Trike Talk - Ep 3 - Trike Maintenance, Tire & Tube Care

Harold: Hi everybody, welcome back to the trike show I'm Harold.

Brayden: and I'm Brayden and we're here to talk trikes.

Harold: This week's episode, we're going to be going over trike maintenance issues that we've seen come up over this week and through our Utah Trikes career, one big question that I've been getting is how often should I be servicing and tuning up my trike, Brayden?

Brayden: Every time you ride the trike you should be doing an inspection on it. It's a piece of equipment, things can go wrong, it's important to do I think a pre-inspection as well as a like after ride inspection.

Harold: Yeah you want to make sure your tire is pumped up to the PSI that you want it to be. You want make sure you don't have a lot of cable slack, want to make sure that your chain's clean if not, things can go wrong with the gearing.

Brayden: Right, I mean, make sure everything's running, right before you get out there on the trail. It's just as important as while you're on the trail if something goes wrong, you address the problem sooner than later right, I mean a flat tire, you should be able to fix a flat tire immediately right, but as far as like a big tune-up goes, yearly.

Harold: At least once a year, right I mean what we recommend doing and I know this is going to be hard to stomach for some people really get familiar with your trike, riding it, and how it feels, and also how do I adjust my trike, how do I adjust the brakes, how do I clean the gearing how do I make sure everything shifts smoothly the more familiar you are with those and being able to diagnose and fix those issues is the longer that you're going to be able to ride.

Brayden: right I mean the less problems you're going to be running into. Say your yearly tune-up, what your big things that you are checking and making sure are working correctly? that you're maybe not doing on your daily.

Harold: Right you're checking brake cables, you're checking the tension on those, you're checking the derailleur, making sure there's no extensive wear, we're going through the headset caps bolts everything, making sure everything is tight, nothing is going to rub loose, and we're also checking tire wear, checking chain lubricant checking everything up and down on the trike making sure that it is close to factory condition as we, as a bike shop, can get it.

Brayden: Right and if that's something that you're not capable of doing right as a customer, bring it to a bike shop, bring it to us, we are happy to do a tune up on it, take a look at it, let you know if anything's wrong with it.

Harold: but the biggest thing to keep in mind if you see that something is wrong with your trike get it taken care of as soon as possible do not wait, there's no shame.

Brayden: I mean riding a broken trike, just going to make it more broken right, you're not the parts aren't going to fix themselves, so bring it in, get it fixed, get it addressed yeah keep spinning.

Harold: yeah really keep on spinning, keep on relaxing, another kind of segue I kind of mentioned it a little bit ago, when riding on trails, especially here in Utah, we get a lot of goat heads (thorny weeds) we get a lot of really bad weeds and going on some of the trails around here, What are some of the options that are going to be viable for tire puncture resistance?

Brayden: You're worried about puncture resistance? yeah, I mean we can go into that um there's a couple of things that I strongly recommend for puncture resistance.

Harold: One in particular, but we'll get into that.

Brayden: Right right, but our most popular by far is the Marathon Plus Tires, without a doubt.

Harold: They even ship us a box of thumb tacks with those. It's like a dare, we love showing it to customers, they'll give us the thumb tacks and they'll try and have us push it through that wheel and that liner and it just won't go. It has that liner already built into that wheel.

Brayden: already really tough puncture resistance. Another big option, my favorite, the Tannus Armor, right um Tannus Armor is that little foam liner we put in there to protect the tube kind of wraps around it.

Harold: It's like a big old wad of bubble gum.

Brayden: Yeah it looks like pink bubble gum, wraps around the tube, the thing I love about that is if you do happen to get a flat, you're not stranded out there, you can ride that back, you still have a like 50 miles to the rim that you can ride on.

Harold: Another Great option from Tannus is the Tannus airless tires, they're going to be installed into a rim in place of a tire and function very similar to what a standard road tire will be and since they are airless, there's no air that can come out. They're puncture proof.

Brayden: They're puncture proof. There's nothing you can puncture right I'd like to kind of circle back and just kind of talk about the importance of a rider knowing to change their tube right and the right procedure of changing the tube, we have a video on it that we'll tag, but as a rider it's your duty to know how to change your tire, I mean things happen, and the most common thing I see happen is people will change their tube, it goes flat, 'okay I'm going to pull over the side of the road, yeah I pulled the tube out, put a new tube in, it still went flat You know what am I doing wrong?'

Brayden: You didn't take the original problem out of the tire, it's still there You should be pulling your tube out checking the inside of the tire whether that's running your fingers do.

Harold: Just rub your thumb along the inside of the tire and see if there's any thorns or whatever initially popped your tire, if you don't take it out where's it going? nowhere, until you take it out.

Brayden: So you're out there, your tube has gone flat You've replaced the tube or you're out of tubes You didn't take it out in the first place, what can I do now?

Harold: What about our other liners, the Tuffy Liners?

Brayden: Tuffy liners are great and fantastic, I mean when installed correctly. With all tire protection as long as it's installed correctly. The only problem with Tuffy Liners compared to like a Tannus Armor, it really just protects on the surface of the tire so if anything tries puncture the side wall very very easy to puncture right there's no other sort of resistance or or protection towards the tube.

Harold: Will not protect you against random knife bandit attacks to the side random glass bottles, glass bottles that are being thrown at you, rebel.

Brayden: You're out there, you do get the flat, what are you, what are you glad you kept in mind to keep the sack behind you?

Harold: In the heat of the moment, what I'm going to be the most happy to have with me. I'm going to want a tire lever either a standard plastic one or a steel core like the ones that Park Tool offers. I'm going to want at least a couple of those so I can actually pry that tire up and get to the tube. I'm also going to want to carry either a hand air pump CO2 pump or there's actually some really cool electric pumps out there that are pretty small um you can carry those with you on the bags that you can get with the trike or that come with the seat also a patch kit.

Brayden: I don't think we talked about enough or used as often as they should be I don't like to throw away my tubes.

Harold: I know you're a little bit of a tube hoarder.

Brayden: Got a couple yeah and it's not something that I always patch out on the side of the road I don't want to clean a tube patch it out in the middle of nowhere so pull that tube out if yeah pull the tube out, put the new tube in, I'm going to put this tube that has a hole in it back in my bag take it back home and and and later clean it reinforce it

Harold: put some soapy water find the air bubble.

Brayden: Yeah find where it's leaking from or the multiple spots it's leaking from and start patching up those holes, which not only is going to prevent this tube from going flat again but also gives it some extra reinforcement for later.

Harold: Yeah of course, I mean a lot of these patches are going to come with a bunch of patches upwards.

Brayden: cheaper than a tube I mean I don't think a tube costs that much but a patch kit is very cheap.

Harold: paying about $10 for patch kits

Brayden: Like two couple bucks yeah and it comes with like 12 patches so and patch up as many tubes as I need.

Harold: super easy to install, just another thing to keep in mind when you're doing the maintenance: learn how to patch a tube as well. You're already learning, learn some more.

Brayden: You don't stop it keeps coming, there's so much information.

Harold: You can't stop learning at all.

Brayden: so speaking about, you know, airing up my tires, how do I know how much my tire needs? What PSI do I put my tire at?

Harold: It's crazy and it's a little known secret on the tire itself, you guys aren't going to believe this as you look at those numbers on the side of the tire right before where it says PSI it's going to have a minimum and maximum range and those are going to be the numbers to where you can set your tire pressure to.

Brayden: That's the sweet spot. Are you telling me that you don't have each tire we have upstairs memorized to the PSI rating?

Harold: Yeah there's no way even if I could we have so many tires and so many different tubes I'd go crazy.

Brayden: All that information can be found on the sidewall.

Brayden: Yeah I get asked that all the time same with like tire size what what tubes do I need for my trike it's written on the side wall of the tire.

Harold: One other thing to keep in mind it's not going to be super evident, there's two different valve types that we use Strader valves and Presta valves Strader valves are going to be the valves that you find on your car Presta valves are going to be those thinner valves that have the removable core.

Brayden: Important to note you can't really interchangeable with those yeah right your the rims are set up for Strader or Presta valves you can go back and forth but it requires drilling or an adapter.

Harold: You can change a presta to a strader, but then you're drilling the rim and going from there what's the recommended tire pressure other than what's listed on the tire what am I going to get from using different tire pressures from going like from a low PSI to a high PSI.

Brayden: I mean recommended it is really going to be based on where you're riding and what you're trying to do a higher PSI tire is going to roll a little easier and be a little quicker of a ride right but it's also going to be a lot more bumpy than riding on a low pressure a lot less give I mean just like a basketball right I can roll a flat basketball it's a little harder to roll it looks a little more comfortable though yeah but uh but a stiff hard high PSI basketball is going to bounce a little bit more floaty rolls a lot easier right um things to keep in mind within that range of PSI right needs to be in that range but depending on what you're riding you might need it to be higher you might want it to be lower.

Harold: Yeah you don't want to exceed that cuz then it'll blow up.

Brayden: Or go under you're going to damage the rim so keep it within that window but know that there's some

Harold: There's some give there, you just want to keep within that range right cuz thing to keep in mind as well get really familiar with how to remove the wheels in your trike with the front wheels you really don't have to worry about that you just tilt it up on one side take off the tire itself and then pull out the tube right pretty standard stuff rear wheel is where it gets a little bit more difficult with a quick release it's not going to be too bad to do pop off the quick release pull it off of the derailleur, and slide it back on do need to keep in mind what gearing you're in.

Brayden: I mean something worth practicing at home before it happens to you.

Harold: The safety of your garage really take the time to familiarize yourself with how to do that either with a through axle which is going to require tools and then with internally geared hubs which are going to be a lot more difficult, but with practice anything is achievable.

Brayden: Yeah everything I mean after doing it for a while it's going to feel normal anyways so better to practice and know how to do it than be out on the side of the road trying to figure out how to do it.

Harold: Yeah really get familiar with how that derailer works as well so you can keep that in check with your cassette, make sure your bike equilibrium stays equal.

Brayden: Yeah make sure everything's working properly, but know your trike, know how to work on your trike, how do I know that, how do I know my chain is working properly does it need to be replaced how often should I be replacing it?

Harold: A pretty good tool that you can get to check that the the chain wear and stretch. Park Tool makes a chain checker tool. You get that and that'll tell you where you're at most chains are going to last a long time if you're taking good care of them um we also get asked a lot um what sort of chain lubricant, should I use?

Brayden: Chain lubricant, yeah I mean, always a dry lube. Very rarely if ever would I recommend an oil-based lubrication. Keeping a dry lube on there keeps all that dust and grime out of your chain. Oil lube's going to take up a lot more any sort of dust, debris is going to be picked up from an oil-based lube which not only is going to dirty your chain but dirty up whatever derailer system you have any of your cassettes in the back or front chain rings.

Harold: I'm having to clean the chain to I have to clean or replace my cassette in there that makes it

Brayden: They're going to wear out. General use is going to wear these parts out it is about keeping these parts as long as you can and making sure they're working properly so please dry lubricate um to make sure everything's running properly and aligned correctly sometimes an idler can be off and then it just eats apart the frame of the trike so please make sure everything's running correctly.

Harold: Another thing to learn it's pretty easy to learn how to adjust a derailer they have the high and low limits groups you just want to make sure it's lined up in the high end gear and then high and lined up in the low end gear there's plenty of videos on how to do that.

Brayden: Oh yeah, and I want to circle back to like chain longevity yes convenient thing we're on a trike the chain is longer than a bike you really we're using three lengths of the chain that a bike has so you should be expecting three times longer lifespan than a bike chain right um I mean a lot less stretch going on there right but you know it's not making as many rotations as it would on a bike.

Harold: A lot less movement there but still yeah.

Brayden: I mean main important things stay familiar with your trike know how to work on it know how to fix it know there's places that can fix it for you but best case scenario you know how to do it so In the Heat of the Moment you're not absolutely lost and stuck out there right you have a way of at least getting back home.

Brayden: as always

Harold: Remember to relax spin fast and ride trikes we'll see you guys next time