Here’s a Guest Post about Essential Cycling Accessories from Andrew at Probike
All opinions expressed are Andrew’s …
It’s hard to narrow down all the essentials you’ll need as you start your journey as a cyclist, but we believe we’ve given it a good go. There are thousands of accessories you can take on board as soon as you decide a life on two wheels is for you, but deciding which to leave behind is almost as important as deciding which to take with you, as added weight leads to a poorer, more sluggish performance.
The five accessories below have made the cut based on their usefulness in almost all biking situations.
Whether you’re a city biker who uses his bike purely for the daily commute, or you find yourself biking up in the mountains at the weekend, each of these accessories will serve you well on your journey.
A Helmet
This definitely deserves the top spot. No biking accessory is more important than a helmet, a point that is echoed time and again by people who have crashed their bike, only to have their head saved from meeting the road by their correctly fitted cycle helmet.
Choosing not to wear a helmet is simply unwise. Not wearing a helmet based on the way it makes you look (or the way it shapes your hair into the ever-unpopular helmet-hair style) is an ignorant way of thinking. We can’t stress enough how important it is to wear a helmet. It will save your life one day.
Weather-Appropriate Clothing
Cycling clothing varies depending on the weather and where you’re doing your cycling. A large waterproof poncho, for example, is perfect for mountain biking. However, on the slippery city roads, it may be a distraction that drivers around you struggle to see through.
Cycling shorts are great in almost any weather, but when it comes to your top half you will want to vary what you wear depending on how much rain (or sun) is being thrown down on you. In general, you’ll want to wear less clothing than you think you need, as cycling, even for a short amount of time, will warm your body up substantially. If you’re wearing layer upon layer, you’ll arrive at your destination sweating through your clothes.
Cycling Shoes
It’s recommended you wait a while into your love affair with cycling before purchasing cycling shoes. Though they’re a great accessory to have (and you’ll never want to go back to cycling in normal trainers), they’re not essential when you’re just starting out.
They may be a little awkward to begin with, as they’re specifically designed to stop your feet falling off the pedals by clipping your toes into them, but once you get used to them you’ll wonder how you ever did without them. An added benefit of cycling shoes is they’re perfect for long distance and competitive rides.
A Puncture Repair Kit and Pump
Whether you’re mountain biking up a nearby peak, or curving in and out of side streets, there is no worse feeling for a cyclist than that moment of dread when you realise you have a puncture on one of your tyres.
Your puncture repair kit can be as big or small as you wish. We recommend you have a patch kit with you, so you are able to patch over any type punctures, a pump so you can inflate the tyre back up after fitting the patch, and if you wish, an extra tube which can save you a lot of trouble if you puncture through the tyre into your main tube.
A Bike Lock
Lastly, a bike lock is essential if you need to leave your bike alone for a few minutes (to enter a shop or post a letter) and you don’t want to see your bike getting stolen.
It’s unfortunate that we don’t live in a world where this isn’t an issue, but unfortunately for now it is, so we may as well protect our bikes in the meantime.
About the Author
Established in the early 90s, ProBikeKit is a leading online cycling specialist, offering a large range of components ranging from bicycle tyres to handlebars.
If a cyclist didn’t lock up his/her bike, it’d be gone pretty quick and if a cyclist didn’t carry a puncture kit, he/she wouldn’t get too far either as punctures are just part of the game.
Appropriate cloths and cycling shoes are good thing to have however, many would argue they are far from essential but the insistence that a helmet is the most important accessory is very discouraging.
Helmet promotion simply enforces the idea that cycling is dangerous when it isn’t. It discourages people from riding bikes and ignores all those millions upon millions of cyclists around the world who cycle every day without a helmet and live longer than the general population who don’t.
Not wearing a helmet is unwise? Well, I beg to differ. After decades of helmet promotion, use, and laws, there is no clear, uncontested data that shows helmets reduce injury or death as those promotions claim. If there was clear evidence that they do achieve these claims, and there was evidence cyclists receive head injuries to a greater degree than that of the general population, more people would wear them. As it is, most people listen, make their decisions and go without a helmet because cycling isn’t nearly as dangerous as some would suggest and helmets do not provide as much protection as many people seem to think they do.
After posting my response, I went out to my bi8ke for my morning commute and was reminded of not only another accessory far more important than a helmet, but a reason why helmet promotion makes cycling less safe. The focus on helmets divertas attention away from other, far better ways to be safe.
What reminded me of this was when I mounted my bike and – turned on my lights!
Really, lights don’t rate in a top 5 accesorry list? Maybe if there wasn’t such a focus on helmets, they would.
Brad, I agree that lights are THE most important accessory. One of my recent posts is all about this – Average Joe Cyclist Guide to Bike Lights for Winter. I use 2 front lights, 2 rear lights, reflective clothing, reflective bike wrappers from bikewrappers.com, and 2 sets of Monkeylectric lights. I can probably be seen from space