Boomers on Bicycles

handmade

The Shimano North American Handmade Bicycle Show takes place in Richmond, Virginia, February 26-28. Regardless of what kind of bike you ride, or the reason you ride, this show is rather nice. If you are anywhere around Richmond, go. Just seeing some of the bikes that are likely to be there makes me want to hop a train or plane and head east. These bicycles aren’t in the cheap column by any means. You don’t have to buy one. You may want to after you take a good look at all the handmade products though. Here is the link: NAHBS.

Enjoy a few dreams.

Bikes

Riding bicycles in winter generally means that you’ll be cruising through some mud and water. Mountain bikes are especially prone to this. Off road is messier than riding on a paved surface.

It’s a safe bet that most mountain bike riders have been through a puddle or two. It’s also a pretty safe bet that getting the dirt and grime off your ride hasn’t happened as regularly as it should. We’re deep into winter and the recent weather proves it. If you’ve been out riding, on or off trail, you’ve got some maintenance to do.

Here are some things to do, on a regular basis, during the winter, rains and mud:

• wash your bike after you ride: use your garden hose, get the big chunks off.
• stay away from the high pressure hoses: forcing water into your bottom bracket, or any other sealed portion of your bike will cause problems, either with rust or fine grained grit being forced in.
• after you hose your bike down, dry it off with a soft cloth.
• pay special attention to your chain, chain rings, and derailleur gears.
• oil your chain, after you hose it down, same with the gears.
• pull your seat post out, clean it, lightly oil it.
• check your brakes, adjust them if it takes too much pull to engage them.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will keep your bike in pretty good shape during the wet and muck of winter rides. It may just prevent more expensive problems from popping up as well. Check with your local bike shop about the different types of chain lubes and cleaners that are on the market.

Have a great time riding this winter.

Read any bicycling magazine and you will find references to numbers: tire size, frame size, fork travel, bike gears. Except for bike gears, the numbers are easy to understand. Gears, for most riders, are what they hear about at the bike shop. But what do they mean? What difference does it make to you, the rider?

The numbers that you hear (52/39) refer to the number of teeth on the chain ring. The chain ring gears are a set of two or three numbers. A road bike generally has two chain rings, but can have three.  A mountain bike will most likely have three (52/42/30). Larger numbers have more teeth on the gear. Different sized chain rings and gears have different numbers of teeth. A compact double chain ring has two chain rings; a triple, three chain rings. The large chain ring is the outboard ring, the small one is inboard. If it is a triple, the mid-sized ring is in-between the large and small rings. Chain rings can have as few a 20 teeth and run up to 56 or more.

The gears on the rear of the bike (the cassette) can come in sets of 6, 9, 12, or 10, or whatever someone who is experimenting with gears can come up with. On the rear of your bike, the  big gear is in board, the small one, outboard. A compact double chain ring, with 10 gears on the back, is a 20 speed bike. Put a triple chain ring up front, and it turns into a 30 speed bike. More teeth on the chain ring gears means more revolutions of the derailleur gears, which accounts for the harder high gear–big chain ring, small cassette gear, and the easy granny low–small chain ring, big cassette gear.

As with so many things, the gearing on your bike depends upon some variable factors: where you are going to be riding (flat, hilly, mountains), your strength, your experience, mountain bike, road bike, or hybrid. When buying a bike, road, mountain, or hybrid, it’s a good idea to discuss with the shop tech what your main interest is and what the terrain is like where you will be riding the most. For the most part, new bikes, out of the box, have a good set of gears on them for most riders. If you are a racer, a ranked cat rider, or someone in the elite class, you’ll have different needs and will probably have a very specialized set of gears all around.

Your bike gears are an important part of enjoying your ride. The best place to take your questions about the gearing on your bike, or the new one you’d like to buy, is your local bike shop. Not only will you learn about the gears, you’ll get to look at all the great new bikes and gear on display. Just don’t drool too much on the new bikes.