bikeParka review

There are several cycling essentials in this world. A bicycle helmet and a bike are cycling essentials. The ability to enjoy speeding down a hill, laughing whilst overtaking a traffic jam of cars, or cackling like a crazed witch whilst getting yourself caked in mud on an off road adventure - these are cycling essentials. Keeping your bike clean, safe and dry is definitely another one of those cycling essentials.

The typical view to keeping your bike safe and dry is to use a decent storage system such as a bike storage shed, standard garden shed or garage that is water tight and secure. Well my bike storage system is a dilapidated old wooden heap, mildly resembling a shed, that is likely to fall over in a mild gust of wind. Changing it is too much of an upheaval and to be honest it kind of blends into the look of the garden. I would love a separate bike storage shed but we simply don't have the room at the moment.

So my view is to keep the bikes dry and secure within the shed, and just hope that the shed stays standing. There is no lock on the shed, but there is a ground anchor and motorcycle chain securing the bikes to the concrete floor. That takes care of security.

So to keep the bikes dry I use a bicycle cover. Good bicycle covers are very hard to come by. I bought one from Halfords (not particularly cheap either I might add). It is basically a glorified ground sheet. It worked quite well for a bit but it has no shape to it so quickly gets in a muddle once you take the bike out a few times. Also, the material is very light so after being in damp conditions for a while, one clumsy tug in a dark shed led to a great big tear in the side. Needless to say, my precious road bike and time trial bike were not happy at all. Clearly I needed a new bicycle cover.

Meet bikeParka - the ultimate bicycle cover

The bikeParka is what you get when you actually try and design a bicycle cover rather than just selling a waterproof sheet marketed as a bike storage system! At first glance it is pleasing to look at, which isn't a particularly useful characteristic but it does make it a more appealing cycling gift.

The best thing about the bikeParka is the way it fits. It is very easy to put on no matter what your bike shape is. It easily fits over both my road bike and my time trial bike. The bottom is elasticated so it hugs the wheels. There is a pull cord at the top so that you can make sure it fits your bike perfectly although, as the fit was already so good I found this unnecessary to be honest. Although in windy conditions this may be desirable.

It is certainly a waterproof bicycle cover. It is seam sealed and coated in Polyurethane so water really shouldn’t creep in anywhere although I haven’t tested this in anger yet.

A great feature is that it packs down nice and small. This means you can take it with you if you wish. So for example if you lock your bike outside the office where it is vulnerable to rain etc then this would be ideal. The Urban version has a mechanism for attaching to your bike and also a side hole for threading locks through - pretty neat.

I took the bikeParka with us on our recent vacation to the Isle of Wight where it served two great additional purposes:

1. I kept the road bike in the kitchen during our stay, throwing it over the top meant that the wall was protected from handlebar scrapes and more importantly; my ever curious daughter couldn't get oil all over her hands when prodding and poking the bike.
2. I laid it out flat in the car over all our luggage and put the road bike on top. This ensured our stuff wouldn't get dirty or oily.

Conclusion

Simply this. This bicycle cover is now one of my cycling essentials. Until the day comes where I have a purpose built bike storage shed, I'll be using this to keep my road bike warm and toasty.

Starting at just under £30, you may feel this is a pretty expensive bicycle cover. But this is an excellent value product – it is well made and performs extremely well. Judging by it’s construction it should last a long time. Cheaper bicycle covers are available but you only get what you pay for. Your bike is valuable right? So show it some respect!

If you need a new bicycle cover in your life or are thinking of cycling gift ideas, this could be right up your street. You can buy one right here from our shop... buy a bikeParka