The Bicycle

Bicycle Accessories

Bicycle accessories are necessary to either keep you safer on a bicycle or to make your trip more convenient. Of course, these bicycle accessories are not essential for your basic biking needs. However, the accessories can only be of extra help.

I have listed here some useful bicycle accessories. Some of these are necessities while some are luxuries.

Necessary bicycle accessories:

• Lights - Get lit. Get a headlight and a tail-light. If not, atleast get a headlight and a tail-end reflector. Not only will bright lights make sure that you see other things but it will also make you more visible to others at nights, especially the big, fast-moving cars.


• Mirror - Mirrors let you see what's happening behind you, which is obviously important. Also, you don't have to look behind every time you need to make a turn and run the risk of getting hit from the front.
  
• Horns - Loud horns can be very very useful. When you are behind or by the side of a big vehicle, you can let them know you are there. This means they will, hopefully, take care to avoid you, which is a good thing.


• Helmets - Again, a must. This one is an accessory for the rider rather than for the bicycle. Nevertheless, they are very important and have been life-savers many a times. Of course, wearing a helmet cannot make you invincible but it does give you the added protection. Make sure you buy a helmet hat fits you properly. Fix it up securely on your head so that it doesn't come off when a crash happens.

Optional bicycle accessories:

• Locks - A cable lock or a U-lock is necessary to keep a bicycle secure if it is going to be parked in insecure and unguarded locations. U-locks are always more preferable than just a cable lock. However, even the U-lock should be a good one with a good brand name or most bicycle thieves would find even them quite easy to break.
  
• Baskets - Baskets, depending on the size, can make your bicycle a huge cargo carrier! If you carry a lot of stuff around, then you could just get a huge basket (or even get one custom-made) and have them attached to you bicycle. You could have baskets attached at the sides, in the front or at both places. Your daily grocery, books, clothes for the laundry or anything else could easily fit into the baskets and make transporting things around less of a chore. There are even folding, clip-on baskets available that you can fold or even remove when you are not using them.


• Pants Clips - The ends of your pants can sometimes brush against the chains and get them all dirty and greasy. To prevent this, you've got metal pants-clips that will keep the pants' ends from fanning out and hitting the chains.


• Fenders - When riding on a wet surface the wheels throw water away tangentially and some of it will spray on you and on people around you. Fenders (or mud-guards) will sit around the tires and prevent the spray of water from reaching you or anyone else.


• Flat-Free Tires - If you don't want to suffer a flat tire in the middle of a ride or chore and spend your time getting it fixed while all your other work stops, you must look to invest in a flat-free tire. This is mostly for people who use the bicycle very often and who despise wasting time on a flat-tire. They do result in a small increase in weight of the bicycle and some people complain of very poor ride quality with flat-free tires on. So it is always best to ask for a demo just to know how it feels before making a commitment.