Practical English Vocabulary: Riding & fixing your bike

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Oh, hey guys, it's back from a bike ride.

Got my helmet, and I got my water bottle here.

Very important things to have when you go for a bike ride.

Water bottle, you need water just because you're going to get thirsty.

You could put some booze in this, some alcohol, but you're really going to need some water

when you go on a bike ride.

And I really recommend a helmet, it could save your life.

One time I was riding my bike without a helmet, I fell off and I bumped my head, almost died.

But I didn't die, and after that day I always wear a helmet.

So I'm indoors, I'm going to take off my helmet, and I'm going to teach you all the fun things

that can happen when you're riding a bicycle.

And I think that all of these have happened to me.

So, let's start by looking at the vocabulary of the bike.

The whole thing is called a bicycle.

The outline here of the bike is called a frame, and you can buy many different kinds of frames

So, the whole apparatus here is called a frame.

The frame of the bike is like this.

This is your seat.

Some people call it a saddle, and I think, "Are you riding a horse?"

I think "saddle" is more of a British English word, but in North America we call it a seat.

I've had - I have heard people say "saddle".

If you want to ride a horse bike, it's your choice.

We have something that drives the two tires, and it's called a chain.

And then, of course, we have the tires, we have a pedal, it's a thing that your feet

stay on, and you pedal, pedal, pedal, go, go, go.

So, these are all nouns, so a pedal, chain, seat, the frame.

These things here that you hold on to are called the handle bars.

Let me write that for you, handle bars, very important.

And that's the basics of a bike.

You're going to have brakes, you can have hand brakes, or you can have a brake at the

pedal, and brakes help you stop.

And some bikes also have gears, and gears make all the magic happen down here.

I'm not going to explain it, because guess what, I'm not a bike mechanic, but I can help

you out with some basic things.

So, all of these things have happened to me while on Bike Demon Adventures.

The first one is my chain can fall, or in the past tense, I would say my chain fell

So, the chain is the thing here that's really dirty, and what happens is if your chain falls

off, it's okay, you just have to put it back on.

So, there's a derailleur at the bottom of the chain, and you move it and put it on,

but your hands get really, really dirty.

So, I recommend having some wipes or something to help you.

Always bring wipes with you on a bike adventure.

Uh-oh, your pedal falls off.

That's terrible.

So, maybe you're going up a hill really fast, or slow, you're going down a hill really fast,

and all of a sudden, for no reason at all, your pedal comes off.

This has happened to me.

What do you do?

No, you keep on going and pedal with one leg.

It's really great, but you need to get that fixed.

So, if your pedal falls off on your bike, it's pretty much game over, and you have got

to start again and take your bike to a bike shop or get a tool to fix it.

If you know how to, you can put it back on.

So, I can put my chain or I can put my pedal back on my bike.

So, if it falls off, I put it on again.

So, put it back on just means to replace it.

Oh, this happens to me quite a lot.

I got a flat tire, so there's air in the tires, and what happens is I ride my bike so much

that sometimes the air comes out.

And quick fix, all you have to do is get a pump, this is a tire pump, and pump it up.

So, I can pump it up.

This means I put air into the tire, but a little bit more dangerous than this would

be if you got a hole or a puncture in your tire.

That means maybe you've run over some glass and you actually have, like, a hole or a cut

Now, if that happens, you can pump all you want.

You can pump all night, but it's just never going to fix the hole.

So, what you're going to do is you're going to have to fix the hole.

You could take it to a bike shop or you could get a hole repair kit.

I don't know how to fix a hole in a bike, so I take mine to my bike store and go, "Can

you please fix this?"

Let me tell you this story.

I was at my friend's house having a great day, and as I left her house, I realized that

my bike is not where I locked it.

Where's my bike?

Where's my bike?

I know I put my bike there.

Where's my bike?"

Someone stole my bike.

I was so angry.

I was so angry and upset that I cried.

I called my friends, like, "My bike was stolen.

Someone stole my bike.

My bike was stolen."

And my friend said, "Well, what...

Don't you have a lock?"

Now, this is not called a "locker"; this is called a "lock".

So, a lock like this for a bike, I don't care how good the mechanism is here, this to a

bike thief is like a knife through butter.

It doesn't matter.

This cable, it doesn't matter how thick it is, how much money you spend on it, they're

going to cut through your cable lock like it's nothing.

So, you're going to have to get one of these.

Now, I'm sure there are tools and equipment that can cut through this, but it's going

to take the person a much longer time to do it.

So, my advice to you is if your bike was ever stolen, to get a better lock.

And if your bike was never stolen, still get a really good, solid lock.

They're not that expensive, cheaper than a new bike, but always get a good lock.

Oh, this happened to me the other day.

I was changing gear from third to fourth, and I would try and change and the bike wouldn't

The gears wouldn't change.

So, I'd try again, and it would go back.

So, what happens is my gears were jumping, so I'd say, "My gears jump."

When I took my bike to the repair guy, I said, "Hey, my gears jump."

They don't actually jump.

It just means they're not tracking and they don't change correctly.

So, I don't know how to fix that.

I just take it to the repair shop, but it's magic.

You can fix this one yourself.

Sometimes when you're braking, so if you have handbrakes, they're here, they kind of rub

against your tire.

"Rub" means, like, friction, so they rub against the wheel, or they make a large sound.

That's embarrassing.

When you're cycling along the street, and you hear that noise, what you're going to

have to do is you're going to have to adjust the brake pads.

Now, the brake pads are the little rubber things that squeeze your wheel to keep them

Cars have these as well, but bike ones are much smaller.

So, you're going to adjust the brakes.

"Adjust" as a verb in English means to change something.

You don't have to repair it; it's not broken.

You just have to kind of move it around to make sure it's all right.

I have a squeaky - squeaky, squeaky, squeaky - squeaky is like - it's this noise.

It's so annoying.

If you have a squeaky chain - so, again, chain is the part on your bike that helps you pedal

- if you have a squeaky or rusty.

"Rusty" is an adjective we use to talk about the word "rust".

Now, "rust", I think that it's a scientific thing that when water hits metal, it becomes

It's some kind of magic that appears, and it turns a color of deep red.

So, this is rust.

If your chain is squeaky - squeaky, squeaky - or it's rusty, you're going to need some

And this is basic bike oil; you just give it a spray.

No, not your mouth; don't put it in your mouth.

You're going to spray it on the chain.

I actually love the smell of this stuff.

So, I can oil - we say "oil" the chain, so I - I'm actually spraying the chain, but that's

So, I oil the chain with some oil or some grease, and this might happen to you.

Maybe you borrow your friend's bike, and the seat - it's too high, and you can't touch

the ground, or it's too low, and your knees are hitting your elbows when you're riding.

What you're going to want to do is, again, adjust.

You're going to adjust the seat, so you can raise, which means you put the seat up, or

"Raise" means it goes higher; "lower" means it goes down.

So, you can raise the seat, or you can lower the seat; you adjust it.

Or if you wanted to say "saddle", that's okay.

Well, thanks for tuning in to the bicycle lesson.

I'm off to do another bike demon adventure, and if you'd like to join me, I'm kicking

it here in Toronto.