Bicycle Accessory Recommendations

You have a beautiful new bike. Before you ride off into the sunset take some time with the professionals at Lakeside Bicycles to discuss the accessories that may help keep you safely and comfortably on the road. Here are our top recommendations.

Level 1: Safety

While inherently safe, bicycling does impose some risks. The following are bicycle accessories designed to get you home in one piece. None of them is overly expensive or burdensome and each will improve the already excellent odds of reaching your destination without incident. 

  • Helmet: The foundation of cycling safety, modern helmets are light, well ventilated, attractive, and inexpensive with competent models starting at around $60. 
  • Gloves: Cycling gloves with padded palms reduce stress on your hands due to vibration thereby increasing comfort while helping to prevent numbness. In the event of a fall, gloves protect your palms from impact and abrasion.
  • Glasses: Cycling glasses reduce eye strain, improve contrast and protect your eyes while riding. In addition all cycling glasses sold by Lakeside Bicycles are 100% UV protective.
  • Tail Lights: Day or night, cycling tail lights dramatically increase your visibility and improve your safety with some models providing enough light to read by.
  • Head Lights: Modern cycling headlights can rival those found on cars for brightness. Not only do they make you more visible during the day, at night they are powerful enough to completely illuminate the road ahead virtually eliminating the risk of unexpected surprises.
  • Mirrors: Cycling mirrors make it possible to see what is coming from behind you without the need to look back over your shoulder.Bells: Provide a friendly way of alerting pedestrians or slower cyclists of your approach from behind.

 

Level 2: Comfort

The more comfortable you are on your bicycle, the more likely you are to ride. Comfort on your bicycle comes initially from letting the experts at Lakeside help you find the correct size bicycle and then guide you to the perfect position. Once we have you on a correctly sized and fitted bicycle, let Lakeside Bicycles help you select the accessories that will make every ride a pleasure.

  • Saddles: Saddles play an obviously critical role in comfort. The key to saddle comfort is shape, not padding. We recommend giving the saddle that came on your bicycle a chance, two or three rides, before investing in a replacement. If it comes to that, Lakeside Bicycles stocks a wide variety of saddles and will assist you in the quest to find your perfect match.
  • Shorts: Next to your saddle, padded cycling shorts have the most impact on comfort. As with most things, with cycling shorts you get what you pay for and the least expensive models, which can be ill fitting and poorly manufactured, actually may make your situation worse. 
  • Gloves: Padded cycling gloves isolate your hands from road vibration.
  • Shoes: Properly designed cycling shoes provide comfort, support and improved efficiency, particularly when combined with matching pedal systems.
  • Jerseys: A well designed, technical cycling jersey can be the difference from having fun and being miserable. Technical jerseys are designed to fit close to your skin and efficiently wick moisture away from your body, greatly adding cooling. Cycling jerseys are typically built with two or three pockets located in the back where they won’t interfere with your riding, long zippers for better cooling, and are usually made in highly visible colors.
  • Hydration: Keeping well hydrated will improve your efficiency and comfort. On very hot days hydration can be the difference between riding home or calling for a ride. 

“One does not find comfort in seeking comfort. The only true path to comfort is in trying many different saddles and in not trying many different saddles.”

Level 3: Courtesy

These are various accessories which can make life easier for you and for our fellow riders.

Every ride should include the following:

  • Roadside Repair Kit: 
    • A Multi-Tool: Basic multi-tools should include 4, 5, and 6mm hex wrenches, a T25 Torx wrench, a Phillips and a flat blades screwdriver. Nice additions are a 2, 2.5, 3, and 8mm hex wrench, a chain tool, and a knife.
    • A Patch Kit: In addition to fixing a flat in a tube, the patches can also be used to temporarily repair a large tear in your tire body.
    • A Tube: Selected to match your tire size and valve type.
  • A $20 Bill: Enough to buy an emergency meal or call for rescue. In an emergency it can be used as a boot for a really big tear in a tire.
  • Tire Irons (2): Replacing a tube can almost always be accomplished with your bare hands. Don’t depend on this, you need a pair of tire irons.
  • An inflation device: Either a pump appropriate to the type of tires you are riding or a CO2 inflator with several spare cartridges of sufficient weight to fully inflate the tires you are riding.
  • A Seat Bag: Something large enough to hold everything and maybe a bit extra.
  • A Cell Phone: We never ride anywhere without a fully charged cell phone.
  • Pumps: We suggest two
  • A Floor Pump for everyday use.
  • A Frame Pump for emergencies on the road
  • Lock: Lakeside Bicycles recommends never letting your bike out of your sight. If you do, you need a lock. There are a huge variety, let us help you chose.
  • Fenders: Any time you ride in the rain you need fenders, particularly if you are riding with others. Fenders can be complicated to install, let Lakeside Bicycles help out, we can put fenders on nearly anything.
  • Cycling Computers: Modern cycling computers can come with a bewildering array of features including GPS functions. While not essential, they can be fun and they spare your riding partners from constant “Are we there yet?”, “How long was the ride?”, and “How fast are we going?” questions.

 

In Summary

We recommend you consider the following accessories for your bicycle:

1: For Safety:

  • Helmet
  • Gloves
  • Glasses
  • Head Light
  • Tail Light
  • Mirror
  • Bell

2: For Comfort:

  • Shorts
  • Shoes
  • Jerseys
  • Gloves
  • Hydration

3: For Courtesy

  • Road Side Repair Kit
  • Pump(s)
  • Lock
  • Fenders
  • Computer

“The truth of Zen is the truth of riding, and riding means to ride, to move, to act, not merely to coast”