I posted this before looking for topics, but it kinda ended up being online support for general bicycle troubles.
Which is a good thing! Ask your questions about bicycles that are currently on your mind and we all try to help.
Pre-Emptively calling in @dallasw and @Kissmydadonthelips for their knowledge.
How do you avoid neck pain when riding on a more "aggressively" shaped road bike? I keep my seat pretty high because I have long legs, but the result is that I'm hunched forward over my bars, so I'm looking "up" to see forward. This isn't uncomfortable at all, I actually like riding like this, except that after a few long rides I develop serious neck pain which doesn't go away until I stop riding altogether.
Not a medical expert, so take it with a grain of salt. But from what I learned, there's basically two options here, make your stance less aggressive or train your posterior chain muscles (basically everything in the back) more via (body-)weight exercises.
You should definitely look up more in-depth resources on this though and not trust me blindly on this, don't fuck up your neck because I said a thing.
I wish building wheels was a more practical skill. It’s really cool and you get great wheels but it’s so expensive compared to buying machine made wheels.
I think it's sort of a puff pastry deal. Yes, you can do it yourself, but it's such a hassle and price unless you're really into it, it's not going to be worth it.
What I have done is go buy some cheap (but quality) wheels at the co op and then re-use the spokes, nipples, and sometimes hubs laced to new rims. Or used rims. Usually my custom builds are hyper-specific and weird. People say not to reuse spokes but i've never had a problem even doing like loaded touring and stuff.
We need to talk about how good the Netherlands is at bike infrastructure. Yes the Dutch can suck but their bike infrastructure is top tier
The highest point in the Netherands is barely over 1000 ft over sea level, and it's man-made
I genuinely want to visit Amsterdam just to go biking since picking it up recently. God I can’t wait to get vaccinated
They have like 2 major parking lots in the whole city and they’re for bikes, fit thousands of them and are nearly full every day.
I've built multiple bikes, but as far as I can tell, correctly adjusting a derailer is something that only works if you give someone else money. Are derailers powered by capitalism?
I’m like 50-50 for adjusting my 2013 shimano 105 set, including cable replacement, barrel adjusting and some limit screw bullshit.
Anything more complex is witchcraft
I mean I'm far from having vegan butter alternative smooth shifting on any of my bikes and I'm not going to write up a guide here as the minutiae are specific to whatever you have but what really helped me on this is actually understanding how a derailleur works and what the different adjustments actually do. I'm going to assume the derailleurs are installed correctly for this:
For the Front, it's basically a cage around your chain that shoves it sideways so it can drop down or climb to the next cog. There's usually an L screw and a H screw, all these do is set the allowed range of motion that cage can move so you dont drop your chain.
The rest is just a question of cable tension, as that is what pulls or lets out the derailleur cage.
For the rear, it's an arm that changes position based on cable tension, both left and right and up and down to accomodate the different sized cogs. There's the L screw and the H screw that do the same as the front and then there's the B Screw that regulates the height of the derailleur arm compared to your cogs. The rest is, again, cable tensioning.
Knowing this, look up a guide for your specific shifter brand and then use a methodical approach to it instead of just fucking with it like I have wasted many hours on in my life. Shift to the smallest gear, adjust the L Screw (and B-Screw if it's the back). Shift to the highest gear and adjust the H screw.
Once this is done, tinker with the cable tensioning until it feels good.
Where can I buy a used bike for a decent price? how do I inspect a used bike, and what to look for? What are the basics of bicycle maintenance?
Is donating used bikes to a community / co-op bike shop praxis? My wife and I bought used bikes a year or so ago that we’ve since upgraded and I kind of want to give them to something worthwhile instead of selling them.
Yes. My local coop gives away tons of bikes. It rules
Excellent glad to hear it. I’ll bring my extra bikes by there this week.
Where can I buy a used bike for a decent price?
Craiglist or whatever your local equivalent to that is, basically. Any bike specific used markets will probably not have what you'd consider a decent price if only for the fact that the bicycles are higher quality than what you want or need as a beginner.
how do I inspect a used bike, and what to look for?
Whether it brakes good, it shifts good, it rolls good, the kind of noise it makes and whether it feels wobbly from side to side.
For the braking, shifting and rolling it's better to err on the safe side. If it does this now and then eventually doesn't do one of them, it's usually routine maintenance.
If it doesn't do one of those things when you buy it, it could be anything from routine maintenance to replacing an entire wheel or drivetrain.
So take it for a test drive, basically, that's the most important part.
The perfect bicycle is pretty much noiseless. This is a pipe dream unless you have a team of Tour de France mechanics on hand, but do try to find the source of the noise. If it comes from a part you can see, like the brakes rubbing or the chain rubbing on the front derailleur etc., eeehhhh good chance it can be fixed somewhat easily. If it comes from any of the bearings, good chance they're just fucked.
EDIT: I just realized there is this entire community of people liking loud as fuck freehubs. So to clarify, if you're going fast and not pedaling and it sounds like a stuka bomber plane, this is no cause for concern mechanically.
Some wobblyness front to back could be blamed on suspension, if it has any. If it doesn't and it feels wobbly, stay away. If it feels wobbly from side to side, big no no unless you know what you're doing. It should never do that. I know this isn't precise terms but it's pretty easy to feel it out once you ride it. If you can, maybe ride a few bikes you know are good of friends or a bike shop to get a frame of reference.
Visual check is a given, make sure nothing is rusty and all.
Make sure to try and loosen the parts you will need to loosen eventually. Most important is probably the wheel skewers and the seatpost clamp. If they don't move, you do not want the bicycle.
Flip the thing on it's handlebars, spin the wheels by hand and check if those are wobbly by concentrating on a fixed point on the frame. Again, as a beginner, if it's not straight stay away. Could be fine, could be really bad. While it's flipped, check the underside. It's where rust is often first to accumulate because all the dirt get's there.
Counterintuitively, don't put to much priority on the saddle. Those are very easily changed. If the assfeel isn't great, but the bike fits you in general (look up some online guides on what constitutes a fitting bike), that's not too much of a problem. Unless of course, the screws are rusted to shit, so check those.
What are the basics of bicycle maintenance?
I've wrote up some basic tips here
The gist is keep things that rub against each other lubricated except of course the brakes, keep your brakepads in order and also know when the time is to do maintenance on your drivetrain.
So like I want a bike but am 300+ lbs just very compact. What kind of bike do you recommend? I live in a town somewhat with a river that I like to use for shortcuts. The roads also shitty. Also want to use it for errands and want baskets.
If those Biden bucks come in wanna get something if possible. Also can y'all recommend a good helmet.
What kind of bike do you recommend?
The usual EU bike, which I have knowledge of, is rated for about 120kg/~265lbs system weight. This is you and the the bike put together but there's margins for error there that means unless you abuse it and you could be fine. For most brands, you should be able to find this info online.
If you want one that'll last long, I'd probably look to proper Hardtail Mountain Bikes our proper Touring Bikes. The first one is build to withstand the above mentioned weight and much more because jumping, which I'm going to assume you do not want to do, the latter one are often higher rated to compensate for cargo.
If the roads are shitty, you probably want the hardtail mountain bike. Less for comfort, more for the fact that that would put stresses on your bike it's actually built to withstand.
Also want to use it for errands and want baskets.
Look for the required drilled holes for a rear rack and enough space in the front that you can fit a front rack that does not connect to the axel for this one. If you can fit a rack, you can put a basket on it. The rear rack gets really hard to do if you have a frame without the required holes for it.
For the rear rack, make sure to not get a something with rear suspension. This will leave you with either jury rigged solutions or very low load capacity otherwise.
The baskets, in the end, are kind of secondary. You need something to put them on, basically.
Also can y’all recommend a good helmet.
I'm lazy so I'll just link my helmet recommendations from another post.
Thank you cycle wizard! Saving this if those Biden bucks come in :party-blob:
If it ever gets more specific write me a PM, I'll help where I can.
One more thing to know I forgot: the weight a bicycle can take is limited basically by two factors, what the frame withstands and what the wheels withstand. This is less of an issue buying new, as most bicycles will not have wheels that don't support the maximum frame weight, but if you're buying used it's worth considering.
The basic gist is more spokes can take more weight. I've seen an, for this use case, unfortunate amount of used bicycles where the frame can take a lot more, but the wheels were upgraded to like lighter 16-Spoke carbons or tri spoke wheels or disc wheels. Just keep that in mind basically, you do not want your wheels to fold when at speed.
Sounds scary, would you recommend me going to a cycle shop or chain store? I think we have one in my town but need to see if still there. I'll be sure to hit you up but in general do you have an idea how much it will run me?
Sounds scary, would you recommend me going to a cycle shop or chain store?
Sorry for making it sound like that, it's just that I'd rather tread carefully for beginners. To go the other route, if it's an aluminium wheel and it has spokes it's going to be fine.
It's not a bad idea to check out a local bike store as a beginner. For chains, take the usual precautions, chances are no one there has half a clue about what they're selling.
Maybe look around for bicycling advocate groups in your area. They're usually really keen to get other people into it for obvious reasons and there's a good chance they can provide better information for your area.
I’ll be sure to hit you up but in general do you have an idea how much it will run me?
It's basically a question of how much you want to spend and where you are, sorry. Even as a heavier person, if you don't go riding straight up curbs or over cobblestone, even a normal bicycle will hold up for a a good while. I mean, I'm handwringing about safety here because I'd hate for someone to get hurt due to my advice, but realistically I see lots of heavier people riding all kinds of bicycles with no ill effects.
To give you some point of reference, a 500€ new hybrid where I live will do basically anything that's asked of it unless you get into jumps or wanting to hit roadbike speeds with ease.
How do I change a flat in less than an hour? I suck at this and my roads are shit poopoo
What helped me on this was understanding that the tyre gets clinched to the rim by the tube (well, unless you're running tubeless) and then understanding that you need a fixed point on the wheel to work out from.
For the latter, I usually go opposite from the valve to work my way to it on both sides and I found it a lot easier when I understood it as removing / fitting the tyre from one point to another rather than all at once, basically.
Also put a bit of air into your tube to help with refitting.
how do I put my bike on a bus's bike rack
the thought of trying to do this irl and holding back the bus driver gives me anxiety
You watch some videos. Most bike securing mechanism are rather simple. It basically boils down to holding one part of the bike in place to hold all of the bike in place.
So the only part you gotta figure out is which one it is for where you live
Just be sure to put the rack back up when you get off. And don't forget your bike when you get off. I've done both. Bus drivers are pretty chill if you're nice. They put up with assholes all day, every day. If you make the effort, they usually do to. And if they don't, they're probably assholes too, so who gives a shit if you accidentally annoyed them
I was kind of wondering just why everything is so expensive now, even for entry level bikes. Don't get me wrong, I actually like the idea of indexed shifting systems like the Shimano ones, but it seems like when you go into a bike shop they are expecting you to drop like $800+ on your first bike. I feel like it hasn't always been this way, is that true? I got the impression that things were way less expensive back when even the fancier bikes were welded aluminum tubes, But maybe I'm wrong, or that is just inflation or something. I was bike shopping probably around six years ago, and none of the shops that I went in (5+ shops) even offered the old-school style steel or aluminum framed road bicycles at all.
I mean on a shorter timescale Corona has basically gotten everyone and their grandma to get on a bicycle for recreational purposes which has driven all the prices up.
If we're talking 6 years ago and if I read this correctly as being from the US, looking from the outside in there is just very little staying power for the bicycle as anything other than for the poors (who don't buy their bike from bike shops) or as a gear-intensive hobby.
The latter one, to me, would explain why hardly any bike shops would sell you an old school alumnium tubed bicycle for a cheaper price. Maybe try one of the direct delivery brands for that one? They still exist, after all, even new.
Buy used, spend a ton of time trolling FB sell groups and criagslist to get a sense of what’s out there. I can’t stress this enough, ride a lot of bikes.
I'm going to go a step further than Kissmydadonthelips here and say it's all fucking arcane magic only bestowed upon few humans so take it to a bike shop.
Seriously, fuck truing wheels.
Yes, small adjustment is key, and when building slowly build tension evenly around the entire wheel. Also watch your dishing, it's easy to true a rim but have the whole thing running off-center relative to the hub.
Are there any worker-owned co-ops who make bikes? Or otherwise a way to support fellow workers with a bicycle purchase?
This is pretty region specific. The big ones aren't, basically.
And also all the region specific ones get pricey as all hell due to the fact that if they're not made in Taiwan, they're handmade artisanal bicycles from where you live.
There is, however, a pretty good bicycle equipment scene that you might want to support with your wallet. Reflectors, Stickers, Bags, Lights, Wheels or other components, maybe check that out.
Pretty sure Endpoint cycles is a coop, but they also make very $$$ fancy bikes. Theres a shop in Minnesota too that's a coop. There are also lots of single makers. All of these options are probably only reasonable if you want a specific $$$ custom one off
First thing is probably to make sure your tyre is inflated properly. Being heavy does lead to what's called a pinch flat a lot more.
You can find how much air your tube should hold imprinted on the sidewall of the tyre. If you're heavy, make sure it's at maximum or the upper end at all times.
If it's possible, wider tyres might alleviate the problem. Try, if it's suitable, to aim for ones with puncture protection. They roll worse than comparable tyres, yes, but they do work.
If you hit bumps or curbs, try to take weight off the wheels a bit.
This is easier for the front wheel as it hits first, just lean back and/or pull up on your handlebars a bit to lift the tyre over the bump. If you have front suspension, you basically need to do a pumping motion or else nothing is going to happen really. For the back, this gets a bit more complicated as it's basically the first step to doing jumps. Try to take curbs slow and shift your weight accordingly, you want the wheel hitting the bump to take the least amount of force possible.
Check the inner side of the tyres and the rim for sharp bits. This is general advice, but the problem of anything putting holes in your tubes is going to be made worse by putting more weight on them.
How do I ride one in Australia without getting run over?
Seriously who the fuck designed our roads there are no sidewalks or bike lanes anywhere.
Also how do I keep a bike in good condition?
How do I ride one in Australia without getting run over?
Well, can't tell you anything specific as I have not been there.
Usual tips that from what I read online hold true in culturally western traffic systems is be visible, take your space, ride like absolutely everyone is actively trying to kill you. I know the latter gets thrown about by car drivers constantly but it holds much, much more true when you don't have the metal cage around yourself. Check what any car you can see is doing, blinkers are obvious but can be deceitful, look for the position of the front wheels to tell you where people are going to go. You have great visibility on a bike compared to a car, use it to your advantage.
Also never, ever be next to a lorry. Brake or accelerate if you can, if you're at a stoplight and one pulls up next to you, move back or fucking sprint it out of there on the green. The side of a lorry is the death zone for cyclists.
Take your space and be visible is basically intermingled with each other. I mean, make sure you can be seen, use lights in non-perfect weather (even if it's just a bit grey out), fit some reflectors to your bike for all directions and maybe your backpack or jacket or helmet, but this whole "invisible cyclist thing unless they're riding around in a full neon yellow bodysuit" is a myth perpetuated by car based societys on why they keep killing cyclists. Nobody ever has trouble seeing a black car, somehow. I hate to be advertising, but Fischer makes what's called a 360°-Degree rear light. In addition to a rear facing light it projects a red circle downwards. This makes cars pass less closely from my experience, I guess the whole red light = no go area is deeply embedded enough in peoples brains that they subconsciously avoid it even in this case.
The more important part basically is to take your space in the lane to stop people from trying to squeeze their SUV past you in the same one and cllpping you with the sideview mirror, so ride more to the middle. Seeing that that's verboten pretty much everywhere as far as I can tell, use a slight offset to the left (in your case).
Riding more in the middle usually means people actually have to use another lane to overtake you as few are psychotic enough to just straight up ram you off the road and no matter where you ride you're gonna lose that one. If they then pass way too closely, you at least have space to your left to evade quickly instead of either eating shit on the curb or just straight up driving into whatever is on the roadside or getting squashed.
Basically, if you're expected to ride with cars, act like one.
Also you'll be seen better. Car drivers are conditioned to think in one lane = one vehicle so they look for them in the middle. This hoids true at intersections, too, they're not going to look for anything in the edge of the lane, if they look at all.
People will probably honk or hurl abuse at you occasionally for it because they're shit and have huffed too much exhaust, but being yelled at means you're being noticed. Don't fall into the trap of trying to be the considerate cyclist by fulfilling some unreachable ideal made up by car drivers, it will not work in any way and you'll put yourself in more danger. I'm not saying be a dick, allthough I'm not going to stop you if you want to go full U-Lock Justice, just don't compromise your safety to be "considerate".
Be very fucking careful coming into any intersection at speed from any position that is not the road, such as a bike path or the sidewalk. Car drivers do NOT expect any object to appear from there quickly so they don't even check for it.
Always keep enough distance to parked cars that some moron opening the door without checking does not hit you with it. It's the equivalent of hitting a wall head on. This holds true for both sides of a parked car, probably more for the passenger side as you should stick to the middle anyways if you're on the road.
For intersections especially, if conditions allow it's always a good idea to use your lane in a way that means you have the maximum amount of angle to check / be seen by the crossing road.
You also have a fairly high position on a bicycle compared to at least normal cars. I often stand up before intersections to check whether a car is coming by looking over things, usually parked cars.
Also how do I keep a bike in good condition?
I've compiled some beginners tips in this post.
Depending your standard, that won't keep a bike in "good" condition necessarily. You'll have to adjust the brakes and the shifter occasionally, too and obviously you'll also eventually need to replace parts. Look up how to adjust your brakes and your shifter and you're probably on a good way to keeping your bike in a good condition. You could always tinker with it more to eek out 2 more Watts or whatever, but that's more of a hobby than an actual necessity at that point.
https://www.bikemap.net/en/l/ Good website for finding user created bike routes all over the world
