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…
Kiran Prabhu
Contributing writer, Ride Banana
Kiran writes about cities, street design and what makes a route pleasant or grim.
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14 articles
Maintenance
Five Tools That Fix Most Roadside Failures
A workshop's worth of equipment stays at home. What matters on the road is a short list that covers the failures actually likely to…
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
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…
Safety & Rules
Signalling Is About Timing More Than the Gesture
A signal given at the wrong moment communicates nothing useful and costs you a hand. Knowing when to signal matters more than…
Safety & Rules
Where a Bicycle Tyre Runs Out of Grip
Grip is not a property of a tyre; it is a property of the contact between that tyre and a specific surface. Some urban surfaces…
Safety & Rules
Riding With Children Changes Every Decision You Make
Carrying or accompanying a child alters the bike's handling, your stopping distance and the routes that are acceptable. Most of the…
Maintenance
Headset Play Is the Knock You Feel Through the Bars
A small knock when you brake is the front end telling you something has come loose. Ignored, it wears the bearing races until they…
Maintenance
Suspension Forks Need Service Most Riders Never Give Them
A suspension fork on a commuting bike is a hydraulic device with wearing seals. Ignored, it stops damping and starts wearing the…
Maintenance
Cable Friction Is Why Your Brake Lever Feels Vague
A mechanical brake or gear is a length of wire sliding inside a tube. Everything that feels wrong at the lever usually happened…
Safety & Rules
Filtering Through Stopped Traffic Is a Skill With Rules of Its Own
Moving past queuing vehicles is where a bicycle saves most of its time and where the most avoidable conflicts happen.
Safety & Rules
Tram Rails, Drain Covers and the Surfaces That Steal a Front Wheel
Most single-bicycle falls in cities involve a surface rather than a vehicle. The dangerous ones share a shape and a moment.
Safety & Rules
Emergency Braking Is a Weight Transfer Problem
The limit on how fast a bicycle stops is not the brakes. It is the point at which the rear wheel lifts or the front tyre lets go.
Safety & Rules
Overtaking Distance Is About Turbulence as Much as Space
A vehicle passing close does more than frighten you. It drags air away from one side of you and then pushes it back, and both…