Jason Moeschler

I built this simple visual chain hanger to show customers their actual bicycle chain elongation. Riding your chain too long before replacement can cause excessive chain elongation. Let your chain elongate too much and a new chain will skip right over the top of your chain ring and cassette, meaning your cost just got a lot bigger than a new chain. For 11 and 12 speed drive train, you don’t want to let your chain stretch more than 0.29” or 7.73mm in total length. They make chain checker gauges but a lot of customers don’t trust those. This visual chain checker really helps show customers just how much chain stretch they really have, and it is super easy to build.

Do you have an irritating noise coming from your saddle/seat clamp area? I see this way too often. It’s easy to fix. Just need to clean it up, apply a fresh layer of grease and torque everything down properly.

What do I put into my down tube storage bag on my Evil Offering? I’ll admit I was initially a skeptic of down tube storage, but I’ve grown to really enjoy the convenience of leaving these key items in the down tube full-time so they are always there and ready to go. So what do I carry?
tube and pump
tire plug kit
multi tool
tire lever

Have you ever had your grip twist on a ride? It usually doesn’t end well. Here is a tip to help keep your clamp-on grips more secure. Add a layer of fiber grip under the grip clamps before tightening you grip clamp bolts. Carbon bars are typically a very smooth texture. Bar makers don’t add the rough sand paper texture used at the stem clamp out in the grip area because there are so many different length grips and there are still a lot of people using slip on grips.

I was taught at a young age to go overboard with the grease - you can never have too much. A solid grease coating is an extra barrier to keep contaminants from getting past the bearing seals, and also keeps contaminants from getting in between your bearings and the headset cups. My mentors always told me the more grease you use, the longer amount of time will pass before you need to service the part. More grease also keeps the bike quite - it will have a lot less of those irritating little creak and click noises.

Cold hands is a sure way to ruin an otherwise great ride. Hotbars is the last thing I ever thought I would need on my bike. That thought ended early into my first cold ride with Hotbars heated bike handlebars. But don’t take my word for it. This video shows me on a freezing cold ride with my co-worker Luismi who runs Evil Bikes Europe. My bike had Hotbars, and I was snug as a bug in a rug despite the freezing temps. Luismi had regular handlebars with good winter gloves. We had to stop multiple times so he could take drags off my Hotbars. The only other option for him would have been to cut the ride short, because he simply couldn’t handle the cold. During his two week visit to Bellingham, we road almost every day, and each ride was as cold as the last. An extra set of Hotbars would allowed us to ride longer, and Luismi would have enjoyed himself much more. No one likes freezing hands.

More info with close up shots as requested on my Rocky Mounts Truck bed rack I use on my Ford F-150

Add this to your bicycle maintenance list asap. Galvanic corrosion can sneak up real fast causing a situation where it’s impossible to remove the seat post, or where the post basically rots away. Of course the post can be repaired, but a cheaper way to confront the problem is to simply remove, clean and grease your seat post every few months.

Which type of bike rack do you prefer? Here are my two favorites - The 1UP is great for every day use and fast on/off, but I prefer the Rocky Mounts truck bed mounting system for the long haul trips. The bikes stay much cleaner inside the bed if the weather turns bad, and they are more secure.