 In this video, we're gonna head to Giant Sunshine Coast, where Ash is gonna share with us the proven 14 step system we can use when assessing the purchase of a second hand road bike, such as the road bike I recently purchased, the Giant TCR, which is sitting directly behind me here. Now just note that the wheels currently on the Giant TCR are different to the wheels that came with this road bike purchase, which were the SLR-1 carbon clinches which we'll be assessing in this video. Now a couple of quick things before we get into this 14 step checklist with Ash. Number one, you'll see next to the Giant TCR behind me here is the road bike. I'm gonna be giving away to one of you, assuming you've subscribed to this channel, a week before Christmas. Now in addition to the giveaway, I'm also gonna be doing a complete and comprehensive review on this road bike leading into the giveaway. So all will be revealed next week. The second thing I wanted to quickly mention was this kit, which was sent to me by a channel supporter, Brad Hooker. Thank you very much for sending it through, mate, who was also friends with the owner of a Prevello, a premium cycling inspired fashion and lifestyle brand based in Sydney, Australia. Brad actually races with the Sydney cycling team that were the brother kit to this kit. And after wearing this kit a number of times I'm being impressed with not only the design, but also the cut, really fits nicely. Wearing it in some videos, having some comments from channel supporters and even my wife who was impressed. The kit's so exciting, it makes your dick look really small. Yeah, yeah. I really like it. It'd be good to see the pants on you. I can't find them. So what I've done is I reached out to Brad, I said, can you get in contact with the owner of a Prevello and see if he would be up for doing a little promo on this kit, which he was. So what we're going to do is an affiliate code that I'm going to share with you. So a little bit of commission will come back to me to help support the channel. We've also negotiated for you to get 10% of this magnificent Italian crafted cycling kit for up to seven days. All details will be linked to below. Let's get into this video. All right, mate. Today we're going to go through a 14 point checklist here. Oh, okay. And this guy's going to be pretty comprehensive and it'll give you a really good overall picture of the condition of your bike that you've just purchased. Yeah, okay. Right. So I think it's going to be good to go through one by one. So we'll actually start with something really obvious, which is the tires and we'll check the condition of these. So it's not only just the tread itself and the actual condition of it, there's the actual condition of the rubber structurally. These tires, all tires are basically manufactured with a lot of oils and things in them. And sometimes with the UV and conditions that with your bikes in storage a lot, you can actually lose a lot of those oils and they can't be put back into the tire. So they basically can perish and you'll start seeing some cracks and things like that. So even though you'll say tread is good, the actual safety in the grip is not going to really be there. So on this bike, we can see that it's really quite good. Everything's quite structurally okay. You can't see any sort of deflection or cracking through that rubber there. So we've got a nice tick there. Second, while we're on the subject of wheels, we're going to look at the cones. Cones is basically where the hub flanges bolt in together and that clamps on the bearings. Sometimes if they're actually ridden loose for a little while, it can do damage that can't be really fixed very easily. So the reason we do this checklist is to go, hey, you might actually be up for new hubs, which in most cases can actually mean new wheels. So it's worth just checking laterally here that there's no play. That feels really good. Giant wheels by mention are actually pretty kick-ass too. So we don't have to worry too much. And we've got the rear here with zero play as well and zero knocking. So what do you mean by play? So play basically means that there's a little bit of movement before it knocks against the bearing block and that'll do it laterally. The other thing to check is a thing called chainsuck. So if I pedal this bike and then I stop pedaling, your cranks stay still. Sometimes the condition of what's called the free hub where these gears actually attach to the hub can actually be damaged as well. And it means that if I pedal and let go, the chain will actually keep pushing along there because there's so much friction in the hub. And that's what causes chainsuck and that can be a big issue as well because it can actually get bound up in your cranks and cause quite a big accident. Okay. So the next thing we'll check is basically, again with wheels, the basics of just going, yes, these are actually nice and true. Yeah, okay. So what do you mean by true? So true, straight as an arrow. We don't want any lateral play at all. And we also don't want any vertical play because that denotes that there's been, A, an accident, B, some conditions that means that the spokes could actually be quite loose, which could cause damage in an accident as well pretty quickly. Again, it's just a quick safety check and it gives a really good picture of the overall health of the bike. If we do have any up and down movement, that's actually quite difficult to get rid of. Side to side, that's what the spokes do. They can pull one way or the other. Up and down, it's generally the rim that's gonna be damaged and might actually need replacement as well. All right. So that's number three or number four? Number four, we're looking at brake pads. So where those brake pads actually contact that rim. You might find if it is buckled that you're wearing one brake pad down unevenly. These look nice and even. They're evenly clamped and we know when we actually pull the brake that that caliper, both sides are working together to clamp on the rim in the middle. Sometimes if it's pushed to one side, only one is gonna be doing the job and you're actually deflecting the wheel every time you apply the brakes. So that's another thing to just be careful of there too. And again, just like with the tyres, the pads actually perish. Even though you might have pads that have a lot of wear left, they could be really crumbly and dry. We see that a lot with bikes when they're down by the beach and do a lot of caves down there. So it can still be worth replacing even though they haven't reached their wear line. Again, the condition of these, they feel nice and supple to touch. You know that when we actually pull the brake and try and move the wheel that there's no ability to really pull the wheel through. So it's nice and tight there too. All right, the next one is the headset. Number five. So we're actually gonna take the bike quickly out of the stand for this one. Dropping it onto the ground, grabbing the front brake, placing my hand here and just rocking back and forth. And there is absolutely zero play and there should be zero play. What does play mean? It moves. Again, same with the wheels. You don't want any free movement before it knocks one side or the other. We're looking at strictly front and back movement with this one. And what that means is that all these bearings here are nicely sealed because those O-rings are quite thin. So it means that they're not very impervious to any contaminants getting in there. So if they've been ridden loose, the headset collects a lot of crap and you could have silt and grit and all sorts of other things inside your headset which could be doing damage. And that means if you're potentially buying a bike that we'd need to pull that apart first, check the condition of all the bearings to make sure that you're paying a fair price. Because if we need to stamp in new bearings, it's actually quite labor intensive. We've got to get a special tool to press those bearings out, press them back in. It's an hour of our time and can be quite expensive quite quickly. But again, nice and tight, zero play, zero noise. Looking awesome so far, mate. So far it's looking like a bargain. That's wood. That's wood. Number six. Almost halfway through. So we're looking at bottom bracket play now. So this one here is nice and simple, exactly the same thing and play meaning exactly the same thing. We're just checking here that the cranks don't have any creaking, especially in carbon. Rocking it back and forth, putting a fair bit of load and tension on that just to make sure that there's no bearing play because exactly the same symptoms can happen with the headset. Bottom bracket, expensive, timely. Yeah, it can rack up a bill pretty quick as well. That feels nice and tight, exactly how it should be, all right? Shimano stuff, pretty bomb proof. The chain, this is important. Around this side, we've got a lot of stuff going on in this drivetrain. So we've got front chain rings to look at. We've got the chain itself. We've got the condition of the derailleurs and the cables and we've got the cassette as well. So when we're looking at this, we start with the chain. The chain, I'm quickly gonna run over here and grab a tool. The chain wears my first indicator to how hard this drivetrain's worked. So this tool basically checks the stretch on every individual link in the chain. Okay, all right. So what do you want it? So we want this below 0.8. Okay, all right. Anything over a mil, we're in trouble town and we start looking at the condition of the rest of the drivetrain. All right, okay. So testing this, we're in extremely healthy 0.4. 0.4, all right. So that means it's pretty much a new chain, is it? That means it's pretty damn healthy. Out of the box you'd be expecting 0.2, 0.3 so it hasn't done much hard work at all. And what that means is we can safely say that the cassette that it's running on and the chain rings that it's running on are actually all nice and tight and these grooves are all nice and evenly spaced like they were machined from the factory as well. Yeah, okay. If we have an issue with the chain being too stretched it starts to deform these teeth here, pushing into the back of each one when you put load on it and what's called shark toothing them. When that happens, the chain won't shift properly and it also has risk of skipping on you which means if you're cranking up a hill it can become quite dangerous when you're clipped in and you can actually be sent off the bike pretty quickly so it's an important safety item there as well. Very much so. And then chain rings suffering the same thing. So this drivetrain from there and looking at the chain, all good? Okay, cool. We now move on to the shifters. What do we have to do? Okay, yep, there's no eight so we're looking at the shifters themselves doing the job that they should which sounds simple in theory but there's a lot of variables. Okay. So this one we just give a quick check and make sure these clicks here are nice and crisp. A lot of internals on shifters both on road and mountain bikes are plastic. And they can basically suffer the same thing as anything else and wear out. It's a very fine grease in there from factory as well. It doesn't do its job forever. So it's important that they feel nice and crisp and sharp which is exactly what those ones do feel. So when we move through the gears we're getting nice snappy clean shifts. All right, that's all doing the job what I'd expect it to do. And that gets a tick of approval from me without an issue as well. Also in that we can feel the way that shifted that the spring in the derailleur is nice and strong. Sometimes bikes can be stored being in the big ring and big ring and doing that dreaded cross chain. As you can see here, this is stretching the spring on that derailleur way, way too much, all right? It's a terrible way to store the bike but a lot of people do, they don't realize. So you can come back to your bike after six months and have a pretty logged out derailleur from not even riding it. So again, so we just want to do a small ring and a small ring and that just basically allows in its most relaxed position there. So the spring's under as minimal tension as possible. All right, again, so shifters are looking good. The cables that drive those shifters, number nine, so we've got a lot of internal cable routing on here, which is awesome. Days of old, we've got a lot of bikes with exposed sections of cable living by the coast up here especially, rust out really quickly. They're the corrosion as well, even around those little alloy caps where they all join can all be points of friction and wear. Your shifting performance is going to be dramatically reduced. So again, we just look at cables and say because there's a bit of labor to actually route a new cable through. The cable itself, six bucks, cheap, but $25 an end to be able to run those cables through because it's going to need a new gear tune or a new brake tune when you're going with that as well. So again, nice and healthy, no money to spend there. Yeah, okay. Okay. The derailleurs, we've seen the alignments nice and straight by everything else that we've checked, but this part here is worth noting. This is called the derailleur hanger, this little bit of alloy in here, okay? So not part of the frame, but bolted in. So this guy just here, okay? That's a malleable, soft, a bit of alloy. The idea is there that if you crash, you can see that if you crash on this side, the part that's going to be exposed and hit the ground first is going to be this derailleur. These guys here are designed to save both your derailleur mechanism itself and your frame from being broken, okay? The derailleur ideally snaps off here, okay? And then remains intact. And then you replace this little part here, which is under $100, okay? If that looks, if there's any white in there, if there's any wear in there, or if there's any bend in that at all, it's like a spoon, you've only got a certain amount of bends until actually that can weaken and become and snap on you, right? So we always look at the condition of that to see if it's been fixed before. In this case, looks fresh straight out of the factory. No evidence of being dropped or marked on there, so no issue there, all right? So the seat is number 11, basically the condition of it because, again, that can be quite expensive to replace quite a good saddle. People don't realize that there can be hundreds of dollars in these things, especially when you've got things like carbon bodies to them, titanium rails, adds up super quick. So a simple tear can actually wreck your $300 nicks. So it's ideal to, when you're buying a secondhand bike again, you'll just go, so... Are you buying that? I'm buying that, exactly right, yeah, yeah. Top level stuff, mate, absolutely, only the best. But yeah, there's some more thrifty giant options if you want to wear through them instead. And then it's your skin, but yeah, no, ideally a saddle in good condition is really important as well. Also to keep that support as one of your only contact areas on the bike as prime as possible as well. It's designed out of the factory to have a very specific shape. If that's weakened or any sort of deformities in it, it can mean a lot of pain points and other things that really mess up your fit on the bike as well. So it's important to check that. All right, we move on to the pedals. These ones are pretty damn simple. You obviously run into speed plays, which means the main part that's doing all the work is clamp to your shoe. So I don't have to worry about it in this case. We can basically feel that the bearings are good. There's no, again, play there. Nothing to worry about. With other mountain bike pedals, for example, there could be all sorts of things with the pins that are replaceable that could be falling out. A lot of people run plastic pedals as well and they can actually crack and break down, exposing bearings, making it very dangerous. If a pedal fails on you, under load, you're never gonna have a fun time. So it's always important to check that as well. The grips or the bar tape, just another contact area to be aware of. This looks fantastic, Nick. It's something that can, again, be a really good indicator of the use that bikes had. If we're looking bar tape that's in bad nick, it's definitely worth replacing because telltale sign, it's been used and abused. But the other good thing is when you've got a nice firm contact point, when you're in a bunch right or something like that, it's important to really have that grip nice and solid. If you're missing bits of bar tape or it's starting to deform, that means your hand's actually gonna slide before that steering input actually happens. So it's basically delaying your reactions and creating a pretty dangerous environment. Short of X-raying a carbon frame, which is available, a good quality visual inspection is really important because even things like chips and cracks in paint can be an indicator of some sort of issue underneath there. And we don't want anything like that in something that's gonna be doing the sort of work you're putting through this sort of thing, all right? So what we'd be doing, essentially, any sort of known stress areas, we'd be really going over the fine tooth comb. Known areas like if this had had an accident and punched the bars in there, we'd know that there might actually be, yeah, some cracks under there through there as well. If it's been dropped or in an accident, through here suffers a lot of loading, through here suffers a lot of loading, so just looking for any sort of stress fractures through there around the bottom bracket if it's been slammed and stuff too. And another bonus one is people put these in bike racks on their roof. And we find that when they're clamped in, they can easily be clamped too tight. Carbon is quite unique in the way that it's only strong in the way it's woven. So it doesn't leave much room. You'll find like premium carbon rims, for example, you can pinch with your fingers and it'll deflect in and deflect out. That's got nothing to do with the strength of the overall rim because it's all torsionally held together in its solid wheel form. It's exactly the same in a triangle on a bike. So if you clamp a specific area that's not designed to have that sort of load applied, you can actually do some damage through there. And it's not uncommon to see these bikes that have been clamped on a roof and driven around the country and been raking and shaking on top of there that they can actually have some fractures and some things in there as well that can compromise, obviously, the whole frame pretty quickly. So again, this bike, super healthy. I've got no issues with this one, mate. I think you've got a bargain.