Bike Repair Made Sexy?

Quality production, not overly techy, very informative...sorry, no wet T-shirt contests.

WHAT: Side Effects Productions' Mountain Bike Maintenance & Repair DVD WHERE: www.SideEffects.TV ; (530) 550-7469 (& eventually your local bike shop) HOW MUCH: $24.95

A camera man who moonlights as a wrench at a Bay Area bike shop walked into a film-maker’s studio one day and complained, “You know what the world needs? The world needs a @$#%! video that answers all the stupid questions that people always ask mechanics when we’re busy trying to fix their $#@! bikes for them.” It had, apparently, been a long day at the bike shop. The comment, however, spurred the studio to, in fact, make a video that answers all the stupid questions your average shop mechanic hears when they close their eyes and try to sleep at night.

Though the production quality is top notch (good lighting, clear audio, smooth transitions, nifty spinning-wrench graphics, etc.), this is not sexy, bike-porn fare. It’s not filled with hucking or wet t-shirt contests and the like. This movie is exactly what its title suggests: a how-to-wrench-on-your-bike primer—with a few twists. In addition to learning the basics (headsets, bottom brackets, brakes, derailleurs, etc.) the video also includes a complete build up of Shimano’s latest generation of XTR. While you may not have the bank to afford XTR, a good portion of the instruction is valid for Hone, LX and XT as well.

The man in front of the camera is Shimano Multi-Service Specialist, Matt Eames. Eames is a 10-year veteran of the NORBA and World Cup race circuits and his years of wrenching on bikes comes across well. His delivery is clear, evenly paced and precise (though there are times that he, like all mechanics, looks as if he’d like to throw a torque wrench at you for having stepped into his workspace). No speed talking, vague references to tools you’ve never heard of, or overly-techy lingo.

The video is shot on-location, in the pits at a Big Bear Nationals race, but the audio and overall production quality is top notch. It’s a DVD, so if you decide you’ve witnessed enough bottom bracket instruction, you can just hit the menu button and move on to some other repair topic. Those topics include: Cleaning Your Bike; Necessary Bike Tools; Inspecting your Bike; Brake Adjustments; Drivetrain Adjustments; Indexed Shifting Adjustments; Front Derailleurs; Chain Repairs; Headset Adjustments; Basic Wheel Truing; and the basic on bleeding the new XTR disc brakes, installing a new Hollowtech II bottom bracket and installing the new integrated shifters.

In addition to all of the above topics, Eames also dispenses plenty of useful tips (which lubes are right for varying conditions, what you’re supposed to do with that little hole on the back of you chain-breaker, etc.).

Complaints? Only one that I can think of: while many of the basic techniques will work on components from every manufacturer, a few of the techniques are dead-center Shimano-specific (well, Eames is a Shimano mechanic, after all). Thus, I suppose the movie could have spent a bit of time covering some non-Shimano (Magura, Hayes, Hope & Avid) disc brake bleeding instructions and some non-Shimano bottom bracket set ups (such as RaceFace’s X-Type system). All in all, though, I walked away pretty darn impressed. While I’d never pretend to be a shop-quality mechanic, I have been wrenching on my own bikes for over 20 years and I still learned some new things watching the DVD. For roughly $25, it’s hard to go wrong with this product.

To watch a short teaser for the film, click on the following link: www.SideEffects.TV

We’ll eventually post some teaser footage on BIKEMAG.com, but that’s a few weeks off yet. You can also order the video directly off the SideEffects website.