6 Maintenance Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Bike!

Maintaining your bike well is so important when, if done wrong, you could cause real & expensive damage! Ollie has 6 ways that you may be damaging your bike without even realizing it! These things happen far too often and some are due to new products and tech. Take Ollie's advice to save your bike and your pocket! 🚲

0:00 - Intro
0:25 - Turbo salt
2:02 - Washing your bike incorrectly
4:02 - Wrong lube and in the wrong places
6:18 - Brake contamination
7:55 - Bike bags
9:19 - Leaning your bike up wrong

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🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
Above As Below (Instrumental Version) - Blood Red Sun
Never Meant to Be (Instrumental Version) - Gloria Tells
Samaria - Lukas Got Lucky

#gcntech #gcn #cycling #roadcycling #roadbike #bike #bikes #bikelife #bikemaintenance

📸 Photos - © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sprint Cycling Agency

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[Aureas]

Tip to the editor; background music is too loud at points where it gets more intense.

[TokingPope]

Ollie must have a panic attack every time he sees a gravel bike that actually gets ridden.

[rileynicholson]

I think what's missing from this whole video is that suboptimal maintenance is almost always better than no maintenance and that cosmetic damage is not the same as functional damage. Even the WD40 thing was specifically in that context. Degreasing and lubing your chain with WD40 or washing your bike with dish soap is still going to be a lot better in the long term than skipping on cleaning your bike, which is the real alternative for most people.

If you're actually causing meaningful damage (not cosmetic) to your bike by using dish soap that will become obvious over the lifetime of your bike, you're washing your bike too often of doing something else very wrong.

Totally agree on recklessly leaning your bike on important components, best to avoid that.

[AlanCallow]

'You don't wash your car like you wash your bike' - damn right - I only wash the bike, I leave the rain to sort the car out

[chrisridesbicycles]

Making this video has clearly taken a lot out of poor Ollie. He needs a recovery day now.

[ashaw]

Feel like my paint work gets way more damaged from getting constantly blasted by debris from the roads than from most of these thing though to be honest haha

[SuperFunSuperLiz]

Agree with all of this except the sarcasm on the bike bags. 😄 I know how to put my bags on in a way that doesn't damage my precious Colnago, but it seems like Ollie was more annoyed at bag carriers in general. Hey man, I can't put snacks in my back pockets, they're directly in the sun, on my sweaty back! And I don't want my keys mashed up against my body either. There are plenty of legit reasons to have a bike bag. And what about bikepacking?!

[chriscc]

The thing with Dish soap is people dump about half a pint of the stuff in a one bucket of warm water (so it gets all foamy), if you must use it you just need a quick squirt maybe a couple of teaspoons worth in the bottom of the bucket with HOT water to break surface tension.
Oh and people that go straight in with the sponge with dry or partly dry dirt/mud still visible on the frame, why? You may as well get the sand paper out.

[aliancemd]

3:14 “Don’t use washing-up liquid … it’s going to damage…” - don’t like when sponsors use these channels to spread fear, to make people buy overpriced washing-up liquid.
I’ve been washing my bike for over 4 years with a plant-based, baby-safe dish soap that biodegrades significantly faster(hours instead of weeks/months) than “bike products” and it did absolutely no “damage” to the color or shininess of the bike, and no, there is no “rusting”(heard that one when they invited the sponsor), just like your utensils are not rusting if not scratched and not left in water.

[Fred-yqfs]

You sound so precious about the bikes. lol: the bags stuff and the resting on bars...
If I can't afford a minor damage to a thing it's a sure sign I should never have bought that thing in the first place. I live by that principle and I'm always chilled. Basically I try to not be owned by the stuff I own. e.g.: being overly cautious all the time or spending too much time and efforts in maintenance. If it wears out I replace it, simples. Money buys peace kind of thing.
Now I still take the valuable advice on lube and clean, thanks.

[stevetakahashi]

Lacquer is not used for finish coatings anymore. Modern paint systems use Urethane clear coats over thin layers of color pigmentation. But you are right that dish detergents and degreasing agents will dull the topcoat finish.

[ryandavies]

Ollie being upset with people actually using bikes as practical transportation, and calling them “hipsters” for doing so, is pretty funny. How dare they? 😂

Those paint protection films he recommends don’t hold up very long against constant abrasion, in my experience. At a certain point, one just has to choose whether their bike is a vanity art piece or a tool. Not saying one shouldn’t try their best to keep their bike looking nice. But let’s not start calling people names for choosing to bike to haul their vinyl 😂

[ssaundersk]

Think we now need Ollie to give us a full on bike detailing video from start to finish, in detail, to remove all the micro marring that we've inflicted and then the ceramic top coating etc. To get it back to showroom finish. Also what to do about fixing marring on a matt finish bike.

[boycaoimhin]

Using washing up liquid and WD 40 for 5 years now. Bike absolutely tip top. No issues.

[colinfisher]

Love that fact that all of Oli's rants are about GCN tech videos (granted from back in the day) he wasn't involved in. Either he's in need of some personal release in his life or he has brought an increase in the quality to the tech channel?

[Poisonous-odd-or-sheep]

What Ollie brings to this channel is amazing. And when Ollie and Steve get together, I could watch them all day:)

[aajfranklin]

Ollie: screams at me for 10 minutes for destroying my bike

Also Ollie: "Love you! Bye!! 😊"

[donschloth]

I’m absolutely behind you on all of these! For crying out loud, your bike is an expensive, intricate piece of equipment! Treat it as such and you’ll get so many years of excellent performance from your attention to detail. The most incredible benefit of caring for your bike is being able to put your hands on it. You’ll see and feel possible problems before they become obvious.

[gethinap]

I liked the bit at 4:28 when Ollie mentioned putting lube in the wrong places, then the editor followed it by showing a clip of someone putting lube on top of the chain.

[StanSorochan]

Thanks Ollie! I can 100% relate to all the frustration. Especially when my family members do it.