Calvin Jones is the Director of Education at Park Tool company, a position he’s held for more than 15 years. He’s the author of the Big Blue Book Bicycle Repair and his repair videos on YouTube have been viewed by millions.
We ask Calvin:
- How did you learn how to work on bikes?
- What type of riding do you like to do?
- Do mountain bikes require more or less repair and maintenance than other types of bikes?
- Are today’s bikes easier to work on than the bikes 10 or 20 years ago?
- Do bike manufacturers do a good job considering maintenance and repair when they design new products?
- Are Torx bolts taking over hex bolts?
- Which repairs are your least favorite?
- Will future bike mechanics need electrical skills, or is diagnosing and repairing electronic components something manufacturers will want to control?
- What’s the effect of YouTube videos like yours that help folks make repairs themselves at home?
Check out the Park Tool YouTube channel and parktool.com.
Programming note: For 2023 the Singletracks podcast will be published on Tuesdays each week instead of Monday.
Jeff 0:00
Hey everybody, welcome to the Singletracks podcast. My name is Jeff and today my guest is Calvin Jones. Calvin is the Director of Education at Park Tool Company, a position he’s held for more than 15 years. He’s the author of The Big Blue Book of bicycle repair. And his repair videos on YouTube have been viewed by millions. Thanks for joining us, Calvin.
Calvin 0:23
Well, thanks for having us here.
Jeff 0:27
Yeah, tell us a bit about your background. How’d you learn to work on bikes?
Calvin 0:32
Oh, how do you somewhat learn anything? Jumping in and doing stuff right away is important. But yeah, yeah, by prepare and bike stuff. You you go through life and the stream, you know, cuts many channels. And you know, you look back on it seems Oh, it’s obvious. I was gonna end up here. But yeah. At a young young age, my dad was a snap on tool, the art. So which was fun, which is to me and my brother was basically a big toy truck to us, because all the shiny steel do ting ting, ting and shark stuff. And then Hey, you kids get out of get out of there. What are your kids doing? Yeah, it was fun. So it was a car mechanic and a tool salesman. So in the garage, of course, his own tools we got to play with and nuts and bolts. So that was actually a big, I didn’t know it till later. But a big big start as a, as a young kid, just playing with stuff, just just, you know, not fixing anything, but just taking stuff apart. That’s, that’s a big deal. But then, in high school started to junior high, you know, riding 10 speeds. And my friends in high school said, get one of these racing bikes. They’re fun. Okay, I’ll do that. So then it was fun. And so then, what was my first 1972 in Colorado would be first job in a bike shop. And, you know, then did go to college, but always, you know, always worked in shops and thought, yeah, that was fun. I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go get a degree in economics, I’m gonna go teach and that that didn’t work out so good, because it was just too much fun in bike shops. And I don’t know, you just go through life, you just take opportunities and worked with US national team work the Olympics, taught at Barnett’s started writing stuff and articles. And and I don’t know, you end up here, you end up on YouTube, which is scary.
Jeff 2:55
Yeah, that’s interesting. Because I mean, you said like, how does anybody learn? And you immediately answered, like, by doing but, I mean, everybody learns in different ways, right? Like some people can get it from books. And some people can watch somebody do something…
Calvin 3:12
Right, you get a start from a book, or you get an idea on how to do something, so that the doing is a very, very important thing. So and then also, teaching is still doing it in a way. And that’s what we liked about the Park Tool School, which is a program we have, or it’s a curriculum for shops, and it’s good for people to take, it really ties your consumers to the shop have very in a personal way. People have fun, hopefully fond memories of their teachers, right. And that’s what we want shops to be, is that person, but as the shop doing it, you’re going to learn about that product. You get up in front of people, right? And you start talking about this brake, or this frame or this fork or, or how to adjust the gear or how to put a chain on, you better know your product. You’re when you’re onstage you’re very naked, in that you’re just talking BS and well, you kind of do it this way. You kind of eyeball it here. See, it looks good to me. So then you go, you go ahead and do that. Yeah, that’s that’s not going to cut it. The, the audience is going to know, this person doesn’t know. But if you do know your stuff, and you get up there, it really helps you as a mechanic and when I was going backwards in my life as a mechanic, like the Olympic Training Center, having to explain things, you know, to read is a very I’m a different person, I think, or no you’re not. You’re always the same person, but I hope I have a different attitude. Very, very young. My attitude was, I can fix this better than you are You just give me the bike and go away and I’ll I’ll give a bit to your perfect Well, that’s not that’s not that’s not good. That’s, that’s not good. It’s, it’s you have the person there, you can explain what you’ve done, they have faith in what you’ve done, they understand, that’s why this was done, all of the bike is working so well. Now I know it makes you a better person makes the bike a better bike. Right. So it’s not just this, this ideal bike, it’s the ideal bike for them personally, so that that ability to explain. And then also then managing mechanics, I would would manage mechanics at the mountain bike, World Championships for the US team, we would have huge numbers of riders, they would house everyone together, they’d be 6060 plus riders, and when we had masters, which was an interesting time period with a masters that say, you know, mountain bike world champion, we’d have 80 riders, and a staff of four or five or six mechanics, and then, you know, managing them, it’s the same type of thing, you can just say, this is perfect, we’ll have to work together as a team and explain what we’ve done. And this is the system we want to use to check gears, this is how we’re going to, to look at breaks. So now the ability to explain stuff, I think is it’s it’s still a good good feature for a mechanic.
Jeff 6:30
Yeah. So when when you’re talking about, you know, being on stage or like presenting to a group of mechanics and, and making sure you know, what you’re talking about. I wonder how is that different on YouTube? Like, I would imagine, you’re gonna get 100 comments, and some of them are going to be not nice. And there’s definitely there’s going to be somebody who points out something that like you didn’t do, right, or you could have done better, like, do you? Do you see a lot of that feedback on YouTube, like, you learned?
Calvin 7:04
You’ll see some pages. I know, some manufacturers they have so nice YouTube’s out and you go down. Comments turned off. Okay, I appreciate that. We view the comments, and we look at the comments. And you know, if you’re not cursing at us, we don’t delete. It’s that’s an important thing. Yeah, YouTube is hard. It’s a really hard thing. And I sometimes I feel like I’m the silent screen actor, right? I did all these live performances, I’m in front of students and teachers, I, I’ll teach in front of audiences, you know, the difference is the feedback. You don’t get the feedback. So you’re out there in this audience. And you’re, you know, there’s 50 out people out there, and I’m in front talking about something. And you’re just staring at the ceiling. You know, what’s going on? What?
Jeff 8:01
Am I not reaching? You guys following me? Yeah,
Calvin 8:04
yes. Then the questions, the instantaneous questions and the type of questions that you get from a live audience. Very, very important. So what I’m saying is YouTube is like, now we have the talkies, right. So these are the talkies. And the actors that were the silent star stars, all of a sudden, they felt like this tucking film in there, nobody wants to write. We, it’s a different thing. But we work really hard on our videos here. So we have we have several different types of videos that partial and people get them mixed up. Sometimes we have what’s called Tech Tuesday, where we try and make a point, but we try and have fun. All right, when I tried to take it real real seriously, we have a repair help. Okay, maybe we don’t smile and the repair help, we’re going to bleed a break. Right? We’re not going to make stupid jokes and have funny little skits and stuff. But at Tech Tuesday, you know, we we do we were trying to make a point about a certain aspect of a gear adjustment or teaching some one thing you know, and then yeah, we’ll get the comments and recent one, but just somebody’s upset, how good What a waste of time telling me to use a screw how to use a screwdriver. Well to this person, if they’re listening to this podcast. Clearly, I think you’ve never tried to teach anyone, right? You’ve never tried to teach anyone? Yes. How to Use a screwdriver. There is a procedure. That’s important there and you are going to pick it up if you keep working but it’s very much a basic right. So in your baseball, you’re going to pick up the grounders. You’re going to do those basics. To jump around some one thing I’m doing now that’s been a lot of fun is working with The Nikah teams, the I know, this the single track, right, we need to keep on the mountain bike here. So, the youngest single trackers out there. And that’s a whole different topic, but the whole night of thing. The purpose of Nika is to make young riders fall in love with the sport, it is not to produce an Olympic champion, although Christopher bliven. Write it correctly, a lot of which we’re very proud of. But it’s just to make writers fall in love. And one thing I’m doing our team, we have a team of 100 a local team is I’m training equipment managers. There are mechanics, we have, we have this year eight, eight people I’m trying to change, and they’re what they’re, you know, 1415 1617 years old. To be managers. And the difference here is this working on someone else’s bike versus your own bike. That’s number one, a big responsibility and a big change. Yeah. So I do use that to come up with ideas showing these kids how to use a screwdriver. And it’s interesting to watch this new cell phone as the first thing they want to do, we’re going to do this, they want to get out the cell phone. So I want to take the cell phones and throw them but I need to be nice. I’m on school grounds. So I can’t be me. That you know, how to use a screwdriver. And okay, so yeah,
Jeff 11:37
I mean, I assume I know how but you’re right. Like nobody taught me and I
Calvin 11:41
Yeah, yeah. And you will pick it up. Yes, you do it enough, you’re gonna pick it up. But it’s still an important thing, because I also expect these kids my service managers to also be teachers to the team, right? We cannot fix 100 bikes, we can’t be their bike shop. But when we’re doing a limit screw I want them to hold that screwdriver in line with the axis of the thread. And then when so it’s monkey see monkey do right we’re the big monkeys the managers have been a little monkeys, the writers This is not disparaging of of the athletes, but they see us doing good habit. They will do good habits. Yeah. Right. So that in then it’s a shortcut, but they also need to be a teacher, too. When you know the basic thing. This is how we’ll we’ll is in tight. Right? So here’s, here’s some guys two things. So boxes are allowed here, right and airing some dirty laundry. On an auto raise. One year, a kid’s wheel fell out of his bike. Oh, no. How does that happen? How? Oh, vibration, and this and this? And? No, no, it’s not kids. It is it was not put in correctly. Right? It was not put in correctly. We didn’t teach with with so many writers. It’s hard to teach them. Right? You have videos on it and stuff. But no, the wheel was simply not done. We can talk about you know, Mars coming around Jupiter, we can talk about, you know, all sorts of COVID excuses. It simply wasn’t tight. That’s that’s the likely cause it was put in wrong. But back to two years a second. So here’s a soap box of soap boxes are allowed here. Sure. I really encourage the arts and kids working with their hands and the arts is just an excuse to do that. There’s the mechanics I’m training I don’t think they’ve gotten enough time with hand us in school part in high school it is that shot plus you’re not seeing the sharp shot classes enough. But even then it’s too late when they are on 5678 years old. I want that. That art project pushing stuff, vending stuff, forming stuff as they get older. 910 11 Introduce metals in Steel’s. You’ll see education a big big pushes on stem. You know, and I’m sure your listeners at all storm is a big deal. You know, it’s not connecting your steering column to your bars. It’s it’s science, technology, engineering and math. And boy, can it be boring. There’s some kids, it really hits what they’re leaving out is so important. A put a back into STEM for steam. Right. What is the a SS your test? What’s the A for?
Jeff 14:52
Yes, RT?
Calvin 14:54
RT? Yes, absolutely. And again, taking a Knowing your material, an artist should know their medium violin player, if you want that horrible chord, if that’s what you’re after. Great, you know it. And if you’re marble, you’re chiseling marble. There’s certain things you can do and not do, or clay, or metal or steel. When when we start our training, which is coming up already, I like to start after the snow after spring break, we, for the new mechanics that I’m training at school, we go to the school cafeteria, because it’s just too cold. To go outside. We don’t even see a bike for the first three or four sessions. It’s all about thread and torque, and they touch things. And they don’t tap, we tap a hole, we put a bolt in it and we strip it. That feeling that tactile feeling of the metal giving and flexing. What What is that all about? What are the very first roles I remember my job and one bike shop young high school kid, my first day on the job assembling vise, oh, I know this stuff. I’m doing this in this in this. I put put a wrench on a bolt tighten that cable up and broke the head of that bolt right off. What what did i It must have been a cheap bolt. Right? Everyone wants to say that that must have been a cheap bought a Suntour VX derailleur that’s I even know the model. After all these years, mistakes are important. So you really have to pay attention to those and take something from it. If you’re looking to blame something else, and I blame some to her, of course, well, it was me. It might it might have been achievable. But actually, I was still running that that the ranch that tightened it so that learning to tighten. Now, this leads into another soapbox. Of course, torque. Torque is very an important thing. And it’s a very, it’s related to but not the same thing as a torque wrench. And you need to have an understanding of one before you start using the other. And I’m afraid there’s a real emphasis on on on for consumers, I can understand it. But for shops. They start with the torque wrench. And assuming that people don’t know no torque, torque wrench is not a magic wand. People want to take the the wrench and you touch the bike. Love. Okay, here I’ve touched your stem and the torque wrench magically sets. But that’s, that’s there’s so much going on with threads. It’s you know, it’s a very fun subject. It’s a lot going on there. But you need to get things tight enough, but not too tight.
Jeff 17:59
Right? The torque wrench? I mean, do you check out values?
Calvin 18:04
Sometimes I even look at the scale. Okay, so, but it doesn’t replace. Now can you always use a torque wrench? No. There’s certain bolts you simply can’t can’t get to if you have no training. Alright, does Julia Child always use a measuring cup? Probably not. It produces a delicious dinner. Now. Boy, those are rabbit holes allowed here?
Jeff 18:32
Yeah, we’re finding them.
Calvin 18:33
Okay, so a torque wrench is a measure of the resistance of the bolt turning correlated. It’s correlated, but it’s not the same thing as the stress it’s providing to the joint. Okay, that’s the important thing. So yes, I’ll often use a torque wrench. And I But first, I also want an understanding of what it is doing. Right. So there’s, there’s there’s two basic types of joints, a soft joint and a hard joint. Hard joint would be more like a rotor bull or a pedal. It’s going up to a hard substrate. And it’s just tightening and pulling that metal and stressing it. When a mechanic porks something down. They’re creating stress and stretching the joint. The stress that you create a second pallet. What do you use? Strava Are you one of those power meter guys?
Jeff 19:37
I’m on power meters I use Strava though.
Calvin 19:40
Okay, okay, so what? Let’s take you strong riders out there. What’s a what’s a really good wattage? You’re up and you’re up out of the saddle. What are you putting on that crank?
Jeff 19:55
500 watts?
Calvin 19:55
Let’s go 500. You put less stress in the bolt than that rider is putting on the pedals. In other words, if you gently tighten that pedal down, but you’re the load in that stress is less than the load the writers putting on it, that trade is going to loosen. You have to be stronger. So what is a mechanic? What you’re doing is you’re going on every ride with that with that rider. Right? So you fix the bike, this rider is going on a ride, she’s out there hammering. And if that pedal that you tightened is less than is less than the stress that she’s putting on that pedal. It’s going to back out back out, and then it’s going to come out eventually. And you can say, Oh, no vibration, you must have hit a bumpy rotor. Oh, you’re so strong. That normally doesn’t happen.
Calvin 21:02
So you’ve worked on 100 riders’ bikes, you’re going on 100 rides a day. Now, what’s a soft joint? Soft joints are the trickiest one handlebars. STEM bolt is with handlebar clamp, that’s a good one, the typical four bolt. Normally, you want to tighten things as tight as the bolt can take it without breaking. Right? The stress of the bolt should be the worst thing it sees if it can handle that, right? It’s this, the new j, the new J School of mechanics if it didn’t kill me, I can take it, Brian, bring it on. Soft joint can’t do that. The bolt, the little m five bolt in the thread that you’re tightening down this stem to take oh gosh, it’ll do it’ll do 120 inch pounds poor man, it can be tightened. You just ripped your bars in half, if you go to the maximum of what that bullet can take. So in soft joints, it’s almost the minimum. Okay, a seat post bolts. Another good example. A seat post manufacturer manufacturer will put on a collar, five Newton meter. But no torque on a bike can actually be by Newton meter. There’s always a window. Right? And Shimano is good about that they put a range of what they want. So here’s the problem that I have with the laser in there put a five Newton meter on the collar, and they drop it down on the bike. Well, the collar manufacturer didn’t make the frame, right? They don’t know what the tolerance is the frame or they don’t even know the frame material. And then the seat post company. So if a company made the seatpost, the collar and the frame, they have a legitimate right to put on a torque. So it’s torques are good suggestion sometimes in the seat boss was a good example. On a seat post, you don’t really want the maximum, you want the minimum, right?
Jeff 23:02
Especially with a dropper post, because you can pinch it yes, it’s not gonna go up or down.
Calvin 23:08
Are you meeting my script? I just might as well hang out because you’ve got this covered. If that’s right, so it does a good example. And it actually comes from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which sometimes they do have good ideas. If the saddle can’t twist left or right, it’s not going down. So a four and a half Newton’s locks that post up and it doesn’t wiggle left to right. It’s not going to creep down as you ride. Okay, okay. And then you’re, you’re good to go. If it took six Newton meters to do that, then your bike needs six. And just like you said, the droppers nowadays, if you squeeze too much. It it’s dropping. It ain’t coming up. Right. So yeah, that that’s that can be a problem. And again, the carbon material it’s plastic, right? Let’s just call it plastic. Because you’re, you’re, you’re clamping on the resin. Right? So it’s aluminum against resin, and then it’s a different coefficient of friction. So anyway, I’m all for that.
Jeff 24:16
So you know in your videos and obviously in in your book as well. We see you working on a variety of different types of bikes. What type of reading Do you like to do? Are there certain Is there a certain style or certain type of bike you ride or do you ride?
Calvin 24:31
Yes, yes. Several the best ride is the last ride you did. Yeah. So So okay, sadly, what’s what’s going to ask me? Am I my last last ride?
Jeff 24:43
Yeah, what was your last ride?
Calvin 24:44
Well, my last ride Okay, so I don’t want anyone living the audience have told me it was in the basement on
the train or Oh, no.
Oh my god. I’m trying to see what kind of old fashioned tire you’re not one of those esport people are you?
Jeff 24:58
No, no, but if you try I’ve heard
Calvin 25:01
well, but virtual right so, and I actually did, I bought a nice one. I borrowed one from a product manager here and it’s really, really slick. So why the nice trainers feel smooth? It does. It’s a good deal and it is worth spending it. The wind trainers are hot. Say this, they get you they get you moving your muscles. So for a while I was on Zwift right. And I got I got the flat bars. This was last year was on Zwift and I was passed a lot. Well, you know what? That’s just like real life. I know what it’s like to get passed a lot. Pretty accurate. Yeah, why? Why do I need this? I get I was passed in London. I was passed on that island that passed me in France. In New York Central Park. Sup? Forget that nonsense. So now what I do is I watch all stream like a sad Korean movie or just just watch an epic and just pedal for an hour and call it good or better yet, cyclocross racing when it’s streaming, because when they hit the sand, that’s your interval. You got to go go go to help. You got to help them go through, get through right Park Peterson, you got to help her get through the sand by going really hard. And then then you can back off. So getting out on the fat bike is good. The real differences Oh, well, you’re still just working your height. That’s not true. It’s important as a writer to have the saddle kick in the butt. That sounds stupid. If you’re a Zwift rather, all the time, right? That road is too smooth. And if you don’t ever get out and have that saddle pouch, you’re not developing muscles where you need them. And the smooth that’s the fun part about fat fight. Right? You get about 4.5 tires that are barely in the air there at all. And if it’s nice trail, it’s so smooth. It is like skiing very much a feel of you know swishy and it’s it’s nice and but not now is this rugged? snowmobiles rough snow and it’s it’s hit pound you? Yeah. And it’s you have fun going six miles an hour. Well, that’s on a good day. Yeah. So I guess I guess the Fat Tire riding what’s my favorite ride? It’s still the Fat Tire riding with the team. We have some trails that we built locally. That’s that’s, you know, that’s that’s that’s good fun. I got myself a new mountain bike. Which is, which is yeah, it’s yeah, that’s always always good fun.
Jeff 27:55
Yeah, well, speaking of mountain bikes, do mountain bikes require more repair and maintenance and other types of bikes or comparison?
Calvin 28:05
Oh, yeah, you can’t, you can’t hear my way of thinking. For me, my heart is in the road riding. That’s where I grew up. I love the strategy. It’s it’s interesting. The work is boring. The racing I find exciting. So we take that model and we flip it on its head. Mountain bike racing. Actually, it’s not that interesting to watch. It’s not that there’s a strategy, you know, is someone’s gonna crush you, you’re gonna get you’re gonna crush them. It’s not that interesting. The technical aspect much more fun working I’d much rather work a mountain bike race. First you stay put in one place. And you can really dive into the bike because you’re not packing up every night and moving. Road Racing your watch the bike, you put a tire on done. That’s, you know, mountain biking, brake pads rotors, suspension. It’s yeah, there’s there’s a lot more going on with with with a mountain bike.
Jeff 29:06
Yeah. I mean, is it it’s part of it the environment too. I mean, there’s dirt and all that kind of stuff that you’re going to do more maintenance more often. Oh, yeah,
Calvin 29:16
absolutely. You should, you shouldn’t be doing more maintenance. Oh, yeah. And that the purpose of a mechanic and this this is a difference between your own biker your own mechanic you’re going to have to get your body to fit what you got. Right and so ideally, we all own eight different STEM lengths and angles right? So we can all dial in that that exact fit, you know that that’s you know, but sometimes you have to just put up with it, but we do want the bike you know the bike point, right you want you want that just right. The gear selection you want that just right, that saddle fore and aft you know all that you know bar with handlebar angle, right so so Other times there’s things that we can play with on a bike and it doesn’t cost us any money. Saddle tilt, right. Saddle fore and aft satellite over the cranks. Okay, well then you know your shoe. You know the shoes are an interesting aspect. Shoes should be considered part of your drive train not part of your personal clothing. So, when when I work a race with the staff, my attitude, those are our shoes. You give us a lot all the writers to bring bring us your shoes to look at the plate. Well, I’m a downhiller. I just wear these. I still want to see are your laces decent? Are they completely trashed you? second pair? That’s Dr. Dre. I don’t want to see your socks.
Jeff 30:49
On the line there. That’s good. Well, I’m
Calvin 30:51
aligned. Right it right there. But the drive chain begins at the shoe. Right, you know, then there’s the pedal and the crank and so on and so on. But yeah, the adjustability of the mountain bike, rotor size, you know, that’s, that’s, you know, I’ve my bikes for years have been 161 6160 my first real ride on my new bike with a 180. Yep. over the bars.
Jeff 31:17
Oh, it was it makes a big difference.
Calvin 31:20
It does. Oh, no, no, it does. It makes it a two centimeter difference at the radius.
Jeff 31:27
Right, which doesn’t. Shouldn’t be a lot. But yeah, yeah. Feels a lot.
Calvin 31:31
Yeah. It sure It sure did. But it’s okay. Okay, I got that dialed in. That was good. Everything’s okay. And yeah, good. Good. Good, fun.
Jeff 31:41
One of the things. You know, I’ve heard from other folks, and I’ve kind of got opinions about it myself. But you say that today’s bikes are easier to work on than, say bikes from 10 or 20 years ago.
Calvin 31:56
Yes or No? Sure. Yes. And yes. Now modern bikes are, they’re harder to work on. There’s much more going on the the. Okay, this is interesting. How long have they been around a long time? So something called a cottard. Crank. And this, it’s occurred in my lifetime. For a while more Tour de France is we’re one on a cottard crank that in aluminum crank.
Jeff 32:33
Okay, what?
Calvin 32:35
What does that mean? The Tour de France was going on so long. Right. At some point, it’s going to tip well, now now that’s not true. Okay, more torque to Francis had been worn on friction shifting. That index shifting. Wow. Is that true? Yeah, yeah. Do do, do the numbers, do the numbers that’s not meaningful. So the older bikes, we had to do certain things, threaded bottom brackets. Okay. So the bottom bracket tapping and facing was a big deal. mechanics would argue, I mean, okay, you get to a bunch of mechanics, you get them in a bar. They’re drinking non alcoholic beer. And then they’re not but that’s a different story. What do they argue about tapping in facing? Oh, you got to face the bottom bracket, this and that. And it gets rid of the paint meaningless. Facing is not about paint. It’s about the alignment. But that’s not the rabbit hole. Right? Well, when I guess about that now, now it’s facing the disk mounts. So the problems that mechanics argue about change through the year? Yeah, but no, the modern bikes are harder. And one aspect and this is where cell phones do come in handy are important. Component compatibility, which is a really hard topic, by the way, and parkour video. You know, we haven’t finished that discussion. But we’ll do a video we’ll talk about we try and give broad topics to you to apply. And people have to understand education as that we’re, we’re not speaking to you individually. Right? That right? You know, well, my my frame is green, you worked on a red frame. What do you do on the green frame? And our indexing. We said rear rear adjustments. We picked a SRAM system on purpose All right, so did we all we interest that’s not important. Visually the to limit screws are right there in front of the camera. That’s why we’ve picked up yes, yeah, we picked a gold chain because it pops. Alright, so I bought those you know how What is not real life? Right? Okay. Um, Cruz is not jumping off the train. Yeah, Jackie Chan does jump off the train.
Jeff 35:09
Right. Well, clearly, your background, you know, you mentioned studying economics and you know, considering going into teaching academically, I mean, this is sort of an academic approach. This is a, you know, you go to college to learn how to learn not necessarily how to do something.
Calvin 35:27
actually, and there’s this two videos are really important. Well, the third, the third most important one that I love the most, I’ll go with that later. One is the indexing one gets a lot of hits how to index your derailleur.
Jeff 35:41
I think it’s the number one, your number one and number two are derailleur how-to videos.
Calvin 35:45
The second most important that people don’t watch is how it works. And people will watch it and they’ll be frustrated. Write a comment. I tried this and try this and it’s not working. Nothing’s working. This is horrible. This is dumb. This is dumb video. Okay. Create your own adventure. First learn how we’re going back to the engineering right. Learn how something works. Right for Giulia learn how to saute the onion. Right now is listening. Is it brown? Are
Jeff 36:17
you doing? Salting?
Calvin 36:19
What? Salt fat heat? went missing? One more? There’s one of the cooking shows. Yeah, it learned the basics. How does this linkage works? Right? What are these limit screws? What do they do? Okay, what is it indexing feature? What? Oh, cable pull? Oh, I got it, got it? Got it, then you’ll understand and think about, okay, how can I change these things. So understanding the system first, right, then understand how to fix it. Right? So that that’s, that’s my new thing for next year, I want to try this. With my mechanics, I’m going to be training on their own bikes, when you get some thumb shifters for everybody that take their shifter off, but I’m going to run friction shifter to their derailleur, and we’re just going to go on some some, some rides, just some simple trail rides, and we’re all going to shift with friction, right? To learn the concept of how this works, how the how the linkage, pulls it over in the guide pulley shoves it over to far back bar, the onboard computer is going to have to take care of this. And then later, of course, they’re going to teach and understand indexing. But if you first have that concept of I know how that pushes back and forth, right? My road bike, which I totally love, it’s it makes me cry when I see it on the trainer, but it’s it’s gonna get out, you know, springtime comes, it’s gonna get out. It’s got down to friction shifters. Right. And one reason is, on my road bike, it’s all about memories, right? When I reach down and shift the gear. I am Sean Kelly, in my mind, right? That’s what he did. Right? I don’t want to be these, you know, all these wuwt that aren’t I don’t want to be that he pushes a button. It’s just one no, yeah.
Jeff 38:27
Yeah, it’s easier now. And it’s like the parts do a lot of the workforce and we don’t really understand exactly what they’re doing.
Calvin 38:36
Right. Right. Right. Right. And so, backing up a little bit. One of the important aspects is component compatibility. And we can’t do all of that on our little YouTube, right, we get criticized for this is a 10 minute video, you expect me to get 10 minutes of my life. Your life is so important.
Jeff 38:58
You should do one on one consults. You know, VIP, somebody paid well, but 200 bucks. Oh,
Calvin 39:04
that’s an interesting idea. I’ll bring that one up to the Insert credit card here. Yeah. So the everyone remember, there’s that Settings button and you can go to 2.0 speed. And then man, you’re gonna get that thing really fast. And it’s gonna go like this. And, and for some people that you know, that’s okay. You know? If that’s, that’s, that’s what you need.
Jeff 39:29
Yeah. Let’s see. You mentioned compatibility. be something that that hangs. I mean, a lot of us even folks in the shop, I know that’s a Hangout. Oh, well, they spent a lot of time figuring out well, this work with that and slowly finding out what’s out there. But do you think bike manufacturers are doing a good job considering maintenance and repair when they design a new product? Or is that kind of okay.
Calvin 39:52
Okay, so what you’re doing here, so on this big lassoo out, I’m walking down the trail and then here comes I’m gonna step in this island.
Jeff 40:00
If you don’t have a manufacturer just you know, we’re just
Calvin 40:03
talking No, they’re not no one’s trying to one of the dumbest terms. I got ripped off. Right. got ripped off. You’re not sending in, no one’s sitting in the back room. Oh, here comes Fred, we’re gonna rip them off. Right? They held their margin that you know, to get the chain. And if they made a mistake, and it’s the wrong chain, that’s that’s one thing. But a manufacturer wants their stuff to work well. Absolutely. And they have rights to change things and to have a different design. And Shamala was really big on on this. They want it to be a system. And I totally appreciate that. For them to say this is working like it should, they should say, Yes, you should be using our chain. Yes, you should use the sprocket. And if you’ve ever seen their frame builders handbook, brilliant that they’ve taken the guts to do that they want the hanger, this angle in this distance and the tab on that hanger, specifications on all of that. Yeah. So yes, your frame has to be compatible as well. So in drop out hangers would that’s one of our next videos we’re going to do on replacing the hanger. Well, the hardest thing on that, finding it, right? Oh, yeah. Alright, in the hangar that that might be some criticism of the different companies, how many different hangars are there? Right? Not enough, apparently. But it a company has a right to say, this design is good. You need to use this chain with this to have the results that we want you to have. And
Jeff 41:53
what I mean to put it in perspective, too. I mean, if we look at the tech industry, right? I mean, absolutely. Never take apart your iPhone and do anything to it. I mean, if it’s, you know, anything wrong with it, you got to take it in and have someone work. All right. Whereas we still can work on our bikes at home.
Calvin 42:10
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was gonna say when those famous quotes and some famous person getting was caught or somebody, the bicycle is the, what is bicycles? The last thing, the last simple piece of technology we can actually work on. Yeah, that’s not that cool. The idea was it was
Jeff 42:27
that’s better. I’m never going to learn. Right, right. Well,
Calvin 42:33
right, we used to say that that’s getting less than less true every year. Right? Carbon fiber frames, right, you’re not doing alignment on a carbon fiber frame. The through axle key chain lines a good example we used to play with spindling to move the chain rings in and out not doing that anymore. We could move the free wheel sprocket and I do mean free wheel. We can move them left to right. You’re not doing that anymore. Right now the other joke we make on our by the coaches, this is a coach’s joke. We started out this is expensive. I would expect a parent you gotta excited family and they got a 14 year old that oh, I want them to join the team. And what is this going to cost us? Well, you gotta get a rideable bike and a helmet. Right? Yes, the shorts help, you know, blah, blah, blah, are joke among coaches. Well, we’re not as bad as hockey. Right? We used to, it’s less and less true every year. Right? Just the way prices are going so that I can poke into hockey. It’s been Minnesota we are the state of hockey. Yeah,
Jeff 43:50
that’s funny because I live in Georgia and my son is starting to get into hockey for whatever reason.
Calvin 43:55
Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. Yeah. Interesting. So we’re in we’re in Georgia, are
Jeff 44:02
you I’m in the Atlanta area.
Calvin 44:05
Okay, okay. I gotta sign over in Athens. I gotta get down there to see the the Twilight
Jeff 44:11
Yeah, yeah, that’s always the criteria. Yeah. Yeah. Super fun. So talking more about sort of the trends in bike products and repair are hex bolts going away. Seems like torques is taken
Calvin 44:26
over No. Yeah, hex bolts. Yeah. We used to sponsor one of the proteins discovery protein and real it there was the head mechanic there. There. Matt had mechanics managers, Julian degrees. He was Eddie Mercer’s mechanic legendary guy and I was talking their mechanics visiting their camp and ask them one of the better mechanics Chris. Yeah. What’s your favorite puck tool? Yeah. What’s all of our tools which ones you would like? Well, you know, Calvin, all we ever really use as a five millimeter wrench super sophisticated two to five spikes. He was right. And five millimeter which is no Yeah.
Jeff 45:09
I love that I love it wasn’t a carrier toolbox with me on the trail
Calvin 45:12
I was still important. Mountain Bike land, you know the six is still there suspension bolts and okay gravel people. Here’s some for the gravel people. Let’s push to get rid of the six millimeter hex on the through axle bolts. That’s the only thing you use it for. Yeah. And you don’t need that much torque. Let’s make those five. Yeah, right. But here’s here’s a brave company. It’ll be a really brave slash DME company. Why don’t you make a t 30. fitting for your through axle bolt? Yeah, you want to get some hate?
Jeff 45:51
Yeah, especially by me, because I won’t know. And I’ll put a hex in there and straight
Calvin 45:56
on be pissed off when you’re standing on the road. You can’t fix it. Yeah, no, it absolutely is going. It’s not going back going away. But you’re gonna see the torques is coming on. But here’s a company. And I’m not gonna name the name. But you know, they’ve got a system, they’ll have the shifting system, there’ll be some t 25. But in the same system, some hexes. Right. Yeah. So yeah, so you’re working on the lever? Oh, this one’s a t 25. But this other one has a hex? Yeah. Hello. Yeah, you made me pick up this wrench. Let’s finish it off. Right. And then oh, no, no, we’re gonna get out these other two wrenches. But it’s the same shifting system in the same line. Yeah. Right. So what let your viewers figure out whose
Jeff 46:44
it was? It seems like we are in sort of a transition where you’re seeing Yeah, a mix of the bolts and you never know which one is going to show up on your on your new.
Calvin 46:54
Yeah, but that’s the truth. Yeah, that’s that’s the truth. But genuinely, it’s been a truism. The bigger the ranch, the higher the torque. Right, let’s follow the ranch the lighter, but it should be. Yeah. Right. So but you know, three mil, I mean, here’s a really good example. Like a t that will be close to that. Almost like a t 20. Smaller than the T five which is close to a four millimeter. So you know, but those light fittings, you’re seeing those starting to come, you know, but still, there’s absolutely a mix, you know, it’s, yeah, nothing’s nothing simple. Yeah, that’s for sure.
Jeff 47:40
So I’m curious to know what what’s your least favorite repair to make? Is there something that you’d rather pay somebody else to do or something that you even just take it to your shop and let them do because you don’t want to do
Calvin 47:52
it? Waste favorite? My least favorite. Boy, that’s a really hard one. You like them all changing the oil in my car? No.
Jeff 48:07
Which is not a popular thing. It would
Calvin 48:09
be suspension rebuild, because I don’t have that home anyway, don’t have all the tools. Even here at Parc there’s so proprietary there’s so proprietary so right getting a nice rebuild on a you know, fix pick your pick your brand right cane, Craig’s box Rockshox you know, the different fittings and the work inside they’re having a specialist is really really good for that. You know, but no, it’s all it’s all. It’s all fun.
Jeff 48:41
Yeah, creaky bottom brackets. Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. Yeah.
Calvin 48:44
You know, those can be a pain and I don’t know, I guess I’m insulted that I don’t like when I get flat tires. You know, around a ride I get a flat tire and it Wait a minute. This is me.
Jeff 48:57
Because nobody else to blame.
Calvin 49:00
Does or this fighter know who I am? You don’t want to rub reputation is how can I get a flat tire? So yeah, yeah, I know. It was on a ride with our team. Right so I got a flat tire. Oh,
Jeff 49:12
somebody’s watching you. I’m sure to see how Yeah.
Calvin 49:17
Well, so now that you saw the coach, you know what’s going on? Oh, got a flat tire coach. I mean, just so you know that if you can’t get it stop you know, you kept throwing you know, some more air in and every every five miles and then the sealants not doing its job but then you got to throw an inner tube. Right then you’re in there with the mess and ugh. Kids. Don’t watch this. Go for a ride right. And no cursing. Your team policy kids are here. No. No cursing. Yeah.
Jeff 49:58
Tricky. So Todd, we talked about the YouTube channel and some of the comments that you get but But clearly, you know, most people, a lot of people get a ton of value out of it. I found when I was researching you ahead of this interview, there’s a Calvin Jones Appreciation Society on Facebook failure with that
Calvin 50:20
embarrassing.
Jeff 50:23
And when I Googled your name to you know, it comes up with like suggested queries and things that people are asking. One of them was, who is the Park Tool Guy? And I assume they’re asking about you, because you’re in all the videos like you’re, you know, pretty well known. But the answer was actually Eric Hawkins, right, who is the CEO?
Calvin 50:47
Yeah. cartoon character tool, man, and we need to, we need to recycle that. So in the 80s. It’s this cartoon figure. And Eric’s actually pretty buff, right? So he’s got Okay, me I’m, I’m a stickman. Right. And so, almost almost two meters tall. Right. I’ll let you you’re
Jeff 51:11
funny, because the question is, how tall is Calvin Jones?
Calvin 51:15
Well, I’m shrinking. shrink. I was to two meters. When I was in high school, right? My wrestling weighed 130 pounds. Wow. Right? Yeah. Junior junior high. And you can imagine my career. Right. So that was done. But Eric is is this pretty tall. But is he? He lifts still. So anyway, the point is that the cartoon figure, he’s got this Bandolero of little tools on it. Butch haircut asked eyeglasses, Canada. Oh, what’s that? Terminator kind of look, right? Yeah, yeah. Terminator. So that was that was tool, man. So yeah. Eric Hawkins president, present pipe tool. So runs runs the show here. That’s to Access Setup. Setup. Yep. Sir. What can we do? So
Jeff 52:08
but really you You are the face of Park Tool to a lot of people. So many times?
Calvin 52:14
Yeah. Yeah, it’s, I don’t know. It’s walking through airports and somebody will stop you or you know, you’re getting a coffee and shake your head. You’re that guy? Yeah. What? Yeah, I saw you. I don’t know. Yeah, I was last year crossing a street. Right. And somebody stopped me. Just embarrassing. So
Jeff 52:42
yeah. What has the effect of the YouTube videos been? You know, especially on like, the bike shops, right? Because what’s great about your videos, you’re empowering all of us to figure right. We’re doing our own? Yeah. What did the show
Calvin 53:03
the depends on their attitude for a long time, and I still do worry, we’re gonna get pushback from shop, guy, you’re teaching them to do all these things, they’re gonna just do this themselves, because they’re too cheap. That’s not that’s, that’s not, that’s not really true. We get a lot of appreciation from a lot of shops showing their mechanics how to do it, making them better. Here’s a story from the guy who got me into the racing bike and really got was a swim mate, swim mate of mine. And, you know, he would race race bikes, and he got me to get my first kind of race bike. years later, he busted a tooth trying to press a hedge with his own handmade headset, and you were talking about tools and stuff. That’s when he started to buy our stuff because he wanted the right tool because it didn’t want to bust another tooth. But the point is that he made this point that the better shops will understand this. A lot of people and for him, it’s they’re not trying to be cheap. They just want it done. Right. Yeah. Just want it done. Right. So the shops that are bitter about saying people just tried to do this themselves, they should first look in a mirror and say, are you doing this right? For the customer? Are they coming in and not throwing the bike industry under the bus it’s too big for that. But if a shop needs to know that we are a value add that this came in this indexing is fixed this this creek is gone. And we did our job. Right we and they do. There’s absolutely good shops, that care. Right. And that that will we’ll do that work work for you and do it well. They’re going to do well.
Jeff 54:59
Yeah. That’s a good point. I mean, most of us start out when we get a bike and we get into biking, we don’t know anything. And so we do take our bikes to the shop, you know, our first most of us, our first idea is not I’m going to fix this myself, it’s I’m going to take this to an expert. But like you said, a lot of times that experience is not good. And so we start saying, Maybe I should just do this at home, you know, it’d be quicker and easier, and I’ll get a better result.
Calvin 55:25
When a customer comes into a shop, they’re bringing you a gift, here is a precious gift, my rapid as a consumer, the reputation you have with me, and you want to give that you want to return that bike respectful of that opportunity. So they think, yeah, I’m going to come here, which is the plug the Park Tool school. If you’re a if you’re competent enough to talk about bikes and show people things. One of the comments I remember by a consumer that went to a shop there, they were great, or they loved it, and this and this, and they loved the book and what you are so glad the shop did this, and he was gonna use wrapping it up, and oh, here comes he’s really gonna like your tools. He wants what he wants to do. He wants to buy his next bike there. Yeah, well, I was kind of, oh, I wanted to buy your next chain tool there. Yeah, well, but to him, this shop that he went and learned from that put the school on that they were the expert, so he wanted to buy his bike from from that shop. That’s a big compliment. Yeah. But again, you know, shop has to, to be confident that they’re able to get up and you know, put on a good show, and have people leaving feeling good about, you know, what they’ve gotten out of it. So in YouTube, you can be better shots, I can plug this still, you can be better, because you had that interaction. You had that interaction, the chance of that person. Person’s hard of hearing, right, or a blind person that had macular degeneration, just staring at something wasn’t going to going to help it. Are there other ways you can teach YouTube? We can’t do that? Yeah, you know, you watch, watch a pick a video with me and watch it 100 times, you know what, you’re going to get 100 cookies. Exactly the same? Yeah. It’s, you can’t ask if you can ask a question in the comments. But it’s not that immediate feedback. That’s, you know, so that in person thing is is is huge. You know, that that’s a important thing.
Jeff 57:44
Yeah. I mean, this gets back to something you said at the beginning of our conversation, which is that, you know, I mean, for me, personally, I feel like, hey, you know, I’m an okay, mechanic, I can work on my own bike, but to work on somebody else’s bike, that’s, that’s a big difference. I mean, that’s a lot of responses. And you can’t, you can’t just, you know, mostly get it right, which is what I tend to do, right? Like, I can get repaired and 90%. And then I figure, well, if something goes wrong, then I’ll deal with it. But you can’t, when it’s not your bike
Calvin 58:18
on that on that attitude. To fix somebody else’s bike, you have to be confident and you have to accept those responsibilities. That’s different than fixing it yourself. There’s, there’s a limit to what what drives me a bit crazy some what works for me, right? I didn’t know what a hammer. It works for me. Well, that okay, that’s true, but you’re not digging deeper. If I want my high school mechanics to dig deeper on an issue, so, okay, there’s some here’s some of the works for me once you’re on this to try this. Okay. But every three or four seconds, I contract my rib muscles. And then and then relax them. And then I can take what what does that breathing? Yeah. works for you. Yeah. So that but what does that bring to the conversation? When when people say that it it’s, it brings nothing? I mean, if if you understand why something works if you lubricate something, right and something happened, then you should know yes, these two things were robbing a lubricating them, that that’s what works for me. It’s almost as bad as it is what it is. Well, of course, it is what it is. Because if it wasn’t, then it wouldn’t be it. Right. So anyway, sorry.
Jeff 59:37
Yeah. Well, so clearly, you’re someone who’s who’s not afraid to go down rabbit holes. So I’m curious Have you are you interested in going down the rabbit hole of electronic components on books? Sure. Terms of the electronics and the mechanics, is that something you think yes, mechanics should To
Calvin 1:00:00
start, you better you better the first that is to be a joke but now it does not buy comes in for repair. And even on on eBay Nice. How’s how’s the firmware? Did you get the new firmware? Is it updated? Number one? Okay. It’s an interesting example, while at Vanguard is a writing with noble gizmo, just crushing it, as they say, has switched from Shimano to SRAM and is talking about the differences chamado on their ebike are not the ebike. They’re their electronic shipping, they have a really clever system on the to buy. And I’m a definite to buy kind of guy versus the one buy. They can program it. And this is what can be done with software program. So it will pick the next easiest or harder gear for you. Right. Now, back in the old days back. Right, like the guys that always let me tell you about the old days, we used to have to tell consumers while you don’t shift an order, if you want the next cue to go here and here, then you got to shift the front chain ring and go here. Can you remember all that? Yeah, no. Because when you’re going hard, the lactic acid gets in the brain. Right? That’s Dr. Jones’s theory anyway, that’s why you can’t think when you’re putting out those hundreds of watts, it hurts, and you can’t think. But with Shimano, they’re thinking for you. And they’ve tried to do that for a long, long time. If you look back back back at the early Shimano, they’re indexing features, something called positron, they’re trying to, to reduce as much as the effort of shifting onto the engineers and take it away from the writer. Right? But electronics is, is a classic example of that on on an indexing and really nice mechanical system. A very important part that’s done understood is the human element. Right? So going back to cars on manual versus a stick shift, you have a manual to different people can get different performances audit because of their timing with the clutch and the shift. But you can see people that that ride are very, very hesitant on your shifting and very afraid to break something. It’ll shift different than someone who just slams that gear. Right. But But can the mechanic account for that? That’s, that’s hard. A shop can set up something. It works nice on a test, right? It works nice. customer gets on it and complains, their leakage in there in the metatarsal, their finger, it ain’t the same, the flanges there. They’re not doing the same muscle contraction as you. Yeah. But yeah, how you go into a room and a buddy goes into a room, you turn the light switch on. They go in and turn the light switch on. Guess what? The lights come on. It’s it that’s that’s electronic shifting. So the Shimano would it would just be would change the front ring if it needed it. And it’s a you just you didn’t have to think you could just I want to go faster. I need to go easier. Yeah. So that that was that’s that’s a fun thing. But yeah, and the software, there’s so much so much potential, the electronic aspect has good potential for data collection. Going way back in the data, the heart rate monitors were interesting to watch. Come on in the 80s, how they got popular. And our writers on the proteome, I was working for the first ones, they loved them, but it became a video game. They would want to compare who who got the highest heart rate on a on a workout. Dumb. That’s not what they’re for. This isn’t Pac Man. Right? So it took a while. You know, the Strava is really interesting. I also want to see tie it in and I don’t know why they don’t do this. How many miles on that chain? What is the wattage average? Yep. What so we put a new chain in we should be able to have our cell phone and you know, have a log, we’re gonna make it refresh the chain. Bam. So you went out and here’s my Strava is, these are the climbs. Oh, now you’ve got now you got 3000 4,000k on that chain. And I’m checking the where it’s electronics isn’t going to check the weather for you. But now it’s wore out. Yeah, that’s, that’s nice to know, right?
Jeff 1:04:43
It’s the electronics or in some ways, it is a black box where mechanics, you know, don’t have a lot of control but on the right and you’re finding these ways to use that data to inform you in terms of troubleshooting and maintenance and right and all that kind of
Calvin 1:04:59
well Back to the shifting Imagine you’re in this would be fun in the road racing doesn’t work in mountain biking yet. You’re the team director. Right? I’m following the break the six of my riders in a break. And I’m looking at the heart rate of my guy. I’m looking at at the data I’m looking at, you know, his wattage, and I’m telling them in their radio now. Go now. And I’ve also had a guy since my name is Bill dollar check. I have a guy who hacked into the other teams. And I see that guy is pinned on his heart rate. You flick him with your finger, he’s going to fall over Yeah. That that would be kind of fun. And better than that. I’m going to drop it. Don’t worry about shifting. I’ll take care of the shifting for you. And I’m going to drop you down a bigger gear. That’s your mark. So that’s kind of fun. That would be fun. Yeah, that would be yes. Yeah, yeah. But then the data collection as the other one that I really love the Truman and I both loved is that the data collection on tire pressure tire, the tire winds is one of them. And, God if I was, I was to mechanic for a mountain bike team. I would not be carrying the digital gauges. Every morning, I would I would overinflate everybody’s tire. It’s your job to take your cell phone and to bleed down to what you want. Right? So it’s so interesting to watch the data, you can capture that. And then you can on your garmin Canada know Strava can and then look back at your race and see. So it you know the riders that have to say I gotta have 18 and a half psi, gotta have it. Yeah, well, it’s 10 o’clock in the morning, and it’s 60 degrees at 12 o’clock, and it’s 70 degrees. You ain’t got 18 and a half. Oh, and by the way, you went up, you went up, you know, 500 feet in elevation. You don’t have 18 and a half. Yeah, but that’s fine. You know, you empower empower the writers as much as possible. That’s great. Yeah, you can be as finicky. I’m not sitting there with it with a gauge. You know, I’ll just check it against. Check it again. That’s, yeah,
Jeff 1:07:26
yeah. It’s interesting that there is so much more to learn, right? I mean, bicycles have been around for a long time. And yet, you just named off half a dozen things that, you know, maybe we haven’t really looked at that closely. Or, you know, don’t haven’t had the data beforehand to say, Yeah, what do you do? How do you compensate for temperature? Altitude during a race because it’s different at the top of the hill than it is at the bottom and things?
Calvin 1:07:55
Sure, one thing, you know, they’ve got the strain gauges are great. The pedal ones are interesting, because you’re able to tell the vector of the arm not just the force, but where are you applying this famous thing? Oh, you got to pedal in circles. Nobody pedals in circles. Hello, right. Your life you’re bipedal. Alright. So if we could change that, you know, I know how to build a bike for an octopus, that, you know, some some sort of aid system there. But you’re going to have power phases, and they’re not. They’re not symmetrical. Your left leg and right leg aren’t even applying pressure in exactly the same spot. Right? Right. When when you push down with your right leg, you’re lifting up 2030 pounds of dead meat on the left side. Right. So if when you’re pedaling in circles, what you’re doing as you’re helping that you’re helping lift your own dead weight. It’s not that you’re adding your left leg is adding to the force of going forward. It’s but that data to know that baseball has got huge data, right? So it is f1 racing. All of it meaningful, right. So how many grounders were missed on natural grass? You know with the sun low, right? Well, the
Jeff 1:09:20
only thing that makes baseball watchable is the statistic Yes,
Calvin 1:09:24
yes. But thank you. I didn’t say that. So, but the the in the body of okay, we have stressed the body is just an extension to the bike as far as I’m concerned. Some people consider it the other way. The bike should be an extension of you know, that’s not true. The center of the universe is the bike. So your linkage your linkage and your your power, which is your bones right and your muscles are firing, you know your ATP and your and pull that lever down your lever moving a lever as far as I’m concerned. Yeah. But what’s interesting is the human cycle is the lactic acid. Like when you go when you hit your VO two, Max, and you’re beyond that, I want to chip somewhere that I can read that lactic acid. That’s what I really want to know. Yeah, right. So there’s
Jeff 1:10:26
blood sugar. Yes. That is so interesting. I mean, yeah, obviously only available for diabetics. And now
Calvin 1:10:34
one part that people are using them. Yeah, the lot of the some of the population does does get this but a lot of the so called doping in, which was definitely people are out there trying to get around stuff and cheat. Yes. But there, there is not that I know of a secret cave of mad scientist, and we’re gonna produce this world revolution and we brew it just for this one writer write for Jeff, we’re gonna get Jeff on this one stuff, and you’re gonna be great. Almost all of this comes from the medical industry, that helps people. There are people who need EP Hoh, to live, yeah. Cancer, all sorts of different treatments, that there are good things that can help people. The steroids than that are that good thing? Now there’s smart people in those caves that can take that? Yes, that’s what’s going on. And the chip is an interesting thing. Right? So how do you blend, you know, in my cave, if people want to know what I’m researching and my secret cave, I want to change the human body. I want to start with a bigger patella. That is the linkage, what you’re doing is your quads, your group muscle group, and your glutes are leveraging the lower limb through the patella. That’s the power stroke. If I can increase the mechanical advantage there, that is good. Now the person may not be able to walk. That’s
Jeff 1:12:10
maybe the ultimate sense.
Calvin 1:12:14
We call that unintended consequences in the field. But if if Imagine being able to manipulate the bicycle, we’re kind of stuck with because humans are all the same, right? So if we could, if we could change those those ratios, and look at our friends in the animal world, boy, there are some interesting things they, they can’t do, right? But listen, in terms of speed and their power per their body mass. Pretty impressive. The physiology and kinetics of that whole thing? For sure, but deep enough, grab Oh, can we should we keep digging?
Jeff 1:12:53
That’s I think we’re good there. That’s very sci fi. And yeah, but that’s a great, great spot for us to wrap up. I really appreciate you taking the time, Calvin, obviously, you’re a treasure to the industry. And yeah, we’re stoked to see what other videos and cool repair things you’re gonna come up with next.
Calvin 1:13:13
Well, thanks, thanks. You want to drop us a line on you know, any ideas? We always appreciate? We look at we look at everything, you know, what we should we should be doing? We’re not we’re still working on the bike, you know, what we started with what we call first wave. It’s, it’s a, we assume your bike, you owned your bike and it’s put together that’s second wave is okay, now you’re gonna start taking stuff off and replacing it right, you know, new or building up a bear frame. So that right, that’s different, like overhauling a caliper, like, you know, one of the disc brake calipers. That’s coming. Because so the first wave is simply how to adjust it. Second wave will be you know, digging in deeper than, you know, and then deeper. So, yeah, any ideas or suggestions? What you know?
Jeff 1:14:07
Yeah, I, I’m not that good of a mechanic to say, I’m always amazed at the tools that the park comes out with every year, right? Like, you would think that we’ve got all the tools we need. We’ve got more than enough. I mean, if I owned every tool, I can’t even imagine where you would store all of those. And yet, no, this year, I just got the new. There’s like a cable crimping tool. And yeah, I’ve always needed something like that though, right? I’ve always, for whatever reason, you know, I put a thing on with some needlenose pliers and it always, and I don’t know what I’m doing. But you guys figured it out and said, yeah, maybe people need a tool for that. And so
Calvin 1:14:48
well, yeah, that’s the fun thing. Any new tools is fine. And then on the other side of the coin, dropping tools, we dropped our cotter pin press years ago. Right so Um, that skill No. no longer needed. But yeah, new stuffs coming out you know the disc brakes are taken over you know talked about the new world that’s just breaks or you know the the maths department stores are doing disc brakes but they have I have not seen a Mass Department Store yet crossed the line and have a hydraulic does great.
Jeff 1:15:24
Sounds like a recipe for disaster
Calvin 1:15:28
potentially. I’ll leave that. I’ll leave that for your, your listeners. So thank you. This is yeah, hope you know, hope there’s something in there that’s of interest in anybody and just sitting in an office just talking.
Jeff 1:15:44
Yeah. always a joy. And yeah, if you haven’t seen The Park Tool, YouTube channel, be sure to check it out. Lots of really useful videos on there how to use and also the entertaining Tech Tuesdays.
Calvin 1:16:00
Are my favorite one.
Jeff 1:16:01
Your favorite video? Yeah. Was
Calvin 1:16:05
it during the height of the pet the pandemic, right? So what are we doing? Everyone’s you know, Stockholm, Stockholm. So what? They’ll try to get people together at work. So even so what we’re gonna do, it’s called 55 minutes of a spinning wheel. And it’s exactly as advertised. So, joining Stan, it’s actually Chairman’s wheel to wine industry have, he steps in and he spins that wheel and steps out. And it happened four times, we took turns, and it’s simply a spinning wheel. It was the absolute I cannot watch it and not laugh. It’s some
Jeff 1:16:47
good ASMR right. That’s on trend. It is.
Calvin 1:16:53
People would just taught me nothing. This is probably one. Hey, you have no there’s where’s your spirit? You, you? You You have no life in you. Where’s your soul? You have no soul. But the people who got it just it was hysterical. One guy, he put the butt Oh, here, here. My my favorite minutes. And and yeah, it rocks back. That’s the exciting part when it rocks back and forth and almost stopped to it’s so exciting. Yeah. But it was a total answer. For what? Well, we’re all pretending right or pretending it’s over. Let’s do that.
Jeff 1:17:32
Yeah. Well, that’s great. Yeah. All right. We have more cool videos like that to look forward to. And also yeah, there’s always Park tool.com. That’s all we’ve got this week. We’ll talk to you again next week.
