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98 posts in Guides
Featured
Your first road bike: what to spend and what to ignore
Fit first, then contact points, then a certified helmet. Honest price bands, the spec-sheet numbers that do not matter, and the safety checks that do.
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Buying a used bike: the ten-minute inspection
Frame first, then wheels, drivetrain, brakes and bearings, then the paperwork. An ordered check that finds the deal-breakers early, with the honest caveat about carbon.
Gears explained: what the numbers on your cassette mean
Tooth counts to gear ratios to speed at a cadence, why steps matter more than the number of gears, what cross-chaining costs, and how to pick a gear on a climb.
Clipless pedals: how to start without falling over at the lights
Which system to start on, how to set cleat position and float so your knees track straight, and a grass-first drill that makes unclipping a reflex before you need it.
How to fix a flat in five minutes (and stop dreading it)
A roadside puncture repair, step by step, and the two things beginners skip that turn a five-minute job into twenty: finding the cause, and seating the bead before you pump it hard.
Your first winter on the bike: kit, roads and staying motivated
Winter is where new riders quietly stop. Warm extremities, lower roads, one hard session a week and a fixed ride day carry more fitness into spring than any jacket.
Cycling clothing explained: bibs, chamois, layers and why cotton fails
What each piece of cycling kit is actually for, what the evidence supports, and where the marketing runs ahead of it. Spend on shorts and gloves; the fourth jacket can wait.
How to ride with traffic: positioning that keeps you safe and seen
Hugging the kerb feels safe and is not. Where crashes happen, when to take the lane, what the overtaking research honestly says, and why a daytime rear light beats a hi-vis jacket.
How to use an indoor cycling app without a smart trainer — a speed sensor is enough
A £30 wheel speed sensor turns any dumb trainer into a real route in a 3D world, with the ride saved to your calendar. What you need, how to set it up, and the one thing about hills you should know before your first session.
Indoor cycling app with no power meter: what you get and what you don't
Both columns side by side. What a speed sensor gives you indoors — the route, distance, heart rate, cadence, a ride that counts — and what it cannot: watts, ERG, TSS, FTP. Including why we refuse to show you a virtual power number.
The one setting that decides if your speed is right inside the cycling app
A speed sensor counts wheel revolutions, not kilometres. Get the tyre circumference wrong and every number is wrong by the same percentage — up to 10% — while looking entirely plausible. The table, and the two-minute roll-out that beats it.
No ERG mode? How to use your gears as the resistance dial on a dumb trainer
How to run a structured indoor session with no power and no ERG — the way everyone did it until about 2015. Four sessions that work, how to steer by heart rate despite its lag and drift, and the one caveat about your training plan.
Speed sensor or smart trainer: when is the upgrade actually worth it?
Four signs you have outgrown a speed-only setup, what power actually unlocks, and three routes compared — including the one most people overlook, which is a power meter rather than a trainer. Plus the honest case for staying where you are.
Disc brake noise: what it means and what to do
Better than rim brakes in nearly every way that matters and worse in exactly one — when they are unhappy they tell you loudly, in front of other people. Diagnosis by sound, the five-minute alignment fix, and the one noise that means stop riding.
Mudguards and the winter bike
There is a version of winter riding that is cold, wet and grim, and one that is cold, dry-footed and rather good. The gap is mostly equipment, most of it cheap — and mudguards are not a style question.
Where the bike lives decides how often you ride it
A bike that takes four minutes and two decisions to extract gets ridden less than one you can lift off a hook. Storage options honestly compared, why damp beats cold as the enemy, and the trainer corner that actually gets used.
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