bike

The Bike Book by Haynes: review

September 30, 2009
Thumbnail image for The Bike Book by Haynes: review

If your bike is a key part of your drive to be more self-sufficient but you haven’t got a clue how to go about fixing it when things go wrong, you need to add this book to your reading list.

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Stiffening the panniers

May 25, 2009

PanniersNow that the shopping bike has been rebuilt, and the panniers fitted, we decided that it was time to give it a proper run out, so we took it to the market with us on Saturday morning.

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Fitting panniers to the shopping bike

May 19, 2009

PanniersThe salvage shopping bike is really coming on now. The squeaky brakes have been fixed, and this weekend I fitted the panniers. They are essential to transforming it from a silver boneshaker into a useful pedal-powered means of transporting not only people, but products.

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The rebuilt bike

May 11, 2009

Old bikeThe bike I bought to do up and teach me about bike maintenance is ready to use, although I can’t claim much credit for its wellbeing.

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A bike to build

February 11, 2009

Old bikeI’ve bought an old bone-shaker to do up. The paint could do with some touching up, the brakes squeal and the gears are reluctant to change, but it should be fine for doing up, and I could do with learning more about bike maintenance.

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How to fix bike brake cables

December 5, 2008

2008-bike-brake-thumbnail.jpgMy front bike brake has been broken for a while. It still pulled me to a stop, but the cable had snapped right after the pads, and could have easily slipped out at any time. It was time to do some repairs.

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Shafted through double-counting

August 5, 2008

Headline figures rarely tell the whole story when it comes to working out how much prices have really increased. Sometimes it’s not how much you’re paying but what you’re actually getting that really matters.

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Pedalites: The Review

January 2, 2008

Some time ago I wrote on here about Pedalites, the self-powered lights for the pedals on your bike. I ordered a set and promised to report back once they’d arrived, been fitted and tried out. That time is now. They’re about the same size as my old pedals, but much chunkier and a little heavier. [...]

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Bike trailers

December 13, 2007

I move this weekend, after eight months of doing up the house. It means I’ll be closer to town, so won’t need to use the car for the station each day. My petrol consumption – and with it the cost of running the car – should decrease rapidly, and I reckon I’ll only be filling [...]

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Cycling in the dark

November 21, 2007

The number of cyclists in London has increased 83% in the last seven years. Whether that’s down to lousy public transport or rocketing petrol prices isn’t clear, but now that petrol has topped £1 a litre you can take an educated guess. (For American readers, that’s about $8.15 a gallon – and GasBuddy tells me [...]

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