Bike Newbie

I actually haven’t cared much about what people thought of me based on the terminology I used, and this was never so true as when I started biking. I didn’t want to become one of those spandex-wearing, car-hating bike jocks, so it really wasn’t a priority for me to talk like them. With the benefit of hindsight, though, I now realize I would have been able to get my ideas across (and more importantly understood the ideas conveyed to me) better, had I known some of the terminology universal to bicycles. Most of these terms (unless noted otherwise) are more or less international and apply to all kinds of bikes, which is helpful if you’re riding in another country or region. There are tons of good bike diagrams online, and I encourage you to use those, but if you like words or are just lazy, I’ve got a partial glossary for you below. These terms are in no particular order, and I will most likely have additional posts with more terminology.

Saddle: if not sounding like a newbie is important to you, get the word “seat” out of your vocabulary (the ironic exceptions are other parts of a bike such as seatstays, seat rails and the seatpost). A saddle is what bike people call a seat.

Chain ring: this is what bike people call the big gear/gears turned directly by pedals and cranks. Bike people avoid the terms “gear” or “sprocket”, unless talking about all gears generally, since these are technically not specific to any one part of the bike.

Cogs / cassette / grupo: the gears on the back wheel are called cogs. A group of cogs together is called a cassette, or if you want to show off with some Italian, a grupo. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is Italian for “group”. Pretty fancy!

Bottom bracket or BB: the bottom-most part of the frame, this is the center of the circle that the pedals orbit around. The BB houses a bunch of ball bearings and stuff that has to be replaced from time to time…depending on the bike a replacement B.B. can be super cheap or hella expensive. (It’s been cheap on all the bikes I’ve had.)

Seat rails: these are on the underside of the saddle, and they keep the saddle in place via little clamps on the top of the seatpost…but remember, it’s a saddle not a seat!

Dropouts: no, these are not hardcore bikers that left high school. Rather, they are the part of the frame that your quick-release wheel hubs attach to. If the bike is right side up on a shop stand, when loosened the wheel will just drop out of this part. Hence the name. Clever!

Seatstays and chainstays: these are the two pairs of tubes on the frame that attach to the rear wheel. The top pair are the seatstays and the bottom pair are the chainstays. Which makes sense, sort of.

Top tube: the horizontal (some times diagonal) frame bar that you straddle when you stand flat-footed astride your bike.

Down tube: the diagonal bar directly below the top tube. Makes sense.

Seat tube: the frame bar that starts at the BB and goes upward to the seatpost, which attaches to the seat rails, which are attached to the SADDLE, NOT THE SEAT!

Head tube: the front-most part of the frame, to which the forks attach. Many bikes will have a logo called a badge emblazoned on the head tube.

Bars: handlebars, or where you go with your pals after a long ride. Drop bars are the curly bars you see on road bikes or some gravel bikes.

Stem: the more-or-less horizontal piece that connects the handlebars to the frame. The short vertical piece at the other end of the stem is called the headset. Most road bikes today have an integrated headset, which means the brake levers also function as gear-shift levers (by pushing them sideways instead of pulling straight).

Brake hoods (or just Hoods): the rubbery nubs above the brake levers on a bike with drop bars. A lot of road bikers ride with their hands resting on the hoods instead of gripping the drop bars.

Crankset: the entire assembly (usually 4- or 5-pointed) that connects the pedals and the outer chain ring. The part I usually call the crank is actually the “crank arm”.

Caliper brake versus disc brake: caliper brakes are the classic version, with rubbery brake shoes clamping on the wheel rims to slow you down. Disc brakes are not new to mountain biking; they consist of a metal disc on each wheel that runs in between clamps mounted on the frame. I’m seeing disc brakes on more and more road bikes lately, hinting at their growing popularity.

Next post: Disc Brakes? Fancy drive train? Through-hubs? Kickstand? Which of these (if any) should you demand in a bike?

So you know what your frame size is, what general type of bike you want, and how much you are willing to spend. Now you have some choices to make: where/how to buy the bike, what to look for in terms of frame material and components, and what your “hard line” criteria will be versus features that don’t matter a whole lot to you.

First, where to shop. Your general choices are a bike shop, a sporting goods store, general buy/sell sites like Craigslist, and bike-specific sites like Perfecto or Bike Exchange. You could also shop discount stores (Walmart e.g.), but I’d strongly recommend against it, so let us never speak of it again. OK. Here are the pros and cons of each, as I know them:

– Bike shop. Pros: you know what you’re buying, it’s brand new and usually covered by warranty, the salesperson (usually) knows a lot about bikes, the bikes are (usually) all of decent quality. Cons: expensive, expensive, and expensive! The markup on new bikes and accessories at a bicycle shop is like 300-800%. Don’t get me wrong; most of them need to mark prices up just to keep their doors open, and I’m proud to support my local shop by buying spare tire tubes, lights, accessories, and yes sometimes a bike there. But please know that there are options out there that are SO much cheaper, if that’s important to you.

– Sporting goods store. Pros: same as a bike shop, except that the staff usually know nothing or next to nothing about bikes, although they’ll act like they know plenty. Also, the quality on average is not good, although I’ve been pleasantly surprised once or twice by the bikes that a sporting goods store had in stock. Cons: expensive, though not as much so as a bicycle shop. But still expensive. You can occasionally find good deals on OK bikes on sale, especially toward fall (or spring for the previous year’s models). Only shop at sporting goods stores if it’s absolutely imperative that you buy a new (not used) bike, and you’re on a tight budget (like less than $600), is my advice. Even then you’ll need to shop the sales, but you may find something.

– Online marketplace like Craigslist or Ebay. Pros: can be quite cheap, and people sell some quality used bikes for less (need the cash, don’t know the value of what they have, or just trying to build up some good karma). Cons: good chance that what you’re buying is stolen (if you care…if not, well alright then). Also, there are a lot of creeps, low lifes, and overall bad people running around selling stuff online…but hopefully you knew that already and take appropriate precautions.

– Online bike classifieds like Perfecto or Bike Exchange. Pros: what you’re buying probably isn’t stolen, cheaper than buying new, on Perfecto you can look at the seller’s Strava profile (if they’re on Strava and have their account linked) and see whether they are an actual cyclist. Cons: more expensive than buying from Craigslist, and I have no experience with these sites so I can’t vouch for how awesome they are. But it’s worth at least looking into.

Now, the topic of frame materials. Unless you’re buying an inexpensive cruiser (which is probably a steel alloy frame) or an inexpensive any-other-kind (which is probably an aluminum alloy frame), there are a few materials bikes are made out of, with the pros and cons of each as I know them below:

Titanium: once only found on $7,000+ bikes, and still typically on expensive bikes only, titanium frames are increasingly found on cheaper and cheaper bikes, especially used ones. A search on Bike Exchange showed me a couple that were $2000-3000. Having never ridden titanium, I can’t judge what it’s like, but I keep reading that it combines the light weight of carbon with the bump-smoothing comfort of steel.

Carbon fiber: like titanium, this material was once rare and reserved for the spendiest of bikes, but it’s gotten cheaper to the point where I’ve bought excellent carbon road bikes for $600-900. Pros: it’s light and very stiff, making it perfect for climbing up hills quickly. Also it’s more comfortable than the lighter aluminum frames (note: most aluminum-frame bikes today have carbon forks…use caution when buying an all-aluminum bike!). Cons: can be expensive, not as comfortable as steel on long rides, and I’ve heard it breaks when hit very hard, although I’ve never witnessed that (and if you experience that kind of impact while riding, your frame is probably the least of your problems anyway).

Aluminum: before the Carbon Age began, aluminum was pretty much it for lightweight frame material. The pro racers of the 1970s and early 80s rode on aluminum. Now it can be found on department store-brand bikes that run as little as $350 new. In my opinion there are still plenty of good aluminum bikes to be found out there…it’s largely a matter of personal taste and preference. Pros: light, cheaper than most, stiff for climbing (but not as much so as carbon). Cons: not the most comfortable, kind of like carbon, but unlike carbon aluminum can seem to actually amplify the tiny little bumps in the asphalt, to where the “road buzz” makes your arms and hands tingle, which isn’t pleasant. But again, that doesn’t hold true for every aluminum bike…most of the road bikes I’ve seen lately have forks made out of carbon that dampen the road buzz to some degree.

Steel: good old steel, once the only material, then much maligned by people like me as too heavy, is making a comeback. New technology is producing lighter and lighter strong steel alloys all the time. Also, people like me are realizing that a lighter bike isn’t necessarily a better bike…being able to move and walk around after a century (100-mile ride) is pretty dang important, and on a good steel bike you can do that without sacrificing much in added weight. Nothing (except for titanium, which I haven’t ridden) is as comfortable as steel…it takes the buzz out of the road and flexes when it needs to. It isn’t as stiff as, say, carbon when climbing a hill, but just as they are making lighter steel all the time they are making stiffer (but not brittle) steel too. Pros: everything I just said. Cons: can be heavy, or can be light but expensive. I am a big fan of steel now and use it almost exclusively when training.

Next post: How to Talk Like You Know Something About Bikes.

Getting a new or new-to-you bike is exciting. I still drool over bikes, new and used, online even though my actual purchases are rare (my wife may beg to differ on that point). However, you can end up spending way too much money on a bike that doesn’t really do what you need to to…worse, you may end up with a bike that could injure you due to bad fit. This post is to help you find a bike that 1) fits you, 2) doesn’t break the bank, and 3) makes sense for the type of riding you’ll be doing, which will make your rides a lot more enjoyable.

I’ll start in reverse order on the above list. Before you start doing a bunch of searches on bikes (and definitely before setting foot in any store), you should have at least an idea of what kind of riding you’ll be doing this first season. The first thing is to identify where you will be riding primarily. Choose the one or two letters that most accurately describe where you will ride (or want to ride):

A. Singletrack or other natural trails (or no trail). The more rocks, logs, drops, hills, dirt, mud, etc., the better.

B. Maybe some of the stuff above, but mostly gravel or rough paved roads, with probably some smooth pavement mixed in. Hill climbing will happen, whether I like it or not.

C. Mostly in town, and my town has lots of hills and rough road.

D. Mostly in town, for short (under 20 mile) trips, without too many hills or much rough road.

E. Pavement, whether in town or out in the country, and I’ll be doing long rides that will likely involve hill climbing.

If you answered A or A-B, you probably want a mountain bike. You probably knew this already, and don’t need much of my help, so I’m going to skip this one for now.

If you answered B or B-C, you may be in the market for a gravel bike. A gravel bike is basically a road bike that is beefed up to handle the sub-optimal roads and conditions that are pretty common in the Pacific NW. A lot of folks use gravel bikes for year-round commuting in all kinds of weather.

If you answered C or C-D, you might consider a hybrid bike instead of a gravel bike. A hybrid bike is kind of in between a mountain bike and a cruiser, with sort of big tires, a strong but fairly light frame, and flat handlebars. Hybrid bikes are great for all around riding, and are pretty comfortable, so if you’re not sure what kind of riding you’ll be doing, I’d call a hybrid bike a safe choice.

If you answered a solid D, you probably want a cruiser or “town bike”, at least to start with. They tend to be on the heavy side (so not great for hills unless you have awesomely strong legs), but are strong and comfortable. And the good news is they’re typically cheaper than other kinds of bikes.

If you answered E or some combination of C-D-E, you may want a road bike. Road bikes are the general type you see in the Tour De France (except most people can’t afford those exact bikes), with light frames and wheels, drop handlebars, and small tires. Built more for speed and climbing than comfort, you should only consider this type of bike if you’re fairly sure you will be getting into riding. Road bikes can be super spendy, but they don’t have to be expensive to be decent.

There are many other types of bikes out there, but they tend to have very specific purposes, and I’m writing this for folks who are pretty much getting started, so I’ll stick with the basics here.

If you want a good bike but don’t want to drop loads of cash, I will have some tips for you on my next post. Some basics for now: Mountain bikes (good ones) command big bucks, so don’t get one unless you know you’ll be mountain riding. A good gravel bike can be found used for $500-1000. Cruisers can often be bought used (or even new) under $500 for a good one. Hybrid bikes are about like gravel bikes (there truthfully isn’t any difference other than the handlebars and tires which are easily changed out). For used road bikes the cutoff is right around $1000-1200 in the Pacific NW. If you pay less, you might still be getting a good bike but more likely there is a reason the seller is taking less for that bike.

Finally, the most important part: what size frame to buy. Road and gravel bike frames (and some hybrids) are sized in cm. Your optimal size will depend on your height and your inseam, and there are plenty of good websites out there to help you measure yourself and determine your size. I’m 5’7″ with a 30-inch inseam, and optimally I ride a 53 cm frame. But a 52 cm frame or 54 cm frame can be perfect for me, depending on the brand…bikes are like clothes in that each maker tends to build a little big or a little small. This usually isn’t worth stressing about though, because most people can go 1 cm either way from their optimum size without trouble.

Mountain bikes, and increasingly other types of bikes, are going to a S, M, L, XL sizing system. No worries…bike makers are good about posting online the exact measurements of their sizes for each model online, so you can find the size that best fits you if you know your size in cm.

BEFORE you answer that Craigslist ad or walk into that store, at bare minimum you should know the type of bike you want, your frame size, and the maximum amount of money you’re willing to spend on this bike. Once you know these things, happy shopping, and I’ll put some of my hard-learned lessons on the next post.