Your Handy Guide to Riding a Bike Like a Kid Again
And so You're Thinking Nearly Riding a Bike
These days, with limits on public transportation and daily protests, cyclists dominate cities around the country. Hither's how to become i.
Information technology'south the summertime of Covid, and bikes are everywhere — in parks, at protests, speeding across bridges and locked upward outside. Every day, more people seem to exist having the same thought: I should be riding a bike.
I tin't blame them. Maintaining forward movement on 2 wheels so as not to fall over is one of life's great joys. Information technology'due south a style to stay healthy and to rediscover your community. Maybe it's cornball, or aspirational. It's a good mode to get around when some of the alternatives don't feel so great.
In 2020, yet, riding a bicycle isn't quite, every bit they say, like riding a bike. It'south not like when you were a kid; it'south barely similar information technology was iv months ago. In that location's an international cycle shortage. Shops are operating nether strange and challenging retail circumstances, and some recreational areas are closed.
It'southward enough to smother a fresh spark of interest, simply it doesn't take to exist. It is a great time to ride a bike, and far from impossible to get rolling. Whether you're new to cycling or merely returning to the saddle, here are some questions you may take, many of which I sourced from would-be bikers similar yous, with answers.
I know how to ride a bike, but I don't have ane. Where do I become one?
The current cycle shortage is real. Many big bike companies rely on overseas manufacturing, mainly in Prc. Coronavirus-related factory closures led to a supply crisis. Covid-19 arrived in the U.South. around the time shops would accept been planning to stock up for jump. On top of that, need for bikes during lockdown — generally for recreation, just besides for commuting — has been enormous.
Well that'south sort of letting the air out of my proverbial tires.
Yeah. It's not ideal. Estimates for when the biggest companies will replenish stock range from July to August or beyond. In some areas, and for some brands, available bikes accept been narrowed downward to fairly specialized and expensive machines. "The manufacturers are being very vague," said Annie Byrne, who owns BFF Bikes in Chicago. She's telling customers looking for bones bikes that the await could stretch until August.
The shortage, even so, is non uniform, and depending on a number of factors — not only the sort of riding you want to do, or your location, but your meridian, for example — you might still be able to find what you need off the rack. 2021 bicycle models, which nether normal circumstances would start arriving in shops by June, have too been delayed by a month or more, simply will eventually alleviate the crunch.
Then, look, what should I do hither? Where do I start?
Outset by reaching out to a local bike shop; depending on what you want, they might still have something for you.
By and large speaking, while the upfront price may be higher than buying a bike from an online retailer, it normally comes with some express free maintenance. Unless you're extremely handy and planning to invest in lots of tools, yous're going to end upwardly at a shop someday anyway.
Typically, a cycle shop will carry a limited set of brands; most major bicycle brands — call back Trek or Giant — have something for almost anybody. Shops are a valuable resource for cyclists nether any circumstances, and that includes during a wheel shortage. Ms. Byrne, for example, has been able to refer customers to used bicycle retailers in the area.
So I shouldn't buy online?
The first affair to know most buying a bike online is that some assembly will be required. In most cases this will involve post-obit Ikea-level instructions, though it's not the worst idea to have a new bike assembled or inspected past a shop anyway, especially if you don't experience confident spotting potential prophylactic issues.
Brands like Priority Bicycles effort to make the assembly process as easy equally possible. Some older brands that now sell online, including Raleigh, volition ship mostly assembled bikes either directly to you or to a participating local shop. (Some of these companies are experiencing shortages too.)
You tin purchase a bicycle from a major online retailer like Jenson USA or Concatenation Reaction Cycles, or from the disbelieve retailer BikesDirect, which, despite its extremely old-fashioned website, is a real high-volume retailer with many budget bikes nevertheless in stock. Y'all can buy a bike from Amazon or another online general store, but what y'all get — and in what country of assembly it arrives at your door — will depend on the brand and the seller.
Don't sleep on REI, which carries a fairly wide range of bikes online and has service departments in its stores.
What about other large box stores?
A big majority of bikes sold in the U.S. are sold by stores like Walmart, where the well-nigh expensive model in stock might be cheaper than the least expensive 1 at your local bike store.
Big box bikes get a bad rap, and not without reason. They're often poorly assembled and sold with petty support, and an inevitable tuneup tin can cost a good portion of the bike'south original price. They nominally come in lots of varieties — mount, road, cruiser — but it'south best to think of them all every bit casual commuter or leisure bikes.
That said, a big box cycle will get y'all through a short piece of work commute. It'll become you to the beach, or effectually a lake path. Your kids will have a blast hopping them off curbs. Y'all volition nonetheless feel the wind on your confront. If you lot actually take to cycling, you lot'll want something better pretty chop-chop, and like many cheap, borderline disposable products, their eventual toll of buying, or replacement, can be high. Just the cycling community can also be dismissive and a lilliputian chip classist on this issue. Non everyone tin spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to see if they similar cycling.
If you need to take the big box path, there are a few good online resources to know about: BigBoxBikes.com, a large and agile forum, and KevCentral, a YouTube channel that is the closest thing this sector has to a merchandise publication.
What about used bikes?
Buying a used bike is sort of similar ownership a bike online, except you're fifty-fifty more than on your own. Given the shortages, though, it is absolutely worth browsing Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and even eBay to see what you tin can notice.
Bated from the regular caveats nearly buying anything online from a stranger, you'll have to narrow things down by type, size, status and price. I would recommend contacting a bike commuter or recreational cyclist in your life and asking for a second set up of eyes. Plenty of us would enjoy ownership another cycle, even vicariously.
To any enthusiasts reading: Offer this sort of help to everyone you know, and be patient. Between the various online marketplaces, there are currently bikes available for almost everyone who wants one. Assist make the connection! Be proactive! (Be generous with your tools and time, likewise.) This is, for the next couple months, the actual solution to the wheel crisis, but it will require some piece of work from people who already have bikes.
OK. So what kind do I need?
The good news is that nearly any bike that fits you and rolls volition exercise. This is the most of import thing to proceed in mind, in the context of shortages: A cycle is a bike. Always seen a bicycle-share wheel, such as a Citi Bike in New York or a Divvy cycle in Chicago? They're heavy, clumsy and come in ane size. Simply they piece of work well enough for most riders with no more than a seat adjustment.
In cities around the world where cycling is most mutual, the about popular bikes are often sometime-fashioned, simple and have very little relationship to cycling as a cutting-border gear sport. This is adept to go along in mind before you lot feel also constrained in your options, browsing through various product lines or the Craigslist bike section. A bike is a wheel — until you desire something more than from it.
If your goal is to get to piece of work, or get some exercise in a reasonably strenuous but not regimented way, a simple "fitness" wheel or "hybrid" bike is a good place to showtime. Bikes like this are often repurposed as rental bikes for sightseeing. They're affordable, they're easy to step over in regular clothes, they accept cheap simply serviceable parts, and they feel familiar and welcoming to coincidental riders. They steer somewhat slowly and predictably. They won't run out of easier gears every bit you're pedaling over a bridge. They'll come up with seats designed to be comfy for most people over the short periods of time they'll be in employ.
You'll also find bikes marketed equally "metropolis" or "commuter" bikes. These volition commonly be neat beginner options as well. "Comfort" or "cruiser" bikes are also mutual in lower cost ranges, and they're wonderful for genuinely leisurely riding, but won't support more than ambitious exercising or commuting, and in some cases lack gears.
Your most important requirements for a commuter or go-some-air type bike don't have much to do with performance, merely rather more practical questions. Do y'all want to acquit stuff on your bicycle? Inquire if it has mounts for racks. Do you need to carry it on a railroad train, or store it in a small-scale apartment? Mayhap consider a folding bicycle.
Unless your needs are highly specific — racing, serious mountain biking, towing a trailer — your options are probably much wider than the cycling manufacture would take you think. Eben Weiss at Insider put together a groovy "best bikes" list by category, which doubles every bit an explainer about what each type is for. If your summer of riding literally whatsoever available bike goes well, mayhap y'all'll catch the bug and we'll line upwardly next to each other at a race next year, or run into each other in the woods. For now, hopefully, I'll run across you in the bike lane.
What size do I need?
Cycle sizing ofttimes comes down to the specific brand and category of cycle, and for simplicity'south sake many manufacturers have switched away from numerical sizes for a small/medium/big schema that corresponds to a rider'south overall height. For coincidental riding in particular, getting a close-enough bicycle size is usually fine — you volition exist able to adjust your seat and perhaps handlebars for a finer fit.
If yous do encounter numbers, notwithstanding, hither's what they mean. A centimeter or inch measurement refers to the length of the fundamental, vertical-ish role of the bike frame — the seat tube. On road-fashion bikes this is often described in centimeters. On mountain-style bikes, it'due south ofttimes inches. A 54-centimeter frame might exist about right for someone 5-human foot-10; a 16-inch cycle might be suited to someone effectually five-foot-six.
Unless you're dealing with a vintage bike, you should be able to find the recommended summit range for a given size from the bike'south manufacturer. This is the nearly vital info y'all can become from a used bike seller, too. Bicycling put together a skilful guide for sizes by bike type. Equally for setting the height of your seat, here are a few practiced methods to get y'all shut. The "heel-to-pedal" method has served me well for decades.
What about gender-specific bikes?
Don't worry too much near this — that a bike fits is many times more important than any gender-specific features or adjustments. If y'all'd similar to read more, here is a thorough link from Femmecyclist. For our purposes, over again: A wheel is a bike!
How much do I need to spend?
New bikes from major brands that will be easy to take intendance of and concluding a long fourth dimension start at around $300 dollars, although many toll more than. Getting started with a purpose-built road bike or mountain bike will push you lot past $500; enthusiasts in either discipline will tell you not to bother spending less than twice that. Ignore them unless you want to be them. Call back, a bicycle is a bike.
There is no rule of thumb for used bikes, just with the help of a savvy friend you should be able to discover something safe, durable prepare to roll for under $200, fifty-fifty accounting for crisis-fourth dimension price gouging.
Is in that location a sort of bike that will make me look similar a wiggle? How do I wait sensible, but also cool, just also like I don't care too much?
Purchase whatever suits your needs and y'all recall looks cool and ride it with confidence. Don't spend a huge unnecessary amount of money, I guess, if that's something you might do? But aspirational purchases are fine, also! We're trying to improve mobility here!
OK, sorry. What exercise I demand to take care of the reasonable cycle that I'chiliad ownership for sensible reasons?
If you're interested, bicycle maintenance is a fulfilling hobby of its ain. For most riders, of class, information technology's a chore. A very short list of things you lot'll need includes:
-
A pump that works with both types of air valves (Presta is the thin one and Schrader is the one-time-fashioned ane identical to those on a car tire)
-
A folding multi-tool with a range of hex keys
-
Some inner tubes in the size marked on your tires
-
A canteen of all-purpose bike lubricant
-
A bottle of bike chain lubricant
-
A sacrificial rag or two
Right, only what will I really need to do?
Truthfully not much, until something goes wrong. New bikes will usually require adjustments to their gears after a couple months of riding — something shops will often throw in for free. Later tuneups might be reduced to twice-yearly or less. For casual riding, tough tires can last years. Chains and restriction pads too. A yearly checkup is oftentimes more than enough, only information technology's squeamish to have a friendly relationship with a shop in case anything comes up.
You'll want to lubricate your chain every once in a while, wiping off excess lubricant and crud. Tires may seep air, then y'all'll want to make sure they're business firm. Fifty-fifty cheap pumps will come with a judge, and your tires will be marked with recommended pressures.
If y'all're bringing an old or used cycle to a store, be mindful that a handful of repairs — a set of tires, a new chain, a new wheel — can add up quickly, and require a lot of labor. "Nosotros always requite people a couple options," said Ms. Byrne, of BFF Bikes. It helps to exist clear with the mechanic. If you just desire your rickety one-time bike safety enough to ride through the summer, say then.
What if I get a apartment?
Just pop off your wheel, then lever your tire from the bicycle, figure out what caused the flat, remove any debris from the tire, put a new tube inside the wheel, popular the tire back on and inflate it. It's as easy as that, which is to say … not very piece of cake at all! Unless you've practiced.
For years, the all-time way to learn how to fix bike, aside from working in a shop or hours of trial and fault, was reading — classics like Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, or the Large Blue Book of Bike Repair. Now, the all-time identify to larn how to perform basic maintenance tasks is YouTube. Park Tool, whose mechanics wrote the Large Blue Book, has a comprehensive and accessible YouTube channel for most common maintenance issues, which always teach you enough and ordinarily teach you a fleck also much. Here's the one on irresolute tires.
Where do I keep my bike?
Bike storage is a mutual post-purchase complaint. Bikes are huge — they don't fit equally closely confronting a wall equally y'all might imagine and they're longer than yous think. If you're in an apartment, your bicycle will be decorative. Plan this out before you commit to buying anything. The Wirecutter has a skillful roundup of bicycle storage solutions, of which there are plenty, merely as y'all're because your options, know that there are affordable ways to hang your bike in lots of different ways: from the ceiling; flat against a wall; hanging out from the wall; propped confronting the wall, stacked two loftier. Don't forget your stairs. Most bikes are pretty heavy. While lightweight road bikes come in under xx pounds, virtually casual bikes will weigh 30 or more than. Many e-bikes exceed twoscore or even 50 pounds. A twice daily three-flight journey with any cycle gets one-time fast (trust me).
Can I proceed it outside? I live in an apartment.
The take chances of theft depends on where you lot live and what kind of bike you lot're leaving exterior, as well as what kind of lock y'all buy. (There is no such thing as a theft-proof lock, but some are certainly improve than others.) Enough of people leave affordable bikes out in New York Urban center, for case, because the gamble is worth the convenience and toll. More than theft, usually, the issue with storing a wheel exterior is that information technology will age it fast. Parts will corrode, lubricant will launder off, bearings and cables will degrade faster than usual. Your maintenance schedule will be doubled at least. Depending on your living situation, though, this could exist as much a instance for a very cheap used bike as it is for keeping your cycle inside.
OK, well, whatsoever I ride, I need a helmet, correct?
Short answer: Y'all should probably buy a helmet. Specifically a new helmet that fits snugly. If you alive somewhere hot, brand certain it has proficient ventilation. All new helmets pass basic safety testing then don't spend more y'all want to. Later a crash, or even dropping your helmet from a height, get a new ane. Retrieve of them every bit single-use.
Long answer: It's actually sort of complicated! I clothing a helmet on every ride. They are an boosted barrier between the asphalt and your brain. In that location are skillful arguments, even so, confronting making wearing a helmet at the eye of bike safety discussions, as helmet and visibility laws shift responsibility from drivers to the people they're injuring and killing. (Universal helmet usage, the thinking goes, is no substitute for safe cycling infrastructure.) This piece from Bicycling gets into the arguments, and the data.
And then … where should I ride?
Google Maps now includes an option for cycling directions, which is decent, or at least much better than it used to be. BikeMap, a gratis app for iOS and Android, besides as a website, is a good resources both for planning local bike routes and locating bike paths, greenways and lanes where you alive. One time again, a good local wheel store will have recommendations for dissimilar types of riding.
OK, merely what if there's not a nice path or empty roads. It's not really clear to me where bikes go, like, in the bureaucracy of homo pathways. Can I ride on the sidewalk? The route? All roads?
You're correct, it's oft non clear, and the answer, in many places in America, is "nowhere, really." Even in places with relatively comprehensive networks of bike paths and lanes, to utilize a bike for transportation will crave learning how to ride as safely equally possible in traffic. This means knowing the rules of the route and signaling and so forth, but more that it means maintaining a vigilance and sensation about what the cars around you lot tend to do. CityLab put together an splendid guide a few years ago. This will require a bit of additional equipment, too — a bong and blinking visibility lights for the front and dorsum of your bike.
Getting on a cycle in your hometown helps you encounter it differently. Maybe information technology will feel bigger, or suddenly smaller. Maybe you'll find hills you never had to think nearly before. You'll almost certainly notice the ways in which your community could improve cycling infrastructure, and, even if this is not typical for you lot, yous might become rather zealous near information technology.
If you ride widely in your community, you volition as well find how cycling infrastructure is unevenly distributed, and rarely reaches into neighborhoods without the political or social influence to demand it. Equally tempting as information technology is for some cycling advocates to highlight how liberating or equalizing cycling is, or to tweet well-nigh how #outsideisfree, cycling is dependent on the physical, social and racial realities of the communities in which you try to do information technology. So getting on a bike might make y'all more enlightened of this, too, if y'all aren't already. You might also find that biking can exist a useful style of transportation to and from, say, a protest.
Should I exist wearing a mask?
You might as well bring ane, if mask wearing is recommended where you live. The evidence about Covid-19 transmission during cycling in detail is unclear, and mayhap your commute or recreational rides volition be naturally distanced or alone, simply the reality of bike commuting in whatever densely populated area is that you might discover yourself suddenly stopped at a calorie-free with five other people, or in a tightly spaced line downwind from someone with a nasty coughing, or vice versa. It is non particularly comfortable to wear a mask while cycling, I'll acknowledge. I've had the all-time luck with pleated material masks.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/style/bike-buying-commute-exercise-questions.html/