Stuff Which Is Not Essential, But Which You May Wish To Consider, Part the Last

With a special focus on maintaining the bike, to round things off.

15. Chain cleaner, solvent and sprocket brush

This is edging towards the “bike maintenance” side of things. A chain cleaner is really two things: a set of brushes that clip over the chain, and a concentrated solvent used to make up the solution in the brush holder that dissolves the grease and muck on the chain. You will need to buy this from a bike shop, or you could look online. No particular mechanical skills are required to do this, but it does take a willingness to spent 15-20 minutes cleaning the bike, then cleaning the chain cleaner brushes. A sprocket brush is used at the same time to get the muck and debris off the sprockets and chainwheels at the back of the bike (this is, of course, assuming you’re riding a bike with derailleur gears!). Most serious cyclists will do this at least once a month as cleaning the muck off helps to stop wear and tear on the chain and sprockets, leading to easier gear shifts and making the parts last longer. If you are going to do this, buy yourself some latex gloves! and you may want to think about getting a bike stand (see below).

16. Latex gloves

Usually available for a couple of quid from Wilkinsons / the pound shop, or anywhere that sells motoring supplies. Few things can stick to your fingers quite like the unique mixture of road muck and cycling oil that the bike chain gets covered in. Latex gloves are great for avoiding this. Pop them on before you do any work on the bike, peel them off and bin them at the end, problem solved. (If you do get cycle grease and muck on your fingers, a nail brush and neat washing up liquid is what’s required!).

17. Bike stand

Again, this is for if you’re getting more into cleaning and maintaining your bike. You will probably need to buy it from a bike shop. A bike stand supports the bike, holding the rear wheel off the ground. This allows you to rotate the pedals freely, which is essential if you’re trying to clean the chain – it is well-nigh impossible to hold the bike off the ground with one hand, hold the chain cleaner on with the other, and rotate the pedals! Also essential for if you get into maintaining your bike and need to adjust the gears. About £15-£20.

18. Multitool

Essentially a cycling Swiss Army knife. They often come in “bike repair kits” from Wilkinsons, etc., or you should be able to get them quite easily online or at the bike shop. They usually consist of a set of Allen keys, and a set of screwdriver heads, the idea being that you keep it with you to help make any adjustments / running repairs to the bike as required (they are best kept in your saddlebag, rack pack or panniers). Well worth getting since, even if you don’t plan on doing any bike repairs, someone else might be able to use it. If you do buy one, bear in mind that they can go rusty if they get soaked in the rain, so it may be wise to keep it in a plastic bag (a sandwich bag is about the right size!). And finally...

19. Trouser clips

You may or may not feel you need these. They do have a rather dorky, businessman-on-a-folding-bike type image, and a lot of people never bother with them. Personally, I tend to avoid the need for them by wearing trousers that fit closely and don’t flap about. Since my usual cycling apparel is a pair of El Cheapo trackie bottoms from Primak, I usually adjust them by using safety pins to pin together any loose fabric at the bottom of the trouser legs. I really don’t like my trousers flapping around when I’d riding; it’s distracting, and the worry that they might get stuck in the chain is one more thing on my mind that I can do without. I’m also not a fan of clips, however, since I’ve yet to find any that don’t feel as through they are about to slip down your leg, no matter how firmly you try to clip them on – another distraction I can do without. However, one thing I have found that works well is trouser bands. These are elasticated fluorescent bands that fasten with Velcro around your calves, and they are a lot more secure. You can buy them from Poundland for a quid each, and if you are lucky you can get the extra-dorky but highly visible ones with flashing lights on. I keep a pair in my panniers just in case!

Whee! (Back on my bike)

Well, this week the overnight temperature finally rose above freezing on a regular basis, and I happily de-mothballed my bike and got pedalling. Albeit with a brief detour to the bike shop to get it fixed after I managed to bugger up the gears whilst trying to lubricate the gear cables.

I've finally done the sensible thing and bought a proper maintainance stand, like the one in the picture, to hold the rear wheel off the ground so I can maintain it. (To lube the gear cables, you need to "shift the gears until the chain is on the largest sprocket, and then stop the wheel from rotating. With the wheel stopped from moving, shift your shifter all the way in the opposite direction, as if you were going to shift to the smallest sprocket. The rear derailleur should now be stuck on the largest sprocket, which will give you enough slack to fully release the cable from the frame." Thanks to the internet for that.)

£17 in the Edinburgh bike shop sale, it will be worth it for the amount of time it will save me when trying to maintain the bike. It is easy to shift the gears "on land" when the wheel is held off the ground and can spin freely, and an absolute bugger to try doing it any other way.

More importantly, I'm back on my bike, no more spending £11 a week on a Megarider bus ticket for me. This is good. There are few sadder sights than a cyclist deprived of a bike, waddling about on two feet instead of gracefully swooping about on two wheels as Nature intended.

So I had my first ride in to work for 2010 on Monday. And I had to yell at two pedestrians on the footbridge over the Central Motorway on the way in. This footbridge is the bane of my life; people, especially students, WILL NOT realise that it is split in two for a reason, namely, so that bikes can go over it. I don't ride my damn bike on their half of the path, now, do I?

It would be nice to think that people are rational and, if they are going to wear hoods over their heads whilst listening to music on earphones, thus depriving themselves of peripheral vision and hearing, they would be extra careful to look around themselves when walking over a bridge with big blue "cycle path" signs and pictures of bikes helpfully painted on the footbridge, especially if they are going to step out onto the cycling half of the footbridge. Alas, no.

Looks like another fun year of cycling and irritability awaits.

Oddly Specific Instructions on Glue / Annoying Bike Noises

I recently bought some superglue and found the following instruction on it "Not suitable for sticking rear view mirrors to car windscreens". I suppose there could be a legal issue here since it would be dangerous if the mirror fell off whilst you were driving, but it seems so oddly specific. As a friend commented, "They might as well also put 'Unsuitable for Sticking Anvils To Ceilings".

And here's this week's contribution to cycling: Fixing Annoying Bike Noises.

1. Annoying squeaky noise coming from the brakes.
Two possible causes: a) Bike mechanism needs greasing. Simple – apply grease to the bolts on the brake mechanism WITHOUT getting any on the brake pads or wheel rims (wipe off if so). b) Problems with the brake pads. You need either new brake pads, to toe-in the brake pads, or to check the tension on the brake cables. Instructions for all can be found on the 'net.

2. Annoying rattly noise coming from the chain accompanied by difficulty shifting the gears.
One possible cause (there may be others I have yet to encounter): the gear cable is loose, usually on the rear derailleur. This is particularly likely to be the case if you twisted the cable barrel adjuster by mistake whilst removing the cable housing to grease the gear cable. Find the cable barrel on the derailleur (it’s a black ring where the cable goes into the derailleur mechanism) and tighten it, then try again. If the chain doesn’t rattle and the gears shift okay, you’ve fixed it. If it does still rattle, you may need to tune the gears, in which case a) find some online instructions (Google is your friend here), or b) talk to your friendly local bike mechanic.

3. Annoying rattly noise coming from somewhere on the bike you can’t identify.
Try greasing all the mechanical parts (brake mechanisms, gear shifters, chain) WITHOUT getting any on the brake pads or wheel rims (wipe off if so). Ride the bike again, see if this cures it. If not, go over it looking for loose bolts i.e. mudguard bolts, pannier bolts, and tighten them. Try again. If it’s still rattling, bike shop time.

4. Annoying rattly noise coming from the front gear derailleur
Two possible cause: a) the chain is being stretched too far over on the rear sprockets i.e. it’s on the smallest front chainring and the smallest rear sprocket, or vice versa, and is caused by the chain rubbing against the sides of the front derailleur. Fix by shifting the gears, usually by shifting the front derailleur (if you’ve got the chain on the smallest front chainring and smallest rear sprocket, you’re probably going fast enough to shift onto the middle front chainring). b) the chain has failed to shift from one front chainring to the next. Click the shifter back to the position for the original chainring, pedal as gently as you can and try again.

5. Annoying pingy noise coming from somewhere.
If you have a bike computer, lift the front wheel off the ground, spin it, and see if the pingy noise corresponds to the magnet on the wheel spoke brushing against the sensor. If so, push the sensor out very slightly, and check again (be sure you haven’t moved it so far out it doesn’t pick up from the magnet). If this doesn't fix it, your guess is as good as mine.

6. Annoying flicking sound coming from the wheels.
Stop and have a look at the forks / mudguard / pannier rack to see if there is anything stuck on them i.e. a dead leaf. Remove it, pedal off.