bikes

While professional racers and really serious cyclists will pay a professional bike fitter or physiotherapist hundreds to tune their bike to fit them perfectly for speed and efficiency, everyday commuters and recreational riders can benefit a lot from small (and cheap) changes to how their bike fits them.

First of all, the below is based on the fact that your bike is the right size for you.

Even though bike manufacturers make bikes in a wide range of sizes, the bike you have, or want to buy might not suit your body proportions (such as legs vs arm length). Additionally, your flexibility may change as you get older so a bike that once fit well and was comfortable may not fit so well anymore.

Saddle height

The easiest and most obvious change to how a bike fits is the saddle height. Tall people have their saddles higher than short people, or more specifically people with long legs have their saddles higher than those with short legs!

 

Having your saddle at the right height will make your bike more comfortable and more efficient. The general rule is that you want a slight bend (~10 degrees) in your knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke. A too high saddle will cause your hips to rock side to side over the saddle, and a too low saddle will mean your knees bend more than needed which can cause you to get sore.

Stem length

At the other end of the bike is the handlebars and stem. Changing how they are setup can also have an effect on how comfortable your bike is. You can change the length of the stem (this is the part of the bike that connects the fork to the handlebars) and change the width and shape of the handlebars.

If you have long arms and feel a bit ‘cramped’ on the bike a longer stem may help stretch you out and make the bike more comfortable. Likewise if you have short arms or the bike feels too long and stretched out a shorter stem will shorten the reach on the bike and make it fit better.

If you’re feeling like you are bending too far down to the handlebars then raising the handlebars can really improve the comfort of your bike.

The stem can be ‘flipped’ to either be a positive ‘rise’ to get the bars higher or negative ‘drop’ to get the bars lower, and the good news is that this can be done just by using the parts already on the bike. Likewise, you may be able to swap some headset spacers that are above the stem to below the stem to raise the bars higher without buying any new parts.

If the bars are still too low after rearranging spacers and flipping the stem then a new stem with a higher rise can make the bike feel better. New stems range in price from $45 and upwards, so not an expensive purchase to make your bike more comfortable!

Handlebars

Finally, handlebar width and shape can affect how your bike fits you. Road bike drop handlebars (like they use on the Tour de France) come in widths from 36cm to 46cm to suit different width shoulders.

Flat handlebars like on mountain bikes and many commuter bikes come in an even bigger range of widths, rises and shapes. While the width of flat bars is less dependent on shoulder width (you want wide bars on mountain bikes to give you good control on off road trails) changing the sweep or width of your bars can make the bike more comfortable and often alleviate wrist and shoulder pain.

Want to know more?

Drop into one of our stores if you have any questions about bike fit or would like some advice on making your bike more comfortable.

Well here we’ll explain what we are measuring with that gauge and why your drivetrain needs replacing. The drivetrain is what most mechanics call the chain, cassette (the rear cogs) and chainrings (the front cogs).

The chain checker tool

The tool we drop into the chain is a chain checker, and it measures how worn a chain is. The tool itself is trying to push the links of the chain apart to check how worn the rollers are. Chain wear is usually expressed in a percentage, i.e 0.75% worn. 

When a chain is 0.75% worn a new chain should mesh and shift well with the old cassette and chainrings on the bike, the chain wear is used to approximate wear on the cassette also (it can be hard to actually see or measure wear on cassettes until they are really worn out).

So why do you need to replace the chain and possibly cassette and chainrings?

As the rollers of your chain wear, they start wearing into the hollows between the teeth on the cassette and chainring, they also start wearing the teeth on them.

If a chain cassette is really worn – typically well past 1% on the gauge – the fit between the rollers on the chain and the hollows on the cassette is poor and there is a lot of slop between them. When you put some power down, say taking off at the lights or riding up a hill, the chain can jump off the cassette. This is horrible to ride and can be dangerous – think about it happening in the middle of an intersection or pushing hard up a hill out of the saddle!

The smaller cogs on a cassette wear out sooner than the larger cogs simply because there are more teeth to spread the wear across, 11 or 12 teeth vs 20+ teeth. The same goes for chainrings with 40+ teeth.

Over time the chain and cassette become a matched pair, like old friends that get each other’s jokes. If you change one and not the other the drivetrain can perform much worse than if they had been left as a pair! Hence why we mostly recommend changing the chain and cassette together, both being new means they will work well together.

You can just change the chain if the chain is not too worn ~0.5%, this is a good approach on higher end bikes where the cassettes can cost $150+.

While most manufacturers quote 4,000kms as an estimated life of a chain this varies based on how well the chain is cared for (wiped clean and lubed) and how the riders pedals – soft spinning or more powerful efforts. 

If you’re having issues with your chain skipping or want us to check your chain for wear, drop into one of three shops: Melbourne CBD, Docklands and Geelong and we’ll check it out.

Many of the young people we employ ride a range of eBikes and eCargo bikes to assist with their jobs, so we are no strangers to eBikes. While simple to use we want to share our top tips to using an e-Bike, (some of which can also be good practice on a regular bike.)

1. Change down gears when slowing down

As you come to a stop, try and get into the habit of changing down into an easier gear. This helps in many ways, firstly it will make it easier to accelerate off again, as the motor will be able to give you the most assistance straight away. Secondly it will protect the moving parts. Once up to speed then change up to the gear which will allow you to cruise best at the 25km/hr limit.

2. Back off a little when changing gears

eBike systems put a lot of strain on bicycle chains and gears, in many ways they have not yet evolved to handle the amount of energy the motor puts through them. With eBikes, when you need to change to an easier gear, just pushing the shifter, without decreasing the amount of energy you are pushing through the pedals, causes the chain to crunch across the gears. So even though you need to keep pedalling to change gears, do it gently. Pedal gently, so that they are still turning gently, but not applying power. This gives time for the chain to move to the new gear before you start pedalling normally again.

3. Slow down earlier

Because eBikes give you more speed and power, braking becomes all the more important. Even at the lightest assisted gear, an eBike can add around 50 watts to your pedal stroke. This means you’ll want to slow down well ahead of stop signs and road crossings, and far earlier than you would on a slower-moving bike. It’s important to get to know your brakes and their relative power, so you can assess the safest time to start slowing down.

4. Don’t forget to recharge

While you can ride an eBike without a battery they have a reinforced frame to accommodate the battery and motor, so they are much heavier than a regular bike. To keep you moving efficiently, remember to charge your battery regularly so you don’t get caught out. If you can’t park your bike near an electrical outlet, look for the instructions to remove the battery so you can charge it separately from the bike.

Following these tips will make your travels on an eBike easier, safer and help protect the gears so they don’t wear out too quickly and start slipping.

Are your eBike gears seeming a little off? Bring it in for a service at one of our three service centres. We can service the mechanical parts of all eBikes and can work on the electrics of Shimano and Bosch eBike systems.