Box Tech Tip: Fix The Hop in Your Chain
August 7, 2018 by bmxnews.org Editors · Comments Off
Before you take your race ride out for a spin on the track, give your cranks a quick-spin backwards. If it spins, then stops abruptly, your chainring may be off its axis a bit, causing an unnecessary tight spot in the chain.
In this week’s Box Tech Tip, Tyler Brown hops-to the task of helping you nullify that chain-hop.
It is, afterall, an imperfect world, so most BMXers won’t totally eliminate ALL tightness in the chain (because it can come from any-number of components, in combination). That said, you can use this tip to make every-effort to remedy what is fixable.
Equipment: Tyler is running a Box One M35 Crankset with a Rennen Designs 49t chainring and a KMC Chain.
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Tech Tips: Don’t Break Your Brakes
June 19, 2018 by bmxnews.org Editors · Comments Off
Yes, it’s true that you won’t win races by slowing down, but you also don’t avoid that dude’s back wheel when setting up the high low, without a little dive-conscious tap on the lever for pinpoint clearance. Then, it’s all sunlight upfront, straight on to the stripe.
This week in the Box Tech Tips series, Tyler Brown takes us through dialing in your calipers, Cali style.
There are three videos to this part of the series: Replacing and installing new brake pads, adjusting your V Brake arms and Adjusting brake pads.
Installing new brake pads
Adjusting the V-Brake Arms
Adjusting the Brake Pads
You should be checking the free-rolling motion of your back wheel every-so-often, because if your brakes are rubbing, you have an onboard drag-devil slowing you down. But, as Tyler just demonstrated, a few turns of the ol Allen wrench, and some proper maintenance, and you’re rollin smooth, in perpetuity.
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Box Tech Tips: Changing a Rear Cog
June 12, 2018 by bmxnews.org Editors · Comments Off
Changing your gear at the races is always a harrowing task. The pressure is on to get to practice, or before your next moto is called to staging. So, it really helps to know exactly what you’ll be facing when you pull the wheel off and start spinnin those wrenches.
In this week’s Box Tech Tip, Tyler Brown takes us through the process of changing a cog.
The process is somewhat the same on most brands of hubs–you’ll need to purchase a “chain whip tool,” which holds the cog in place as you use the next required tool–which Tyler refers to by it’s given name: a “bottom bracket tool.” Don’t let that fool you, it plays double duty here on the back wheel as well, to loosen/tighten the locknut that holds the cog on the hub.
A Chain whip and Bottom Bracket tool are essential parts of your BMX toolkit, so pick them up at any online vendor, like Amazon, Chain Reaction or similar.
You’ll probably invest $30-$40 on those tools, but NOT having them when you need them is one of those moments when you’d pay triple for them, so best to get them now.
OK, now that you have some of that primer, here’s the demo of the quick-and-easy process.
If you have a complete bike that is on the entry level, price-wise, your back hub may use a “clip ring” to hold the cog onto the hub, in which case, you can probably get away with a couple flathead screwdrivers to coax the ring out of its groove, then back on. Give it a look before buying those “essential” tools noted above, to ID which format your hub uses.
Still others don’t use a cog at all, but a “freewheel,” which threads on to the back hub, and requires different tools to remove. We’ll cover that in a future tech tips feature.
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