When the temperatures drop and the days get shorter, most of us park our bikes and forget about them until spring. But if you walk away without prepping your bike, you can come back in March to a rusted chain, flat-spotted tires, and seized cables. I’ve made every one of those mistakes, and I’ve learned … Read more
You just installed fresh brake pads, and now your bike sounds like a flock of angry parrots every time you slow down. The lever pulls all the way to the bar with zero bite. I have been there more times than I can count, and I can tell you the fix is not new pads, … Read more
A tubeless tire won’t seal when air escapes faster than the liquid sealant can plug the gap. The usual suspects are dried-out sealant, damaged rim tape, a sticky or loose valve core, or a tire bead that never popped into the rim channel. The good news: most of these problems are fixable on the trail … Read more
You can absolutely know when your cassette and chainrings are worn out together, and the answer is simpler than most riders think. Your chain is the diagnostic tool. When you install a fresh chain and the bike still skips under load, the cassette and/or chainrings are shot. This single test catches about 90% of drivetrain … Read more
A Presta valve leaking air usually comes down to a loose valve core, a worn O-ring seal, or damage where the valve stem meets the rim. I see this constantly on road and gravel bikes, and the fix is almost always simple: tighten the core with a valve core tool, replace the core, or check … Read more
If your heart races every time a car passes you on the bike, you’re not broken. You’re a normal cyclist dealing with something most of us have felt. The good news: you can learn how to ride confidently in traffic, even if right now it feels like the cars are winning. I started cycling in … Read more
A dropped chain jammed between the frame and chainring is one of those ride-ending problems that catches every cyclist at least once. I have been stuck on a remote fire road with this exact issue, watching daylight fade and my phone battery drop to 8 percent. Our team has helped riders fix this problem on … Read more
I’ve been commuting by bike for over a decade, and I’ve watched two bikes disappear from transit station racks and one from my office parking lot. Each theft taught me something the next lock-up routine had to fix. If you want to know how to lock your bike at work or a transit station so … Read more
I learned about lane positioning the hard way. Three years ago I was commuting home on a 12-foot lane, hugging the curb like my dad taught me, when a delivery van buzzed me with maybe 18 inches to spare. The mirror clipped my handlebar and I went down. Nothing broken, but my whole understanding of … Read more
Your chain rubs the front derailleur in cross-chained gears because the chain runs at an extreme diagonal angle, which pulls it sideways into the derailleur cage. This happens in the big ring combined with the biggest cassette cog, or in the small ring combined with the smallest cog. The geometry of your drivetrain simply cannot … Read more