Tech Blog
Some pragmatic yet radical cycling ideas
Lifetime cost of ownership
Sunday 16 October 2011
Surprising results from a comparison of the cost of buying and maintaining various types of bicycles
Customers often express surprise at the news that their bike needs two new wheels or a whole new drivetrain after only a couple of years of regular use - often at a total cost approaching the current value of the... READ MORE
Some potential solutions to drivetrain wear
Thursday 24 March 2011
What can be done to reduce the rate at which a bike's chain and sprockets wear out?
An engineer at Renold chains once told me that there are only three factors which significantly affect the rate of chain wear in a typical industrial application: dirt, lack of lubrication, and over-tension. All three of these are present in... READ MORE
Bicycle component failures
Tuesday 9 November 2010
New photo gallery of failed bike parts
I've recently started a new photo gallery of some of the more interesting broken and failed bike parts we've seen in the workshop:
www.flickr.com/photos/jakesbikes/sets/72157625343511492/
Integrated Lighting
Sunday 1 August 2010
Lights which last as long as the bike itself
Why do bikes not have built-in lighting systems? When you buy a car you don't have to then buy some additional plasticky lights with separate batteries and clip them on yourself.
True, some bikes come fitted with lighting as standard,... READ MORE
What is the optimum number of gears?
Sunday 11 July 2010
As many as necessary, but as few as possible
For decades there has been a shift towards bikes having an ever-greater number of gears. Not long ago 5-speed derailleurs were the norm, with the total of 10 gears they afforded seeming almost excessive. Nowadays 27-speed bikes are commonplace, and... READ MORE
A Bike as Reliable as a Car
Saturday 3 July 2010
A technological challenge or a cultural one?
In the very early days of motoring, cars were slow, impractical, unreliable, and were only used by enthusiasts. It was normal in the first years of last century for an automobile to break down every few hundred miles; to have... READ MORE