Mountain Bike Anatomy - 50 parts in 5 minutes

This is a mountain bike, and at the heart of any bike is its frame. Let’s start with the parts of the frame. This here is the top tube, the down tube, the seat tube, the seat stay, and the chain stay. This area down here is called the bottom bracket shell. At the very front of your bike is the head tube, which houses the steerer tube. This moves smoothly thanks to a set of cups and bearings collectively known as the headset. Above that are headset spacers and the stem. The stem, which clamps on to your handlebars, is fastened to the steerer tube with a top cap and pinch bolts. On your handlebars you’ll find brake levers, shifters, grips, and end plugs. All this stuff up here is collectively known as the cockpit.

Moving down is your fork, which in this case is a suspension fork. This top piece is called a crown. Some bikes are fitted with dual crown forks for added strength. The crown is what holds your stanchions, which you should try as hard as possible not to scratch. Don’t hang your bike by the stanchions.

Down here is your brake caliper, which camps down on your rotor when you squeeze your brake lever. Some calipers are mechanical, while others are hydraulic. Hydraulic brakes push fluid through a hose, while mechanical brakes pull the caliper using a cable.

This big round thing is a wheel. If you buy a front and back wheel together, it’s called a wheelset. All the parts of your wheels are held together using spokes, which connect to your rim with these little guys. They’re called nipples. Also on the rim is a valve stem which is used for pumping air into your tires. At the center of the wheel is the hub, and inside the hub are bearings. The hub rotates around an axle. On a lot of mountain bikes this takes the form of a thru axle, which can be removed or installed by hand.

On the rear wheel a cassette hub. This has a ratcheting mechanism built into it which is made to accept a cassette. The cassette is a set of cogs which can actually be changed to your liking. The size of each cog is measured by the number of teeth it has, and these teeth are specially designed to work with a chain. Your chain is made up of individual links, with one link in particular being possible to unfasten easily. This is called a master link.

The chain can be shifted up and down the cassette with a derailleur, which is attached to the bike via a small breakable part called a derailleur hanger. If your derailleur hanger snaps or bends, you can just get a new one. On the derailleur itself is a long spring loaded piece called the cage, which keeps tension on the chain. The chain passes through the upper pulley and lower pulley, also known as the jockey and idler respectively.

Moving down to the bottom bracket shell, you’ll find your crankset, with the most visible parts being the crank arms. The crank arms are attached to the spindle, which runs through a set of bearings which are inside the bottom bracket shell. The spindle and bearings collectively are known as the bottom bracket.

The part with all the teeth is called the chainring. Some bikes have up to 3 of these. At the end of the crank arms are pedals, which can be found in many different forms. The crankset, chain, derailleur and cassette are collectively known as your drivetrain.

On a full suspension mountain bike you’ll find a variety of stuff connecting the front and rear of the bike together, known as the suspension linkage. At the heart of all this is your shock. This is usually fastened to the linkage on one side, and to your top tube or down tube on the other.

Moving up, we have the seat, or saddle. The two words are interchangeable, but some people think it’s pretentious to call it a saddle. Personally I don’t care what you call it as long as you don’t correct other people. In any case this is most definitely not a saddle post, it’s a seat post, and it’s held on to your bike with a seat post clamp, or collar. These days a lot of seat posts can be adjusted on the fly. Those are called dropper posts.

So I just named well over 50 parts of a mountain bike, but all of these parts can be broken down into hundreds more. So, put those terms down in the comments, and if you’re really bored see if you can come up with an exact count of the terms I used in this video. Also, tell me how you pronounce derailleur. Are you one of those people who say “derailleeyur?”. In any case thanks for riding with me today, I’ll see you next time.

[ezrakainz]

1:45 You know you learn something every day.

[bkxc]

Love it, man. I honestly learned a few terms. This was also the first video to set off "Hey Siri" when you said "seat stay".

[Comment_User]

Thanks. i forgot what the big round things i ride on were called

[willshawyer]

“These things are called nipples”

9 year olds: *quiet snickering*

[SethsBikeHacks]

Thanks you guys for getting me to 200, 000 subscribers! I was going to do something special, but I've been nursing a few injuries since October. Every time I've done gone hard since then I've been off the bike for a bit, which is why you haven't seen many tutorials or BMX videos. The last time I went really hard was the Fat Ripper video, which brought me to my knees for over a week. So I'm going to let myself heal, take it real easy, and do whatever my doctor says. I promise to put in a lot of work on the repair videos, fun tests, and beginner series to make things interesting. Once I'm back to normal, I'll start jumping off of roofs again!

[SkillsWithPhil]

Dude, congrats on 200, 000! I think when we were santos you were still at 30-40k!!!

[thexgamer]

love your content Seth you made me get my first MTB

[MTBdropIN]

Dude!!! Insane idea for a video!!! I would have killed to watch this video when I first began mountain biking!!!

[FelipediOliveira]

Even though almost 9 months's been passed since the day you uploaded this video, i really would like to thank you, Seth.
I first started learning english by myself earlier this year and also i've been into MTB a couple months and it's very important for me to learn the name of all the MTB parts in english, man. For guys like me, this video can be gold. Thanks a lot, man! Keep rocking!

[YourNickIsTaken]

That was an awesome English class.
Regards from Middle Europe!

[samuelmontealegre]

"I don't care what you call it as long as you dont correct other people" thats why I like this guy!

[johnrichards]

have you done a full bike maintenance video? including oiling everything doing brakes, forks and cassette cleaning. maybe even some degreasing tips and what oil to use and other stuff im new to having a bike which i want to maintain rather than just scrap it when it brakes cuz i used to buy bikes for like 10£ from anyone

[KyleAraullo]

24 years of my life and I only knew now what that big round thing was called. Much thanks, Seth.

[fallendeath]

I was out riding my bike but I got a notification from Seth's bike hacks so I came home to watch it

[Cntrvlpxtns]

Thanks for not being pretentious or have some kind of ego, like everyone is just born knowing this. We all started not knowing it at some point in our lives.

[MatthewCGiroux]

who ever is reading this hope u had a great Christmas

[predagator]

I spent $1100 on a mountain bike for my self, and another 700 on one for my wife because of this channel and you thank you, i love riding when i get the chance.

[leocastro]

52 bike parts including Collective terms like drivetrain.

[adammcallister]

Hey Seth! Would love to see some more maintenance vids like caliper rebuild or freehub service. Your commentaries are excellent with lots of great tips!

[ムース-rd]

hey seth, can u do a headset choosing/fitting turorial? there arent any good videos out there covering that topic, and Id really appreciate it if u make on. Im sure it would help out a lot more people as well. And congrats on