Looking after your bike doesn’t have to be tricky and carrying out your own day to day maintenance can be satisfying. Here’s a look at the top 5 tools and workshop provisions that will help you on your journey to self-sufficiency: Track ...
Bicycle maintenance
The barrel adjuster: What it is and why it’s a cyclist’s best friend
The almighty barrel adjuster, so simple, yet so useful for small adjustments! Next time you are out on a bike ride, squeeze your brake level. When you've pulled the lever about 1/4 of the way, the brakes should be engaged. At a half way, ...
Bike amnesty: advice for bikes that have been dormant all winter
As the sun has started to pop out more often, I’ve seen more and more bikes on the roads which appear to have emerged from sheds and been thrust into the cold light of day without a thought for their feelings. Dirty, un-lubed and sometimes making ...
How to give your bike a winter clean
Over winter, crud and grime can build up on your bike and components. It’s easy to wipe the frame, whip a rag over the chain, and call it clean - but though the bike might look more presentable, doing so this won’t protect the components or make your ...
Things I wish I’d known when I got my first bike
I got my first road bike aged 21 – I forget if it came with an instruction manual – but if it did I certainly didn't read it. In fact, I raced it in a triathlon a few weeks after and took it to the Pyrenees not many months into our life together. ...
Here’s What Happens When You Buy a Cheap Bike
A few days ago, the designer of the London Cyclist app tapped in to my vast cycling knowledge and asked me whether he should buy this £137.90 bike: I shrugged and muttered "Looks alright". My intuition told me he was probably looking for ...
How to Stop Getting Punctures
Is it possible to stop getting punctures? I would argue that it is. After a spate of 3 punctures in two week, I decided enough was enough. If they can design Cycle Hire Bikes to hardly ever get punctures, then why can't I do the same with my ...
Bike Doctor brings bike maintenance to your iPad
Squeaky brakes, slow changing gears and punctures - we've all experienced problems with our bikes at some stage. When these things happen we have a few options. We could take it to the local bike shop, we can try to ignore the problem and hope it ...
Fitting a Bike Chain Guard to Your Bike
It’s still fairly uncommon in London to find a bike with chain guards fitted. Yet, they are useful for protecting your clothes and your bike. Hence why they are a common feature on Boris Bikes and pretty much all Dutch style bikes. You can retro ...
Best bicycle maintenance books
On London Cyclist we offer our online bike maintenance course and the Bike Doctor app, but if you are looking for bike maintenance books, then I can certainly recommend a few of them! Note that I’ve not found a good book with repair instructions for ...
A step by step system for maintaining your bike
The essentials to bike maintenance – Allen keys and a bottle of wine! Slow changing gears, brakes that don’t bring a bike to a quick stop and strange creaks coming from near your pedals. Everyone recognises the symptoms of a bike in need of ...
The Bicycle M Check
The M Check answers two important questions: Is my bike safe to ride, or will a wheel come flying off, just as I start to pedal? Are there any areas of my bike that I should be looking at? It’s one of the most useful tools for anyone who wants to ...
Learn to effortlessly maintain your bike in a weekend
Some of the feedback I’ve been receiving from the first 50 people who tested the Bike Maintenance in a Weekend course has been amazing: “What I especially liked was the mechanic was very soft spoken, easy to understand, and did not talk down, as you ...
Have you ever had any of these thoughts while riding your bike?
I'd be riding my bike and these thoughts would be running through my head: "I really need to adjust my brakes, I'm pulling them far back and its taking too long for my bike to come to a stop" "I'd love to replace my front tyre, I wonder whether it ...
How to cut your bike shop visits in half
Want to know the single most important thing you can do to cut your visits to the bike shop in half? Clean and oil your chain once every two to three weeks. It's that simple and it will probably take you 5 minutes. Will most people do anything about ...
What is stopping people from maintaining their bikes themselves?
Doing your own routine bike maintenance has many benefits. You can instantly fix your bike, without relying on the timetable of the local bike shop. You can save significant amounts of money on bike shop repairs. It can also be reassuring to know ...
5 cheap and easy bike upgrades anyone can do
If you’d like to breathe some fresh life in to a well loved commuter bike, then here are 5 cheap and easy upgrades you can make. Bar tape If you’ve got road bike style, drop bars, then you’ve probably got some bar tape on there. This gets scruffy ...
Why do Boris Bikes hardly ever get punctures?
Have you ever wondered why cycle hire scheme bikes from around the world hardly ever get punctures? If you look closely at the tyres, you’ll find the answer. They tend to use Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. These tyres have a “five millimeter thick ...
Best bike maintenance stand
Maintaining your bike becomes a whole lot more fun after you’ve purchased a bike maintenance stand. Otherwise, bikes have an annoying habit of constantly tipping over to one side, just as you are about to make an adjustment. Fortunately, the price ...
Why I’m switching to mtb style flat pedals
I’ve recently found that my shoes were slipping in damp conditions and that I was not transferring quite as much power in my pedal stroke as I would have liked. Therefore, I’ve switched to wide, mountain bike style flat pedals. For cyclists that ...