Trail Aid

You’ve read my previous articles in EW and you know you’re having fun because your bike is well maintained, you’re carrying tools for your bike and your skill and ability is ever improving. But as mentioned once before s**t happens, so this piece will try and give you some tricks and tips for sorting out the unexpected in the middle of a ride.First off, the three universal tools for all bikes that are taken off road:

• Cable ties
• Duct tape
• Tow rope

When all else fails one of these or a combination will get you home……..almost always!Right, let’s deal with the most common of ride problems – the infamous flat tyre – especially if you’re riding at De Wildt. Ok, there are a few tricks to lessening this nuisance, the main one being “prevention is usually better than cure”. Get your tyres prepped before your riding. The best thing I find is to fill your tyres with Slime. It costs approximately R80 per bottle and you need a full bottle for each wheel. This stuff is great, it has tiny beads in it and, in the case of a hole, the slime and beads block the hole before your tyre goes flat. I have clipped off loads of thorns have been embedded in the tyre after a De Wildt ride and still gone for a bunch of rides on the same tyres. In fact I only replaced the tubes when I replaced the knobblys. Good stuff that Slime. Another pre-ride anti-puncture trick is to wrap your tube in an old tube. Take an old tube and slit it open right around the inside. Encase your new tube in the old tube, stick the whole bunch in your tyre and inflate. Presto – extra thick, dual walled tubes!All this is good, but you still sometimes get punctures that beat your prep. So, it is always smart to carry a can of your favourite canned tyre fix brand. And, in cases where your tube is ripped, your cable ties and duct tape can be used. Hopefully you have the means to get your tube out of your tyre and to re-inflate after repairs. But if this is the case, you tie off your tube on each side of the rip with cable ties. Pull really tight. Wrap up the damaged section between the cable ties with duct tape, replace tube and inflate – Viola! Another common mishap is the drowned steed. This happens a lot too. Some guys try cross the uncrossable while others manage to drop bikes on their sides while crossing water. Whatever the case, when the bike is drowned, it’s drowned. Once the bike has been successfully removed from the troublesome pond or stream, the next issue is trying to start it again. First trick, if the bike has been on its side, is to turn the gas off. The obvious next step is to try start it – you guys with electric starters, stop laughing!!! If you see water splashing out the exhaust with every kick then definitely turn your gas off, get off, and with the help of a couple of your buddies, stand the bike straight up pointing at the heavens. This is to get all the water out of your exhaust system. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ve actually managed to store. You can try pushing the kickstarter you’re your hand or foot to create a bit of pressure to help “blow” the excess water out. Once satisfied that you’ve expelled all there is, put the bike down. Put the gas back on and start kicking (electric start boys……….). After a few attempts if your bike hasn’t tried to start then you need to go for the push start approach. The trick here is to get the bike into a high gear when you pop the clutch so that your engine gets turning. Once you’ve dropped the clutch and the motor’s turning, jump off and run next to the bike to keep the motor turning. Eight times out of ten the bike kicks into life pretty quickly. If it doesn’t, then you haul out the tow rope you’ve been carrying and get one of your buddies to give you a pull while you try the same thing you were doing while running with it. Nine times out of ten, this definitely gets it going. If it doesn’t, well here’s an ugly one for you. You need to turn off your gas again. Remove your spark plug, turn your bike upside down and drain any water that may be in your cylinder. You can put a cloth or t-shirt or something over the plug hole and turn the engine over a couple of times to create pressure to aid with the aqua-expulsion. Put your bike together again and start with kick start, push start, tow start routine. If your bike won’t start now then I’m afraid you’ve got water in your electrical system and no trail mechanics are going to be much help. Keep that tow rope tied on and hope you’re close to wherever it is you need to get towed to.The trusty old clutch cable snap. This is not nice. Especially when you need to cross some water or get up a nasty hill climb. I hate riding with a bust clutch. Thankfully I have a hydraulic system. But for those of you with cable systems, the bad news is that they break – either snapping or coming apart at the lug behind the lever. The quick and easy tip loved by thousands out there is this: take a spare cable with you. And the best way to take it, is routed along your current cable. That’s right, take off your petrol tank. Put a spare cable along the same route as the current cable from the lever all the way to the clutch housing by taping it to the current cable. Put a small plastic bag snugly on each end to protect it and viola. When your cable snaps, it’s a simple job to put the lug of the new cable onto the lever and mount the lug on the other end to wherever it needs to go.To be honest, these are the main things that happen to bikes out there. Most other problems are caused by damage from a crash of some type. In these cases the problems are rarely mechanical, but structural and, in most cases, your cable ties, duct tape and sometimes your tow rope will get you home.Keep the shiny side up and ride it like you stole it.Steve “Tombstone” Lauter