Cycling
What a Gear Ratio Actually Means for Your Knees
A gear is not a difficulty setting. It is a trade between how fast your legs turn and how hard each turn has to push.
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Cycling
Wide Tyres Got Faster and the Old Advice Never Caught Up
For decades the received wisdom was that narrow means quick. Measurement on real road surfaces has been steadily pushing the other…
Cycling
Mudguards Are the Cheapest Upgrade a Wet Ride Can Have
Rain does not make you as wet as the road does. Most of the water arriving on a rider in bad weather has been thrown up by their…
Cycling
Hub Gears and Derailleurs Solve Different Problems
One is efficient, cheap and exposed. The other is sealed, heavy and shifts while you are standing still. Which is right depends on…
Cycling
Why Your Hands Go Numb and What to Change First
Numb fingers on a bike are almost always a load and angle problem rather than a padding problem. Gloves are the last thing to…
Cycling
Ten Minutes That Tell You Whether a Second-Hand Bike Is Worth Buying
Most used bikes look tired for reasons that cost very little to fix. A short structured check separates a bargain from a project.
Cycling
Clipless Pedals Are Optional and Nobody Will Check
Being attached to the pedals helps in specific situations, most of them competitive. For riding to work, the case is much weaker…
Cycling
What a Bike Fit Fixes and What It Cannot
A fit repositions you on the machine. It does not resolve an unsuitable frame, a medical problem, or the fact that you have not…
Scooters & E-Mobility
What Actually Determines How Far an Electric Bike Will Go
Range figures are produced under conditions nobody rides in. The variables that decide your real distance are mostly about you and…
Cycling
All cycling →Cycling
What a Gear Ratio Actually Means for Your Knees
A gear is not a difficulty setting. It is a trade between how fast your legs turn and how hard each turn has to push.
Cycling
Tyre Pressure Is a Trade-Off, Not a Race to the Top
Harder is not faster past a certain point. Pressure balances rolling resistance against the energy your body absorbs from a rough…
Cycling
Frame Size Decides Less Than You Have Been Told
Size gets treated as the master variable in buying a bike. It sets a couple of dimensions and leaves most of the fit to the parts…
Cycling
Saddle Height Changes More Than Comfort
A saddle two centimetres out feels like nothing for the first ten minutes. It shows up later as a sore knee, a rocking hip or legs…
Scooters & E-Mobility
All scooters & e-mobility →Scooters & E-Mobility
What Actually Determines How Far an Electric Bike Will Go
Range figures are produced under conditions nobody rides in. The variables that decide your real distance are mostly about you and…
Scooters & E-Mobility
Cold Weather Shrinks a Battery Before It Damages One
A pack that loses half its usable range on a frosty morning has not failed. Understanding why matters, because how you charge it in…
Scooters & E-Mobility
Hub Motors and Mid-Drives Do Genuinely Different Jobs
The two common e-bike motor positions are not two versions of the same thing. They differ in how they use the bike's gears, and…
Scooters & E-Mobility
Torque Sensors and Cadence Sensors Feel Nothing Alike
Two e-bikes with identical motors can behave completely differently, because the thing deciding when to help is not the motor at…
The Commute
All the commute →
The Commute
A Rack Beats a Backpack the Moment You Start Sweating
A bag on your back sits on the one part of you that most needs airflow. Moving the load onto the bike changes how you arrive more…
The Commute
Dress for the Ride You Will Be Having in Twenty Minutes
The most common commuting mistake is dressing for the temperature at the front door. Your body produces a great deal of heat once…
The Commute
The Fastest Line Through a City Is Rarely the Calmest One
Route planning by bicycle is not the same problem as route planning by car. The shortest option often costs more in stress and…
The Commute
Arriving Presentable Without a Shower at the Other End
Most commutes are short enough that sweat is manageable. What decides the outcome is pace, airflow and what you do in the first…
Maintenance
All maintenance →
Maintenance
Why a Chain Wears the Cassette Rather Than Stretching
A worn chain is longer than a new one, but no metal has been pulled thin. Understanding what actually elongates tells you when to…
Maintenance
Fixing a Puncture Properly, Including the Step Everyone Skips
Replacing the tube is the easy half. If you do not find what caused the hole, you will be doing the whole job again within a…
Maintenance
Rim Brakes and Disc Brakes Behave Differently When It Rains
Both stop a bike well when dry. In wet conditions the two designs face different problems, and only one of them has to clear water…
Maintenance
Truing a Wheel Just Enough to Get Home
A full wheel build is a skill. Straightening a buckle sufficiently to ride is a twenty-minute job with one tool and a clear idea of…
Safety & Rules
All safety & rules →
Safety & Rules
Road Position Is How You Tell a Driver What You Will Do
Where you ride in a lane is not just about safety margin. It is the clearest signal available about your intentions, and drivers…
Safety & Rules
The Door Zone Is the Most Predictable Danger on the Road
A parked car is stationary, visible and entirely harmless until a door opens. Riders can see this hazard coming, which is exactly…
Safety & Rules
Being Seen Is Not the Same as Being Noticed
Drivers regularly look directly at a cyclist and pull out anyway. The failure is usually in attention and expectation rather than…
Safety & Rules
Side Visibility Is the Half of Bike Lighting People Forget
Front and rear lights address vehicles behind and ahead. A large share of urban collisions involve something approaching from the…
Riding the City
All riding the city →
Riding the City
What Makes a City Rideable Has Little to Do With Weather
The cities with the highest cycling rates are not the warmest or the flattest. What they share is a set of design decisions that…
Riding the City
Protected Cycle Lanes Fail at the Junctions, Not the Straights
The easy part of building for cycling is the section between junctions. Almost all the design difficulty and almost all the…
Riding the City
Somewhere to Leave the Bike Decides Whether People Ride
Parking is the least discussed part of cycling infrastructure and one of the most decisive. A journey by bike is only as practical…
Riding the City
Painted Lanes Are Not Infrastructure
A line of paint costs almost nothing and appears on every progress report. What it changes about the physical situation of a rider…