We have seen a change in transportation recently. Cars were the king of the road, however we can now see a growing trend in the popularity of cycling as a main method of transport. This trend can be attributed to the idea of keeping things 'green' in a bid to take care of our planet. It doesn't hurt that gas is increasing in price either! No matter what has caused it, the fact is there are now more cyclists on the road than in a long while. Have you been thinking about getting a bicycle? If you have been thinking about using a bike as your main mode of transportation, or just thinking about getting one for fun, there are a few things you need to think about.
It goes without saying that choosing the correctly sized bike is of utmost importance. To accomplish this you need know your inseam measurement. To do this, simply run a measuring tape up the inside of your leg from the bottom of your foot to your groin. Ideally you should be able to place both feet on the ground while on your bike. This is for safety more than anything else, if your brakes should fail hop over to these guys you will not be able to easily stop the bike otherwise.
For a road bike you should take away 9" from the inseam measurement you took earlier. The size of the tires a road bike uses are the reason for this. Designed to work best on concrete pavements, road bikes are best suited to cycling around the city. You will want to subtract 12" for a mountain bike. This is because the tires of a mountain bike are different than those on a road bike. These tires are designed to handle rocky and jagged terrain so are therefore thicker. You can use mountain bikes for city cycling, but the opposite is not true and they are nowhere near as good on city streets as road bikes.
How many gears do you need? Choose according to how you’ll ride; mountainous areas require more gears than flat land areas do. You can’t evaluate the bike only by the number of gears it has. In actuality, you may never use all the gears. Why spend extra money paying for something that you don’t need? Of course, if your cycling bicycle is going to be your primary mode of transportation you might need to make sure you have enough gears to handle rough situations.
You should keep these things in mind when you go out and buy a bicycle, especially if you want to find the one that is right for you. There are tons of varieties of bicycles, as well as innumerable amounts of accessories available to you, so sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. As long as you go prepared and know what you need and are looking for, you can shed some of that frustration and find the perfect bike.