Bike Tip Tuesday Archives - Bike Shop Girl

Bike Maintenance vs Repair

One of the more frequent questions when talking about bike servicing is what is maintenance vs repair and what should an everyday bike rider be comfortable doing.

When you drive a car, you need to keep the air in your tires and your oil changed. If you do those things regularly and go to a good mechanic for servicing, you’ll be able to know before something wears out or breaks down that will need a repair.

With a bike – you pump up the tires, do a safety check on the brakes, and lube your chain. These are the things that you should do on a regular to keep things from wearing prematurely. A, B, C – Air, (Check) Brakes, (Lube) Chain

Why Should You Do Bike Maintenance?

It’s important to keep your tires aired up to help prevent flats and premature wear on the tire. When you pump, look for wear on your tires or cuts. Lubing your chain properly will help your expensive bike chain and drivetrain to last longer. Finally, checking your brakes work properly is important to safety. These all take about 5 minutes total to do and help make your bike run more efficiently and safely. They also help you from visiting the bike shop or spending money before you need to!

Bike Maintenance 201

Depending on your type of riding and confidence as a home mechanic, you may start to learn how to change flat tires, check your chain wear, replace brake pads, and more. These can also be considered maintenance but maintenance, like the oil on your car that we talked about above, can be left for a local mechanic if you aren’t a DIY person (I don’t change the oil on our car for example.)

If you start venturing further from home, odd hours of the day or night, or simply want to be a self-reliant person – you may want to learn how to repair things for when they break. Chains, spokes, etc. For what it is worth, I have NEVER had a chain break in the miles of touring, commuting, or mountain bike racing. I also regularly check my gear and replace things before they fail.

Look for a basic walk through on this soon over on the Tern Bicycles YouTube channel.

What Bike Tools I Carry On Every Bike Ride – My Everyday Bike Carry

Articles, Bike Maintenance Tips, Biking Tips

With the hope of helping you be a great bike owner, here is what I suggest as a basic every ride carry to take on every bike ride. The key to this is to know what you are willing to do, and what is just silly to carry since you won’t use it anyways. A cell phone with a reliable friend on the other end is also totally fine!

BIKE TOOLS ITEMS MENTIONED

Mechanic Gloves
Tern Tool
Tubes
PDW Ninja CO2 & Pump
Topeak Morph Pump
Tire Levers
Green Guru Bags: https://bit.ly/3kLUkYA
Banjo Bros Seatbags
Let me know what you want to be covered in this Bike Ownership 101 series!

MY DISCLAIMER: Some products are provided at no charge for review. I’m not paid or bribed for reviews, and they will be as honest as possible. Additionally, some links are to affiliate advertising where I may make a few pennies from your purchase.

The 4 Bike Accessories Everyone Needs

Articles, Biking Tips

Whether you just got a new bike or want to bike more often, let’s talk about the four key accessories I think every bike owner should have. This is a starting point and as someone starts riding we will layer on accessories specific to their need.

Scroll to the bottom to watch the video if that is your preference!

First thing to buy after a bike

A helmet. Budget from $45 – 100 for a good helmet with some different types of features. In the video, I reference my favorite city bike helmets mostly from Kali and Lazer.

The second thing to buy

A good floor pump. If you ride a few times a week you should be pumping up your tires once a week. This helps prevent flats, makes your bike more efficient, and makes the tires last longer.

The next thing

Some type of bag to carry your stuff on the bike. I’m a big fan of Slap Bags, seat bags, and “bento” top tube style bags. All range from $15-35 and can carry your phone, keys, snacks, all the snacks.

The final bike accessory for your list

Lights. Most of the electric bikes I sell come with lights but it is always nice to have blinky lights on during the day and good bright light for night riding helps you safer and more confident on the bike.

This article is part of my weekly bike tips series, view all my biking tips here.

Cargo Bike Chain Maintenance

Articles, Bike Maintenance Tips, Biking Tips, Cargo Biking

In this week’s Bike Tip Tuesday I’m going over the basics of good bike chain maintenance, specifically for cargo bike chain maintenance.

Cargo bike chains see some of the most stress possible due to torque and carrying weight, even more so with an electric assist motor thrown into the mix.

In this video, I’m reviewing:

Cleaning and lubing your cargo bike chain
When to use a chain cleaner like the Park Cyclone Scrubber
Why a chain wear tool is so important and how to use it

Thoughts on Electric and Cargo Bike Pedals

Articles, Biking Tips, Electric Biking Tips

Electric Bike Pedals — Some Stock Pedals Found on E-Bikes

Here are my musings for pedals on electric and cargo bikes but can probably be applied to any everyday style bike.

I talk about pedals a lot at the bike shop and while building up a customer’s new cargo bike I was reminded about how much a good pedal can change the ride of a bike completely.

Platform or Clip-in Pedals?

A few years ago I started switching to platform pedals on all my city bikes because the benefits of clip-in pedals and shoes were very much outweighed by the practicality of getting on my bike no matter my attire. There’s a lot to dig into for understanding if you should clip-in or use a platform pedal but in general, my current mentality is that if I’m not wearing a chamois and spandex then I don’t need to clip in.

Stack Height of a Pedal

The stack height or width of a pedal is something not often talked about but to me, it is one of the more important pieces when looking at a pedal for cargo or electric bikes. Why? The shorter your pedal then the lower your seat can be while still getting that perfect leg extension. This may not seem like much but I’ve seen pedal heights fluctuate up to 15mm. The lower your seat height, then the lower your center of gravity and the greater chance you can sit on your seat while on your tippy-toes. These things can really add up when balancing 150 pounds of wiggling kid cargo at the busiest intersection of your commute. You want to feel confident and rock-solid on a heavy electric or cargo bike, a 15mm lower seat height can help with that.

Grip vs Shredding Your Shoes (or shins)

Have your feet every slipped off the pedals when they were wet? It is a terrifying moment if you are pushing into a busy intersection or turning. This is the other big reason I think a lot about pedals. We need to have good equipment under our touchpoints (pedals, saddle, grips) to enjoy our ride! It is easy to add grip to your bike by upgrading your pedals for $20-50.

The downside of the addition could be your shoes or shins though. My two favorite pedals pictured above have small lugs or pins sticking out. The pins are sharp and will scratch up your leather-soled shoes and if you were to slip off the pedal and they catch your shins with shorts on – you’ll have some nice scratches.

These days I don’t wear many leather-soled shoes and I’m good enough on my pedals that they don’t slip off. If you are worried about it, swap out your pedals in the fall until the spring.

Platform Size

Back in my late teens, I used to do urban assault mountain biking – basically jumping off stairs and ledges with my size XS mountain bike. It was during these moments that I learned that platform size and shape of a pedal really impact comfort (either when landing a drop terribly or long-distance pedaling) and the grip of the pedal paired to your shoe.

Some higher-end platform pedals now even come in different sizes! This could be super important if you have smaller feet or outfitting your kiddo with a new pedal, or larger feet that fall off the side. Either way, just make sure your foot is well supported.

My last point on the platform of a pedal is to make sure that your foot doesn’t sink into the platform and sit on the middle of the pedal where the axle is. It will give you a hot spot and feel awful on longer rides.

Axle, Bearings & Q-Factor

Most bikes come with budget-priced pedals that probably cost the company <$5 to put on the bike. If you are just starting out THEY ARE FINE to start with! If you ride 500+ miles and start feeling a click in your pedal or they don’t spin easily, then figure out what style pedal you want and continue on for durability.

Did you know they make titanium axles pedals with ceramic bearings? Personally, I just want my bearings to be sealed (instead of open ball bearings exposed to the elements) and a good Chromoly axle (that won’t rust as easily). Typically that starts around $40-50. This means that after terrible rain and 300-500 miles the grease in my pedals is still in there and they are spinning freely. Some pedals are double sealed, use nice Glide bearings, and more. If those are for you, you probably aren’t reading this article.

Aesthetics and Material

Most of the pedals that fit my needs are now nylon. I like nylon as it doesn’t hold in the cold like a metal pedal and I ride my bike under 0º. Nylon pedals can also come in cool colors. Some people prefer the feel or look of metal and there are a ton of those available in black, silver or sometimes even a copper tone!

One random side note on material, I used to own a pair of magnesium pedals when doing that “urban assaulting” and it was really cool to create sparks when hitting ledges or stairs!

My Pedal Conclusion

One of the main reasons I wanted to write these thoughts and musings is to encourage you to think more about your bike ride and what small adjustments you could make to enjoy it more. What could you do to make your bike something you could get on and go whenever you wanted in whatever attire you happened to have on? Maybe it is a more comfortable saddle, a basket or rack, or lights so you go further. There is no “be all” for pedals or any of the things I just listed, it is about being informed and making the perfect bike for you.

My current goto pedals for electric and cargo bikes (and really any bike)

First: Issi Thump pedals $40-50
Second: Fyxation Gates Slim $30