Installing Tubeless Tires

Part 3 in a series

Once you have confirmed that you current rims and tires are tubeless compatible and you have purchased all items needed to switch to tubeless tires (see last month's article), make yourself a good cup of coffee and get ready to make the switch. Installing your tubes should take no longer than 30 minutes if you follow these steps.

Using your properly measured rim tape, wrap the rim twice for road tires. Make sure to apply the tape evenly between the sides of the rim by applying lots of  tension. Remove

Choosing A New Bike

Part III of a series

This article is Part III of our series (Part I, Intro to Bike Frame Materials and Part II, Gravel Bikes: Design and Variations are here) pertaining to multi-surface drop bar bikes, including road, allroad, gravel, and bike packing bikes. In the first part we reviewed the four major frame materials that manufacturers use to produce frames. We looked at the mechanical properties of carbon fiber composite, aluminum, steel, and titanium and how these characteristics affect frame design and construction.

Getting Ready to Upgrade to Tubeless

Part two of a series

Gravel Bikes: Design and Variations

Gravel Bikes Introduction
In Part I we reviewed the mechanical characteristics, relative advantages, and disadvantages of the four most common materials used in bike frame contruction: steel, titanium, aluminum, and carbon fiber composite. We learned that a great-riding bike frame can be built from any of these materials, if it is designed well. Which one is the "right" choice depends on what a rider's priorities are such as weight, cost, durability, availability, etc…. In Part 2 we are going to focus

Intro to Bike Frame Materials

Part 1: Steel, Aluminum, Titanium or Carbon?

Prior to about 40 years ago, steel was pretty much the only option consumers had for bike frames. Thankfully we have many more options in 2023, including titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), carbon fiber, as well as steel.  There are a couple of other, exotic, materials such as wood, bamboo, and magnesium but these are more curiosities and unlikely to de-throne the top-four anytime soon.  Steel is an alloy of iron and other elements such as nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and carbon.  The specific alloy "

Road Tubeless Tires: Pros and Cons

First in a series

While tubeless tires are standard on MTB bikes and recently standard on gravel bikes, road tubeless still seems to be far from standard practice. While clipless pedals went mainstream in the 80s, and disc brakes are now standard on any new bike, tubeless road tires are not quite there yet. Automobiles have been tubeless since the mid 50s, so road bikes are a bit late to the tubeless party.

Tubeless tires for road bikes have been around since 2006 when Shimano and Hutchinson released road tubeless

How to Lube A Chain

Modern bikes are high performance machines, but one place they have not improved is the chain. It is still an oily mess that attracts dirt and slows down the rest of the modern machine. Keeping your chain clean goes a long way towards extending the life of the chain and increasing the efficiency of the drive train. While cleaning your chain is not hard, it tends to be one of the most ignored aspect of bicycle maintenance. So here is a way to easily keep your chain in top shape that I have been using