Single Speed Biking The Hard way

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

I picture via windchaser333 I am by no means the expert on single-speed bicycles, and that’s not really my topic today. I have, however, been put in the single-speed situation and thought that there may be valuable lessons to be learnt from it. Perhaps the first lesson should have been to check all wires and cables before using the bike, but the second lesson was about perseverance. About a year ago I acquired a small road/racing bike with a pannier rack for use as a city cycle. Having hea... read more...

Fixing the Unfixable

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via SammyBlot It is not beyond the best of us to have to admit defeat sometimes. Although our combined knowledge and skill could keep a thousand bikes running for a thousand years, it may just be that there is a problem lurking around the corner for any one of us that will exceed our abilities and require those dreaded expensive-looking spare parts. My own experience recently was as I rode home one afternoon, and, crossing a wide junction, the rear sprockets of my mountain bike fel... read more...

Anger Management For Cyclists

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via mr walker I’m not in the business of anger management or any kind of therapy, but because it’s a big deal for me I’m sure it’s a big deal for pretty much any cyclist on the roads in modern Britain – and indeed probably elsewhere too, but especially in Britain. I refer of course to the anger that cyclists often feel about the way they’re treated on the road. Some of you may remember my earlier post on how to have presence on the roads; but this, I’m afraid, only goes a certain di... read more...

Re-Cycling

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Cycling Gear, Nathan

picture via mumblion I’m a great fan of recycling bikes (yep, see what I did there? Re-cycling?), so here’s a quick article about what to do with an old bike, or where to look if you want a restoration project. Now I’m not planning to talk about vintage bikes – that’s  just not my area of expertise – but I’m certainly a proponent of finding an older bike and revitalising it. I’m not going to be able to avoid talking about that online auction site, because that’s where I’ve found most o... read more...

TLC for a Time-Torn Bike

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via Photo’s by Pamela Hello again, avid readers! Time for another instalment on city cycling. After a lull period in writing, I feel that it’s eminently appropriate to take the topic of what to do with a bicycle that has been left for a period of time to accumulate all of the things that a bicycle seems to gather when unused – and, especially, when left outside or in less-than-ideal conditions. This article will simply deal with the things to look / check for when coming back to an ... read more...

City Cycling - Optimising for Speed, Part 3 (Brakes)

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via pendolino If you’re going to go fast, brakes are key. One popular sports-car manufacturer even goes to far as to have a policy whereby their cars must be able to stop in half the time they can accelerate. So let’s look at how we can use our brakes to help us go faster. There’s two parts to this – one is making sure the brakes aren’t holding you back; the second is to think about ways of braking that will let you go much faster for much longer. Brakes The first thing to do, befor... read more...

City Cycling - Optimising for Speed, Part 2 (Gears)

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via mattwitmer This is the second instalment of the Optimising for Speed series; speed is as important now as it was in the first article and it falls to the purpose of this article to address another issue or two that often hold(s) cyclists back from realising their speed potential. This time, I’ll look at gears – both setup and usage. The reason that gears are so essential in the discussion of how to get the most speed out of your bike is probably quite obvious: the better you can... read more...

New urban cycling t-shirt designs available in the shop

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Cycling Gear, Nathan

Just added two new additions to the shop… check ‘em out now…

read more...

City Cycling - Optimising for Speed, Part 1 (Drivetrain)

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan, racing

picture via mwaters City cycling may be outside of the everlasting quest for speed that racing cyclists undertake for the duration of their lives, but it's no secret that every cyclist wishes they could go just a little bit faster, cut down that journey time a little, or just enjoy the feeling of velocity. And the good news? You don't have to be a racer to go fast, and you don't need to tire yourself out to get up the momentum you'd really like. With these few simple tips, you'll easily be ... read more...

Cycling Lighting Solutions

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Cycling Gear, Nathan

picture via Rian Flynn As any city cyclist knows, safety and visibility are inseparably linked in the context of city cycling, and any way to make yourself more visible is definitely a bright idea. So let’s shed a little light on the subject of visibility, particularly at night, specifically with reference to what is of course a legal requirement for a bicycle – front and rear lighting. The important advice in relation to lights is ‘always use them’. If the streetlamps are on, your bike lig... read more...

City Cycling - Carrying Goods and Not-So-Goods

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via Kevin.Chang A common problem facing many cyclists today is the issue of how to transport goods, items and property in general by means of a bicycle. As a mode of transport, the bicycle is very often considered primarily and perhaps solely for the purposes of transporting usually one person from place to place; yet being a versatile machine, the bicycle is more than capable of being a load-carrying conveyance as well. Ways of transporting stuff Various methods emerge of carrying ... read more...

City Cycling - Accidents Happen

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via Iomokev Well I hate to bring a downer on everyone but I thought it might make sense to talk about what to do when things go badly wrong for a cyclist. I refer of course to 'falling off' and 'being hit by a car' – both of which are well within my areas of expertise! I'll be brief, but hopefully the stuff I talk about here will be useful enough in preventing accidents or – if the worst comes to the worst – minimising the impact... as it were. In each of the sections I'll be lookin... read more...

City Cycling - Presence, Positioning and Not Turning Left

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via sir cam This article complements a good understanding of clear signalling and careful, deliberate indications of what you are about to do and when. Communicating to other road users your intentions is essential for safety and smooth, uneventful journeys. A few notable points are included here, but it should be said that many more situations will arise than are mentioned here; by applying these simple principles, however, you will be a safer and happier cyclist. Parked cars and b... read more...

City Cycling – Intercyclist Interaction

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

picture via elycefeliz In the main, cycling in the city is not a social sport. You will probably not be conversing at length with other cyclists, much in the same way that motorists tend not to converse with each other from car to car even if they are able to. City cycling is a very functional phenomenon and many of the other cyclists on the road will be simply trying to get from one place to another. As such, it is an individual and solitary pastime. However, a certain degree of communicat... read more...

City Cycling - Security part 2 - Without Locks

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Nathan

If you haven’t read Nathan’s first part about security – check it out now. Here’s the second instalment. Sometimes a cyclist just doesn’t have the luxury of a lock. Maybe the mechanism on your old lock has finally given up the ghost, or perhaps you just left it at home by mistake; whatever the case, if you turn up in town without a lock, your options are limited. You can either go home and get your locks, or you can find a way of parking without using locks. Where / where not to park Some v... read more...

City Cycling Security – part 1 – Using locks

Posted December 20, 2011 in City Cycling, city cycling, Cycling Gear, Nathan

  An important part of any journey is where you will end up. As a cyclist one of your main concerns will be what provisions there will be for bicycle parking at your destination, and how to make the best use of it. Security and convenience are key factors, let’s take a look at some of the options available to you… What kind of lock to use Two broad categories of lock are available to the average city cyclist: the wire lock and the solid D-lock. The wire lock comes in a variety of forms,... read more...

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