Chapter 1
Your Bike: The Basics
In This Chapter
Starting off your new relationship with your bike
Settling in and getting to know each other
Rolling off into the sunset of long-term happy cycling
Deciding to ride a bicycle, or to ride a bike more, is a move you won’t regret. You may have worked out that it’s better for the environment, better for traffic congestion and your community and, perhaps most of all, better for your health. When you start riding, you’ll kick yourself that you didn’t do it earlier.
Riding a bike is fun — it starts that way and it doesn’t stop. Every time I rest my feet on my pedals and speed off down my steep driveway, I get a feeling of great pleasure, just as I did when I was a boy and first took off on a bike with a spirit of freedom and adventure.
But it’s not as simple as just going to the shop, buying a bike and riding off down the street. You don’t need to know a great deal initially — you can go on learning about bikes forever — but you need to start with an awareness of the basics.
Get the wrong bike and your relationship could become rocky and eventually fall apart. Get the right one and it’ll be a marriage made on the perfect bike path. And from there, the richness of your developing affair with your bike will have you dreaming of all the possible things the two of you could do.
This chapter covers the basics to get you started (or back) on the bike and on the right path to a long life together.
Meeting Your Bike
When looking for your bike, play it cool and get it right. A key point in searching for any new relationship is to be self-aware, and that’s true for cycling as well. Know your own needs and be positive about them. Focus on the many positive aspects a bicycle can provide, rather than what it can’t give you.
Stay in control and don’t let your feelings be dominated by any past experiences. If you’re coming back to cycling after a break of many years, keep in mind that bikes are different these days. Your perfect bike is out there waiting for you — one that will be kind to you and that you will love.
Defining Your Needs
Before you can choose a bicycle, you do need to have some idea about what kind of riding you intend to do. The more precise you can be, the easier it will be to choose the type of bike to buy. If you already know you’re going to be cruising to work in style (and still beating the train there), or joining your mates on weekend runs with the peloton (a group of cyclists riding in a pack) or following them on singletrack mountain bike adventures, then that’s great — you’re halfway there.
Asking the Tough Questions
If, like many people, you want your bike for a few different kinds of riding, then you’ll have to look at what’s on offer. It might help if you ask yourself some of these questions:
Do I need a bike that goes fast?
Do I need to be able to put both feet on the ground when I’m sitting on my bike?
Do I want my bike to be a particular colour?
How do I feel about leaning forward when I sit on a bike?
How much am I willing to spend?
Will I be riding off-road?
Will I ride to work?
Will I travel (by car, train or some other form of transport) with my bike?
Will I want to leave my bike chained up in a public space?
Bikes are very good for lots of things. You might have made the decision to start riding to work — good for you! — but then realise that not only is it quicker to get to work on a bike, but it’s also much quicker to get to the shops. So you need a bike that’s fast on tarmac, but that can also be loaded up with some purchases and doesn’t stand out as having cost a royal ransom — so you can happily leave it tethered on the street or at the shopping centre.
If you’re after a bike to take on holiday (which is a very good idea) or for daytrips, then you might well be riding on both roads and trails and you’ll want to be sure you’ve got one that is comfortable and can handle these different conditions. Grab a copy of Cycling For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, for more details about choosing the right bike for your needs.
Building a Relationship with Your Bike
Once you’ve found your perfect bicycle, the fun doesn’t end there — you then get to start building a strong, long-term relationship with your bike.
You can work out where it’s going to live. (A bike can somehow seem not very big until you realise you’ve got nowhere to put one.) Then you can spend time getting to know all your bike’s different parts, learning names of bits you never knew existed. The bottom bracket won’t seem so base. You’ll get to grips with handlebars. You’ll get your teeth into forks. You can then kit your bike out with various accessories and presents, and introduce it to family and friends — and perhaps you can even get them involved in your trips out with your bike. To ensure you and your bike both look the part, you can work out the most appropriate attire for the kind of cycling you do together. And further down the track, you may even consider taking your loved one on a well-earned trip away. (You could even check if family or friends want to go along too!)
Finding a space for your bike
Owning a bike is a marvellous thing, but before you walk away from the shop wheeling your brand new friend, you have to give some thought to where you’re going to put it. If you’ve got a big shed or garage with plenty of space, you certainly don’t have to think about it very long. That’s where it’ll go.
Even if you have space for your bike in a shed or garage, think about whether this space is secure. Will your bike be locked away? If you’ve spent a lot of money on a bike (and sometimes even regardless of cost) it’ll be an awful shame if it goes missing. Also check whether your home insurance covers theft of your bicycle from your home. You often need to add your bike as an extra to your policy, so contact your insurers to confirm what you’re already covered for and what you might need to change. Also check whether your insurers cover the full cost of replacement.
Unless they’re cyclists themselves, insurance representatives often have no idea how expensive bikes can be, so be quite specific with the representative you talk to and don’t settle for any such answers as, ‘I should think so’.
If the only secure place you can leave your bike means that you’ll be sharing your living space with it, you have to give placement much more thought. They’re not easy to squeeze past in confined places and can fall over quite easily.
If you’ve got the tools and the strength, attaching brackets fairly high up on a wall to hold your top bike tube will get the wide part of the bike (the handlebars) out of the way, but you’ll have to be sure you can lift the bike that far. Hooks in the ceiling are also handy, but you must make sure they’re anchored into a joist and you can get the front wheel up that high. Alternatively, bike lift pulley systems are a great idea if you want to keep your bike up high. They’re secure, easy and, because of the way pulleys work, you only lift a quarter of the weight of your bike. These can be used in a house or apartment but, again, you have to be very sure you fix the system onto a really solid surface.
Balconies are a favourite spot for people who live in apartments, but bikes stored here might need extra protection from the elements. Bike covers offer this protection while also hiding the bike from the view of anyone who might try to climb up and steal it. (Although it’s still a good idea to lock the bike up.)
Recognising its features: Knowing which bit is which
I hope you already know which part on the bike is the saddle, the pedals and the handlebars. Wheels too. But obviously lots of other parts make up a bike and they’ve all got names. Some of them have several names. You don’t need to know them all, but learning a few will help you in a conversation with anyone about your new pastime and friend.
Figure 1-1 shows you the most important parts of a bike to know. (Note: In Figure 1-1, the bottom bracket is hidden. This part of the bike runs through the frame behind the chainring, connecting the cranks.)
Figure 1-1: Parts of a bicycle.
Knowing the names of parts will help if anything goes wrong. You won’t find yourself down at the bike shop pointing to the busted component and saying simply, ‘Broken’. Also, I have found there’s no end to the enjoyment you can have with good friends chatting about such things as rear dropouts and bottom brackets.
Adorning your bike with accessories
Some bits and pieces to go with a new bike are very important. You need a pump, and lights — front and back — are essential for riding after dark or in poor light (see Chapter 2 for more). You also won’t be riding long before you need to carry something, so working out where you’re going to put it is important. While backpacks and courier-style bags can be fine, you’ll be far more comfortable if you’ve got suitable baskets, bags and racks attached to your bike.
As well as pumps, lights and carriers,...
