Advice
How to actually do it
Procedures rather than opinions. Each page covers one thing end to end, says which step matters most, and links to the equipment it assumes rather than the equipment we would like to sell you.
Cleaning
Drivetrain, frame and rotors, and the twenty minutes a month that decide whether a chain lasts 3 000 km or 1 000.
- Cleaning a drivetrain Adding fresh lubricant to a gritty chain makes grinding paste. The cleaning has to come first, every time.
- Washing a bike without a hose Not having a hose is close to an advantage: the commonest cleaning mistake is too much water at too much pressure.
- Winter cleaning and road salt Cold does not damage a bike. Salt does, and it works while the bike is standing still in a shed.
- Cleaning disc brakes safely Contaminated brake pads are the most common self-inflicted fault on a modern bike, and they are almost always caused during cleaning.
- A bike stored outside A bike outdoors is not doomed. It just needs three specific things doing that a bike in a hall never needs.
- A two-minute post-ride routine A cleaning routine fails because it is too ambitious. This one is short enough to do in cycling shoes, and it is most of the benefit.
Buying
How to spend a budget so the money lands on the parts that wear and the ones that keep you visible, rather than on branding.
- How to spend €100 The money that changes a bike most is rarely spent on the thing that looks like an upgrade.
- How to read a product listing Almost every wrong bike purchase was the right product in the wrong size, bought against a number that does not decide anything.
- When cheap is the right answer Some bike products are solved problems at five euros. Others fail in ways that only show up after a winter.
- Buying for a commute A commute is decided by friction: the things that make cycling to work slightly annoying are what stop it happening.
- Choosing between two similar products When two products look the same, the difference is usually in what one of them declines to tell you.
- What to buy, and what to skip The difference between a useful accessory and a drawer ornament is almost never quality. It is whether the thing removes a friction you actually meet.
- Buying parts that actually fit Most returns in this category are fitment errors, and almost all of them are prevented by five numbers you can read off your own bike in ten minutes.
- When to buy the expensive one Price and quality are correlated and they are not the same thing. In some categories the expensive option publishes figures the cheap one does not; in others it publishes the same figures.
- Kitting out a bike for winter Winter riding stops for practical reasons — wet, dark, cold hands, punctures — and the equipment that solves each is cheap and specific.
- Buying bike kit for someone else Almost every returned cycling gift is a fitment problem, and the parts that need no measurement are a surprisingly long list.
Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.