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.