Thursday, March 15, 2012

BikemanforU Show Gains Speed in Episode 2


In the BikemanforU Show's second episode, "Make it GO," YouTube's most entertaining master bike mechanic addresses the age-old problem of spinning your wheels. 

An old Fuji road bike has a problem. The pedals spin forward but the back wheel does not grab.  Congealed grease shows how long the bike has been hanging around. BMFU quickly demonstrates an alternate use of this grease as war paint / eye shadow.

We learn early into this instructional video that sometimes how ya gotta play Sherlock Holmes to understand what you are fixing before taking action. 

First, he determines that we are looking at a stuck cassette freehub and not a freewheel.  Then he dives into cleaning things up.

We get a close look at some of the tools of the bike repair trade. Compressed air blows out a lot of the gunk. Brakleen, a strong and toxic chemical cleaner that calls for wearing safety glasses, handly cuts through the grease.

We see how to clean and manipulate the stuck freehub until it grabs again. Bike parts  re-assembled and re-lubed with a wax and alcohol-based solution that resists grit and grime.

The customer shows up just as the work is completed.  Since he didn't want to pay a lot for the fix, he must be happy he got back a working bike at no charge. 

As the customer wheels his ride away, it's easy to agree with our show host a new bike is probably in this guy's future. Maybe a mountain bike, since he mentions riding in the woods. 

The BikemanforU show continues to be fast-paced, entertaining and informative. Episodes upload weekly to the BikemanforU Channel on YouTube.

With nearly 2000 subscribers more than a million video views, the popular BikemanforU Channel mixes humor with how-to instructional videos for bicycle repair and maintenance.

--JPorter

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