rage. Both of my current credit cards are green. Damn tree huggers!

Is there a shoe removal hack for shoes with laces?

OldguyLee

Hi. I dislike finger exposed riding gloves. Many years on motorcycles and a few mishaps, I learned bare fingers get messed up when you hit the street….first thing you do is put your hands out for the fall. A word to the wise.

Koyote

Unless you're putting an insane amount of sealant in your tires, that won't happen because of this thing called 'gravity.'

Untie them first.

indyfabz

Thanks. One less thread I have to start.

13ollocks

shifting to the small sprocket before removing the wheel - every pro does this when they flat - just common courtesy and speeds up the wheel change for the tech.
I outline the old cleat with black sharpie before I remove it - no one sees marker on the soles of your shoes.
I trickle water on my HRM contacts - either from the tap or from my water bottle, depending on where I am. Spitting on the contacts is just gross.

SpeedyBlueBiker

Depending upon where you live:

Check cycling shoes (and for that matter, all shoes) to make sure nothing creepy or crawly as made your shoes their new home.
Check cycling gloves, both long and short fingered, to make sure the above creepy crawly thing has now decided to live in your gloves.

urbanknight

The stem at the top is where I actually experienced the problem, and it seems the problem is a very small amount of sealant gets into the stem during the ride and isn’t allowed to drain out if the stem is higher than say 9/3 o’clock (because of that ‘gravity’ you mentioned). It then dries and plugs up the valve. You’re probably right that there shouldn’t be enough sealant to rise to the stem level even if it’s at 6 o’clock. I read the concern over that somewhere and just went with it. FWIW I used this article to decide how much to put in, but it could be wrong.
https://www.bicycling.com/repair/a34...-tire-sealant/

urbanknight

Apparently saliva is more conductive than water, and the sweat that covers me at the end of the ride far overshadows the grossness of a small amount of spit. FWIW I actually lick my thumb and rub that onto the contact pads, but you might find that just as gross. Now let’s talk about snot rockets!

indyfabz

I had a Polar HRM BITD. Wetting the chest strap saliva was what you were supposed to do. It may have even been in the instructions.

indyfabz

Assuming the surface is relatively clean, licking a strap is benign, compared to something like mouth kissing, also known as "swapping spit." And that's as far as I am going to take the comparison. Others can feel free to extrapolate on their own.

urbanknight

If you train yourself to fall properly, you won't put your hands out... hopefully.

Trakhak

Some falls and crashes happen more slowly than others, and some involve more complicated causes and effects than others. I suppose it's possible that training might help a bit with some falls, but falling on, e.g., wet leaves or glare ice happens appallingly fast; too fast for training to kick in.

urbanknight

Agreed 100%, which is why I included “hopefully”.

Trakhak

"Hopefully" is exactly right. You can be as cautious as you like . . . I crashed a couple of years ago when I hit a patch of wet moss on a paved downhill trail when the afternoon sun was perfectly positioned to shade only the moss, making it indistinguishable from shadow. I had just that instant applied the front brake as the front tire entered the shadow/hit the moss. Result: wham. Mild concussion. Disorientation. There's reasonable caution, and then there's plain bad luck.

jadmt

a guy could get pretty banged and broken up practicing crashing.....tuck and rolling hurts at 30mph on pavement or dirt.....

jadmt

anybody still do the wool sock hack for toe warmers? probably extends your riding comfort by at least 2 degrees colder .

rumrunn6

fun tip, thank you

when I'm in a meat induced coma, I try to check in on forums, but fail because I pass out. gloves that I have to struggle with, do not remain my gloves for long. now where's my turkey leftovers?

rsbob 

When riding in cold weather, like today 34*, rather than removing my booties, I peal them back and put the shoes over a heating vent which dries the shoes completely and no wrestling the booties back on over the well worn cleats.