Created 4/20/2021
In this post, I'll be covering a lot of the basic things every bicyclist needs to learn and know, and by learn I do mean become familiar with enough to overcome the common issues we encounter with bicycles, like flat tires for instance. I'll be posting a lot of links to quality information, so simply click on the link to watch the video or read the article to learn more.
After you have purchased your bicycle, you are going to need a few things, depending upon your age though, because adults and older teens don't usually ride with elbow and knee pads, those are for kids learning how to ride, but if you do serious mountain biking those things can save your life! Obviously if you ride on the road front and back lights (Preferably rechargeable ones) are a must have, even if you don't think you'll be riding at night, and even in the day time flashing lights increase your visibility by about 40%, so use them!
A bright colored shirt (Florescent Yellow or Orange), at the bare minimum, is necessary to increase visibility as well, and though it's OK to not use these if you aren't riding on the road, it makes good sense to use them if riding in a forest because people do hunt still today. Obviously a bicycle helmet is standard safety equipment, they can save your life seriously, and they also help block the harmful sun from scorching your head with massive heat, which leads to profusive sweating too. (Bad idea!)
You will need an air pump that fits on your bike, a quality multi-tool, and a means to repair inner tubes & of course quality tire levers, also a couple extra inner tubes is very nice, so get these these things up front! It's standard to have at least 1 water bottle holder on your bike with a bottle, you can of course still use multiple water bottles or carry a back pack for drinking water or whatever as well, and be sure to wash out that bottle at least once a weak to kill bacteria!
I would still recommend having a standard bicycle pump though (The bigger ones with a gauge on them) and of course every bicycle needs a bike lock. Here I would recommend a big cable lock or the U shaped bicycle locks, which are the best hands down, and you need to know that any lock is removable given enough time, so parking your bicycle where there are cameras or a lot of traffic completely dissuades would be thieves. Please, for the love of your bicycle, don't leave your bicycles outside unattended & unlocked when you go home, keep it inside or at the very least lock it up.
You will at the very least repair inner tubes (Preferably) or replace inner tubes quite often if you ride a lot in city streets, there is a lot of glass and metal found in city streets, and so learning how to repair inner tubes is critical, but there are other means to avoid getting flats. One means I've seen BMX riders use is using two bicycle tires (I kid you not), but that's rather inconvenient for serious riders, and there are those slime inner tubes, NOT RECOMMENDED! (Too heavy and annoying!)
How to repair your inner tube with super glue & paper!
There are also slime inserts for your tire, but the best way to protect against flats is to get a puncture resistant tires, standard tires on bicycles that the manufacturer places on most bicycles aren't puncture resistant at all, and so the first things any real cyclist will do is replace the tires with higher grade tires once the original ones become bad, which often doesn't take long at all mind you. You will probably bend a few rims in your years of cycling, so you will want a spoke tool that fits your bike, unless you have multiple bikes, then you will want a universal one instead, and I'd opt for the non-universal if you want precision, universals tend to be lower quality and strip spoke nipples. (Very bad!)
Learning to true a bicycle wheel is critical, so learn it well, I don't have a bike hanger, most of my repairs happen on the road, and so I opt for the non-professional means to accomplish task, but you can use a rope to hang a bicycle from a large tree limb! It's far more convenient to just flip your bike up on it's handle bars and bike seat to do repairs more often than not, and that's because most flats or adjustments happen on the road.
Obviously your seat needs to be the right height, depending upon the bike determines how high or low you should put it, on a standard bicycle (Non-BMX or Mountain Bike), you'll want to ensure that when you sit on the bike that (Using your heels) the full extension of your leg is not used when pedaling, give yourself at least an inch or two of slack, and this is to avoid strain to tendons in your ankle & feet. On BMX bikes, riders and mountain bikes, riders almost always have their seats lowered far beyond what seems correct, and the correct height for these bikes is the seat needs to come up to the bone found in the upper center of your rear end (Butt), the bone between your butt cheeks near the top.
Most bicycles have a means to adjust handle bars, but the best bikes have a means to adjust the height and extension of the handle bars, giving the rider the ability to ride sitting up or leaning forward, and road bikes offer a rendition of this with the 3 position handle bars. Adjusting your handle bars is the 2nd thing every rider should do before going on their first ride, because you need to be comfortable with how you ride, leaning too much is stressful, especially if you aren't skinny, and riding straight up and down can be harmful to your spine if you ride over serious bumps.
To ensure you are ready for daily riding, make sure you use protective eye wear, preferably shades (For daytime) that cover the entire eye area without blocking or limiting vision at all, and don't wear sun glasses or safety glasses (Clear ones for night) if they block any part of your vision, safety glasses are critical to ensure you don't go blind from bugs and objects that WILL fly at you from time to time. Gloves are not necessary, but they are very nice if you do a lot of riding, because they too block the sun, and if you don't use long sleeved shirts, then it's time to put on some sun screen, or get skin cancer if you don't! (I have skin cancer, so I'm telling you from experience, and so you should use 50 proof+ sun screen if you ride more than an hour on any day, even if the sun isn't shining!)
Gloves are also nice to have if you wipe out on the road, but do your self a huge favor and learn how to do shoulder rolls, and I tell you this because landing on your wrist is a great way to end up with broken wrist, it's better to land on your side or do a should roll if you are pitched forward or go flying through the air. I try to avoid hitting any objects, especially cars and trees or branches, however from time to time you may encounter unknown flying objects (UFOs), no not the conspiracy theory kind everyone tries to get pictures of, but objects that just so happen to fly at you for unknown reasons, like rocks, bugs, or falling timbers / branches / whatever, and I have to warn you that I've been shot by someone shooting a lot of paintballs at me while riding, so expect anything, including fireworks!
Riding a bicycle often becomes a dodging act, except you are on top of a piece of metal with two wheels, and balance is limited to lean left or right or turn your wheel, but turning your handle bars often leads to bad results unless you are moving slower. Obviously keeping your handle bars straight most of the time is critical, so if those become loose, then make sure you tighten them only enough to ensure they remain straight while riding, and avoid making them so tight that it becomes more difficult to turn the wheel. (Keep them at zero resistance to turning the handle bars)
Bicycles are a fine tuned instrument, but things become loose after riding for a time, so you'll need to check the tightness of bolts from time to time, also your bike will likely need to be cleaned at least once a month if you ride regularly, or after a serious off road adventure that leaves your bike completely covered in mud or dirt. Obviously one way to avoid cleaning more frequently is avoiding any kind of water, not to mention your back side will stop getting wet, and that's a nice feature of being smart.
Riding in the rain is not uncommon, so ensure that you have an emergency rain coat if doing long rides and have properly lubed your bicycle, obviously snow riding is out of the question unless you have high traction tires that can handle that, and riding over ice is flat out deadly for any bicycle. So avoiding disaster is obviously the main checklist of know how for any bicycle, that doesn't just include cars, pedestrians, and objects, because bicycles are in fact a dog magnet, indeed dogs are highly fascinated with spokes and cycling legs too. (Side Note: do not ride in lightning storms, very bad idea!)
I have been bitten once by a mutt, the lady had like 4 of them in the front yard without a leash too, and I just let it go, but I could have made a big scene over it and called the ambulance and cops if I wanted to. That's overkill, bicyclist just accept that road hazards exist and include dogs on the loose, and the best way to deal with dogs is doggy snacks, even the mail delivery person can tell you that, but if you keep running into issues with the local dog pound, then pepper spray works too.
There are of course other animals beside dogs, but most of the ones I've encountered are non-aggressive, like deer, possums, racoons, and in my off road adventures I've run into a few snakes, but I never stopped to admire them at all. (No thanks) Speaking of stopping, braking is by far one of the most important aspects of a bicycle, because if you can't stop then you are putting your self in danger, and avoiding danger is like a natural skill of any bicyclist!
Therefore, learning to adjust brakes is a standard skill of any cyclist, and so you should take the time to learn how to adjust every type of brake before you head out to ride, I say this because inspecting your bicycle before you ride is critical to having a safe ride. I've had siblings and malicious people mess with my bicycle out of spite towards me, so expect things not to be "Normal", and take the time to ensure nothing is broken, loose, and everything is properly functioning before heading out on a long ride.
For those who are really into fine tuning their bicycle, especially if they purchased a used bicycle, then learning to adjust derailleurs become an important skill in bicycle repair and maintenance as well. Obviously there is a lot to learn about bicycles, but I feel like I've covered the very basics here, and further blog post will be more focused on other topics, including more advanced repair topics.
Thanks for reading, I hope this blog helps you see the truth, and please share a link with others, thanks!.
If you would like to help me continue to help the world see the truth, you can use Pay Pal or CashApp to send me a donation via my email at: galegtech@gmail.com
Thank You readers for your support!
Copyright © Gale Innes 2022
All Rights Reserved Worldwide
No comments:
Post a Comment