Stop trouble before it starts. Look your bike over to be sure everything is in working order before you head out.
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by Tamia Nelson | April 4, 2015

A bike—especially one that’s hauling gear or pulling a trailer along a rough unpaved road—is a complex machine operating under extreme load in a hostile environment. If just one critical part fails, it means trouble. Luckily, most mechanical problems are easy to fix or cobble together, even in remote areas, and as long as you have the tools to cope. But who wants to begin (or end) a trip with an unscheduled stop for repairs? I’d rather fix what’s broke at home, instead of alongside a mosquito-infested dirt track on the other side of Aintry (remember Deliverance?). That’s why I do a pre-ride check before heading out for rough rides or long treks. The idea’s to stop trouble before it starts. So look your bike over to be sure everything is in working order before you head out. Here’s my list:

Tires  Look for cuts, bulges, … Continue reading »

Even the best mechanic needs her tools when roadside repairs are called for.
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by Tamia Nelson | March 28, 2015

You’re 50 miles from home on your bike, enjoying a day-long ride through the countryside. You’re on your own. And then trouble strikes. It could be a persistent knock with each revolution of the cranks. Or a front derailleur cable that gives up the ghost. Or maybe you hit a deep pothole and sheared a spoke on the drive side of your rear wheel. What do you do? Pull out your cell phone and call someone to come and pick you up? Is there cellphone coverage where you’re likely to meet with trouble? A five-mile ride down the road brings me to a dead zone with no cell coverage, and it stays that way for another 25 miles. There are no other services to be found, either. There aren’t even many houses. Yet it’s a great place to ride, with paved roads and wide shoulders, challenging grades, little traffic, and beautiful scenery—rich woods, verdant wetlands, and rolling … Continue reading »

Fixing flats isn’t entirely straightforward. Neither is changing tires. So I made a checklist to help me avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls.
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by Tamia Nelson | September 30, 2014

I don’t get many flats, so about the only time I have to change tubes is when I swap my utility bike’s Conti Town & Country rubber for my Innova Tundra Wolf studded tires. And because I get so little practice, I neglect two fundamental steps in the process almost every time I do the job: (1) I forget to deflate the front tire before starting work, and (2) I fail to release the cable on the linear brake. The result? I can’t get the wheel off. It doesn’t take me long to put things right, of course, but I reached a point where I didn’t want to continue repeating these two blunders. So I made a checklist to guide me in future. Here it is:

Size Matters  All inner tube are not created equal, and I recently discoverd that, although I’d been carrying a correctly … Continue reading »

Are you planning on mounting a one-legged kickstand on your bike? Then read this first.
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by Tamia Nelson | August 19, 2014

I like my bikes to have kickstands, and when it comes to choosing a bike support, my preference is for basic Greenfield one-legged stands. I tried the Pletscher two-legged stand for a year, but just could not love it. So I swapped it out for a basic model:

Most cyclists will be familiar with this simple accessory. The clamp consists of a knobby bottom plate and a level, smooth top plate, and a bolt which squeezes the two plates together over the chainstays.

It isn’t elegant, but this clamp grips the LHT’s stays securely (better than the Pletscher’s beveled clamp).

To mount the stand on the bike, I wrapped old inner tube around the stays and secured them with strips of electrical tape, then aligned the folded leg with the stay so that it wouldn’t rub against the wheel or be struck by the pedal.

The Greenfield’s leg was too long to allow my … Continue reading »