KEY TAKEAWAYS
TOPICS
Diesel cleans your chain pins so aggressively it leaves nothing inside them. I've been doing it for years. Craig Geater, head mechanic for Team Jayco AlUla with 20+ years on pro team bikes, told me straight on the Roadman Cycling podcast that it's one of the most common things amateur riders get wrong on drivetrain maintenance.
Most people spending money on oversized jockey wheels and ceramic bottom brackets haven't sorted their tire pressure or put grease on their bearing dust caps. Geater's team checks pressures with a gauge half an hour before race start because even a few hours of temperature change moves the number. His guys run 3.7 to 4.8 bar on KEX tubeless tires depending on rider weight, and five bar is the hard ceiling on hookless rims. A cheap pressure gauge fixes more than a hundred quid of fancy drivetrain upgrades.
On drivetrain maintenance, Geater uses biodegradable degreaser off the shelf, not diesel, and wax chains for dry conditions with a heavier wet lube for bad weather. That's it. No secret product. Changing headset bearings is now the job everyone dreads because brake cables run through the center of the stack, which means disconnecting and rebleeding disc brakes just to swap a bearing. Internal cable routing is the same story — looks clean from the outside, absolute nightmare to work on. Six hours to route a dropper post cable is not unusual. If you've got that kind of time, fine. Most people don't.
If you want more on how the pro peloton actually operates behind the scenes, the Team Sky marginal gains episode is worth your time. And for context on how the sport has shifted at the top level, go listen to the Pogacar episode.
Craig Geater is the head mechanic for Team Jayco AlUla and has spent over 20 years on professional cycling teams, including time with Discovery Channel and CSC.
Source: Craig Geater, biographical detail referenced on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
Diesel used as a chain cleaner strips the internal lubrication of the chain pins so completely that the chain is effectively dry afterwards, accelerating wear.
Source: Craig Geater, head mechanic Team Jayco AlUla, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
Wax-based chain lubrication has become the dominant professional standard among the WorldTour service course mechanics Geater works with.
Source: Craig Geater, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
A torque wrench paired with a basic Allen-key set covers approximately three-quarters of a professional bike build, with premium brands like Abbey Bike Tools earning their price through long-term durability versus cheap online knock-offs.
Source: Craig Geater, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
Pressure washers directed at bottom brackets or hub bearings drive water past low-pressure seals, leading to premature bearing failure — a common amateur mistake during routine bike washing.
Source: Craig Geater, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
“I think some of us old fashioned mechanics were so used to it that you ended up just putting up with it and doing it even though you didn't like it. I remember the first years of Jacob or of Green Edge. I turned up to training camp in December in Australia and I had the team was brand new so we had 35 sets of wheels to do tour down under and national championships and things with all brand new continentals. We didn't have any rims to stretch them on and I think I lost most of the skin off my fingers doing it.”
“The most dreaded thing to do is changing headset bearings. Although the system is so simple, somewise crack decided to put brake cables up through the center of bearings. Now, so to change a set of headset bearings, you have to disconnect all the disc brakes and then rebleaded all the disc brakes. And it's just a massive task to change a bearing.”
“Most people generally tend to run in our team sorry and JCO tend to run between 3.7 3.8 bar and 4.5 to 4.8 bar.”
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