A beginner's guide to buying a mountain bike

by Myra VanInwegen

This is a guideline for a buying a mountain bike. I consider both off-road riding and riding on paved surfaces. It doesn't suggest any particular bikes, but instead explains what you should be looking for, and it will allow you to choose a bike in your price range that is good quality, appropriate for the kind of riding you want to do, and fits you correctly.

I assume that you want something that isn't too expensive (since you are a beginner and aren't sure how much you will end up riding it) nor too cheap (since you want a decent-quality bike that will keep you happy for awhile). Thus I'm only considering bikes costing something between about 250 to 500 pounds.

What sort of bike should you get?

If you are a beginning off-road rider, you should be looking at a bike with front suspension only (called a hardtail), or even a rigid bike (with no susension fork). A good quality full suspension bike is too expensive to be a beginner bike. If you want the bike mainly for riding on paved surfaces a rigid bike is a better bet.

The frame

The frame is the heart of a mountain bike, and you want to make sure you get a good one. If the bike comes with mediocre parts on it you can replace them, but once you replace the frame it's a different bike.

When looking for a not-too-expensive mountain bike, remember that boring is good. If the bike is too fancy and radical looking, especially if it's inexpensive, it's probably not a good bike. Unless you're going for a full-suspension bike, the traditional diamond frame is the best (as in the Rockhopper below). Any frame design other than this will be more heavy or weaker. The only exceptions in this price range are bikes made by Haro or GT, and these bikes only have small variations on the diamond frame.

If you're not sure exactly what a diamond frame is, let's look at a bike that doesn't have one, the Specialized Enduro below. This bike has rear suspension (the cylindrical bit where the seatstays meet the frame is the rear shock) thus it requires a different geometry to accommodate the shock and the movement of the back part of the bike. You will often see somewhat odd-looking frame designs in full-suspension bikes, but they are rarely useful in hardtails or rigid bikes. (Don't drool too much over this bike. It is unfortunately well out of the price range of this article.)

Many mountain bikes today have a sloping top tube (clearly seen in the Rockhopper). This is a good thing, as it gives you more crotch clearance for the same size of bike. Crotch clearance is the distance between the top tube and your crotch when you are standing over the bike in your bike shoes. It is important because you often crash when riding off-road, and it's good to have a bike that stays out of your way when you come off unexpectedly.

To bounce or not to bounce

Since real rear suspension (as of the Specialized Enduro above) is out of the price range of this article, we'll only consider two kinds of suspension: a suspension fork, and a suspension seat post. First I'll discuss the fork.

Should you get bike with a suspension fork? I think the answer is pretty short and simple: if your main use of the bike is for riding on rough off-road, then get a suspension fork, unless your budget is really low. A good suspension fork is a real boon to off-road riding. Not only does it make the ride more comfortable, but it can greatly improve your control over the bike. For example, if you're coming down a hill and there's a small branch diagonally across the path, the suspension fork can help you get over it safely, while with a rigid fork, your front wheel has more of a tendency to by shunted aside by the branch, leaving you in a heap on the trail. Since most mountain bikes come with suspension forks, this is the easy option.

However, if you have very little money (say you want to spend less than 300 quid, including everything you'll need, like lock and lights), a rigid bike is best, even for riding off-road. For example, a Specialized HardRock Rigid is better suited to off-road riding than most bikes for that price, even ones with a suspension fork. The reason is that most suspension forks on bikes that cheap are really not very good, and while they add a bit of comfort for your off-road riding, they lack the rigidity and damping that allows you to maintain the best control over your bike through the rough stuff. In addition, the frame and other components will be of lower quality to allow for the cost of the suspension fork, and they may not be up to real off-roading. If your budget really is that low, getting a HardRock Rigid would get you riding off-road on a good bike straight off, and then when you've saved up more money you can add a nice suspension fork.

However, many people buy mountain bikes for general purpose riding, not for hard-core off-road riding. MTBs are durable, adaptable machines that can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including riding to work, touring, and just getting out into the countryside for a pleasant spin on a sunny day. If your main use of the bike is not off-road riding, you would be better off getting a rigid (not suspension) fork. Even if your planned use of the bike includes a bit of off-road riding, such as riding on fairly smooth unpaved surfaced (cinder-surfaced bike trails, forest roads), a rigid bike would be best. This is because suspension forks are more expensive, heavier, more likely to go wrong, and more attractive to thieves than rigid forks. In addition, if you stand up to pedal you can lose a fair bit of your energy in bobbing the fork up and down. On rough trails, the suspension fork is so effective at smoothing out the trail bumps that it offsets all these drawbacks, but roads are smooth enough that the fatter tires you get on a MTB provides enough cusioning for all-day comfort in the saddle. This is true even if you get fairly thin (1.5"), smooth, street-specific tires.

Decent-quality rigid MTBs can be hard to find. Many people seem to feel that suspension must be better than no suspension, even for road riding, and so avoid MTBs with rigid forks. However, good bikes are out there (some manufacturers call them "Urban bikes"), and I urge you to make the effort to find them. At time of writing, Marin make the Muirwoods, Specialized do the HardRock Rigid, and Ridgeback do a series of bikes called "Switch". These are super choices for general purpose riding.

A suspension seatpost is another form of suspension that sometimes crops up on some bikes of this price range. They usually come on bikes meant for town use, or on "comfort bikes" meant for slow riding on flat roads, rather than on bikes aimed at real off-road riding. I feel that a suspension seatport is of use either on or off-road. If you hit a pothole on the road, the main place you feel it is in your backside, and a suspension seatpost can help smooth it out. Off-road, it can help smooth out minor trail bumps, allowing you to stay in the saddle for more situations, which can reduce fatigue. It will be of little help on big bumps, which is why proper rear suspension is useful on a bike used for rough off-road. There are some drawbacks to suspension seatposts, and they are the same as for suspension forks: suspension seatposts are more expensive, heavier, and more likely to go wrong that ordinary ones. However, they are much simpler than suspension forks, and they have much less travel, so the difference in price and reliability isn't so great as with suspension forks.

Do you need disk brakes?

Disk brakes are popping up on more and more bikes nowdays, and a few bikes in the price range considered by this article have them. Generally, they are included only on bikes meant for real off-road riding. The main advantages of disk brakes are that they work much better in the wet (especially off-road, since mud can interfere with your braking even more than plain water) and that your rims don't wear down as a result of brake pads rubbing them, so they last alot longer. The rim wear issue ends up being the deciding factor for some people: if you ride in areas with gritty soil, you can wear through rims quite quickly. The disadvantages are that they weigh and cost alot more than rim brakes, add appeal for thieves, and make getting your wheels off the bike a bit more difficult. If you're planning to use your bike mainly for road riding, don't even consider them. They are of most use off-road if you often ride when it's wet, so you'll take full advantage of the reduced rim wear and better wet-weather performance. I would suggest that a beginner would probably be better off without them, because not having them will mean that your bike can have a better frame and components for the same amount of money. You won't really know if you need them until you've been riding awhile and know what sorts of situations you'll be riding in. However, it can pay to buy a bike that's disk-brake ready: it should have disk mounts on the frame, and preferably disk-ready hubs. Then if you want to upgrade to disk brakes it's a fairly painless process, and not all that expensive, as you'll only pay for the disk brakes themselves.

How to recognize a quality bike

You have a limited budget, and you want to get the best bike you can for the money. If you're not sure what to look for, you could be mislead by features that seem to make the bike better, but in fact really don't count for much. Here's what to check out in your bike search.

The frame

As before, we start with the frame. You should be trying to get the best frame you can, within reason. There's no need to spend 500 quid on a frame alone, but you definitely shouldn't be contemplating getting a cheap frame, just so that you can have an (equally cheap) suspension fork on it.

Most mountain bikes are made of steel or aluminum. There are two main sorts of steel: high-tensile, and chromoly. High-tensile, aka hi-ten, is pretty much garbage. Don't buy a bike that has any part made of hi-ten steel, whether in the main frame or in the fork. Although there are different sorts of alumimun, there's not much to distinguish them at this price range.

Nowadays aluminum frames predominate for the price range we are talking about. This is mainly the result of pressure from the bike buying public. I have been told by bike shop owners that MTB customers much prefer alu bikes over steel, and this is why most manufactorers have abandoned steel for mid-level bikes and above. However alu doesn't have any clear advantage over steel. It can be made perhaps a bit lighter, which is an advantage for top end off-road racing bikes, but is pretty much irrelevant for the midrange bikes we're talking about here. I think that steel has gotten a bad reputation because of high-tensile steel. People remember how lousy their first, cheap, hi-ten bike was, and think that that poor quality is true of all steel bikes. This is not at all the case, and a few daring manufacturers (notably Marin) continue to offer high-quality bike frames made from steel.

For both steel and alu, swaged or butted tubing, which has thinner walls in the middle (for lightness) and thicker walls at the ends (for strength) is better than straight-gauge tubing (which is same thickness throughout).

One thing you should look for on your frame is the ability to attach things to it. It should have rack/mudguard mounts at the rear dropouts, and rack mounts on the seat stays. You may think this is not needed, that you'll never want to use a rack or full mudguards on your bike, but your needs may change over time. For example, if you get really into off-road cycling you may decide to buy a full-suspension bike, and this one will be relegated to riding to work, or for touring, in which case a rack and mudguards are pretty much essential.

Another thing that's a good idea to look for, if you think that it's likely that you'll really get into off-road riding, are disk brake mounts, both on the main frame and on the fork. These provide better stopping in the wet and eliminate worn out rims through braking, and thus are a good upgrade for the serious off-road rider.

If your frame is aluminum (as most MTBs are nowadays) it should have a replaceable derailluer hanger. Crashes often knock the derailluer out of place, and aluminum doesn't tolerate being bent back into shape (it is likely to break if bent back, while bending back a derailluer hanger on a steel bike is not a problem).

Suspension fork

If you've decided that you want a suspension fork, you'll want to know which ones to look for. Generally, sad to say, the more expensive the forks are, the better they are. The more expensive ones are stiffer, easier to maintain, and more "plush" (absorbing bumps of all sizes better). There's quite a variety of fork materials and internal construction, and it's changing all the time. I haven't kept up with the changes, having gotten a suspension fork that I really like! Often MTB magazines run a buyers' guide to forks, so it's best to get this info from them.

Wheels

While the frame is the heart of the bike, the wheels are what makes is a bicycle! Most MTB wheels look similar, but when you get into the details, you'll find the difference between wheels that will fall apart after one month, vs. ones that will keep spinning happily until you finally wear out the rims through braking.

Rims. The rim is the outer metal hoop of your wheel. They are made of aluminum. (At least, all the ones in this price range should be. For very expensive bikes you can get ones made of carbon fiber, and for exceedingly cheap bikes they are made out of steel, which is to be avoided at all costs!) Alu is light and provides a good surface for brake blocks to bite into, and they shed water quickly when wet to give you good braking shortly after the brakes pads meet the metal. In cross section, the rim will usually be something like a U shape: the tire attaches to the prongs of the U. The bottom part of the U is often flat on MTB rims, but can be curved, sometimes even almost pointed, like the bottom of a V. Generally, the more curved or pointed the inner part of the rim is, the more strength it will have, but it will also be heavier. One thing that's not so easy to see is that better rims will have an additional bit of metal across the bottom of the U. (Rims with this bit of bracing are called box section if they have a flat part at the bottom of the U, and are called aero section if the bottom part is more V shaped, and are called open section if they lack this bracing.) This bracing greatly adds to the strength of the rim, so much so that it's not a good idea to buy rims without this extra bracing, even for road use. To find out if the rim has this extra bracing, you must take the tire off. If the bed of the rim has wide circular holes in it, then it will be a box or aero section rim. If instead you can see, underneath the rim tape, small lumps, these are the heads of the spokes attached directly to the rim, and it is an open-section rim.

The braking surface of the rim should be plain metal, no colors or anodizing or anything like that. Colored braking surfaces badly affect braking. (The exception is for ceramic rims, which do have a coating on the braking surface, but you won't find these on bikes in this price range.) Some manufacturers put little grooves in the braking surface. This improves braking until the edges of the grooves wear off, but then is the same as for any other rim. I wouldn't pay extra for it. Colors on rims are fine as long as they aren't on the braking surface.

Spokes. Generally, MTBs have 32 spokes per wheel. More is not needed (except for perhaps downhill racing or loading touring off-road), and fewer makes for a somewhat weaker wheel for not much weight savings (although some racers do consider this weight savings significant and get wheels with fewer spokes). Spokes should be stainless steel. (Some fancy wheel have spokes are made of aluminum or other materials, but these offer very little benefits over ordinary steel spokes, and they cost alot more and are much harder to replace if you break one.) The best spokes are double butted, which means thinner in the middle than on the end. Butted spokes make for a lighter but stronger wheel (stronger because they stretch slightly when subjected to brief but large impacts, thus absorbing the hit, rather than giving in and buckling the rim). Black spokes are OK, as long as they are still stainless. The best spoking pattern is the traditional three-cross, as on the Kona Blast below. You can get radial spoking on some MTBs, but this is for looks only: it puts much more strain on the hubs for no benefit.

The wheel needs to be properly tensioned in order to stay together. If the spokes are not tight enough, they will rattle loose as you ride, and then spokes will start to break since the few spokes that have remained tighter are taking most of the strain. The best way to check for properly tensioned wheels is to pluck the spokes. For the front wheel, they should have an even pitch. For the back, the right side (the side with the gears on it) should have a much higher pitch than the left side. This is because the right side spokes are shorter and have a higher tension than the left side spokes. However, the right side spokes should all have the same tension (hence the same pitch), and all the left side spokes should have the same pitch, but it will be lower than the right side, and usually lower than the front spokes as well.

Hubs. Hubs go around, so the best thing to look for is good bearings that let them go around with as little resistance as possible, and good seals to keep them going that way. You can spin the wheels of a bike you're thinking of buying to see how freely they spin. One simple test is to attach a spoke wrench to a spoke at the rim. If the wheels slowly drifts down so that the wrench is at the bottom, it's got good bearings (note that it may not be completely at the bottom, as the valve weighs more than other parts of the tube, and the rim join also weighs more). If the wheel doesn't move at all, it's not as good, but still may be plenty fine when you're riding it. Ask your bike shop if you're uncertain about rim quality. If you think that you may get seriously into off-road riding, it's worth buying a bike that has disk-ready hubs, so upgrading to disk brakes will be easier and cheaper.

Tires and tubes. I suppose I ought to say something about tubeless tires. They are fairly new on the scene, and not many bikes come with them (certainly none in this price range). I have never used them, so I can't comment on them from a personal perspective. Right now, they look to me like something that doesn't have any clear advantages over the conventional approach, except for racers who are concerned about every last gram. (For example, if you get a bad puncture you'll have to put a tube in anyway.) But in a few years time they may have proven their worth so much that finding a MTB with normal tires will be as difficult as finding a MTB with rigid forks!

Back to normal tires. They come in a huge variety of tread patterns, widths, compounds, etc. For on-road use you want a smooth tire, with width between 1.25" and 2". For off-road use, the choice is bewildering. Generally, narrower tires are better in the mud (there's less area for the mud to cling to), but wider tires have more cushioning and grip. Thus the best tire for you depends on your riding conditions. Some tires have a Kevlar bead (the bead is the thing on the very edge of the tire that keeps it on the rim) rather than a steel one. These reduce the weight of the tire with no drawbacks other than being a bit more expensive, so are a good idea if you want to prevent your bike weighing too much.

Tubes are mainly distinguished by the valve type (presta or schraeder) and width. For width, get them to match your tires. I prefer presta (aka French valve) to schraeder (aka car tire valve) as I find them easier to pump up. There's not much to say about tube materials, other than that I have always gotten along well with plain black rubber ones of normal thickness.

Components

You should look carefully at the components on the bike. These are things like brakes, brake levers, shift levers and derailleurs (also known as gears). Generally, the higher spec components last longer and are easier to maintain than the lower ones. They are also more expensive. Getting a good frame should be your priority, but quality of components can help you choose between bikes that have similar frames.

The transmition (shift levers and derailleurs) are usually made by Shimano, so it's useful to know the grades of Shimano components. From highest to lowest, they are

XTR
Deore XT
Deore LX
Deore
Alivio
Acera
Altus
Tourney
You should be looking at getting something at the Alivio range or better. Often manufacturers mix and match components groups. For example a bike could come with an Alivio front derailleur and a Deore rear derailleur. This is sensible, as it puts the better components where they are most needed and keeps the cost down by putting in somewhat cheaper components where less is demanded of the part.

Some bikes now come with SRAM transmition components, which are also good. Generally, the larger the number in the Gripshift component's name, the better quality the component will be (for example, 9.0 is better than 7.0). SRAM are best known for their twist shifters. There are two main varieties of SRAM shifters: the ESP (1:1) system which requires their own rear derailleur, and 2:1 system, which works with Shimano rear derailleurs. The Shimano-compatible system relies on the rear derailleur moving about 2mm for every 1mm of cable pulled, while the ESP system has the rear derailleur moving about 1mm for every 1mm of cable. Of these two I much prefer the ESP system, as I find it too easy to shift more gears than I indended to with the 2:1 system.

Shifters come in two main styles: twist shifters or lever shifters. It used to be that SRAM made the twist shifters, and Shimano made the trigger shifters, but now SRAM make some trigger shifters and vice versa. Most people prefer one or the other, but you won't know which one you like until you've tried them. Try to test-ride bikes with both kinds so you'll know which type you'd like to have on your bike. If you find your dream bike, but it comes with the wrong kind of shifters, don't despair. The bike shop will often replace them with the other kind for a small fee or even free.

For brakes and brake levers, Shimano, Dia Compe, Gripshift, and Avid are brands to look for. Tektro brakes, while not being top-notch, also do the job pretty well. Never buy a bike with plastic brakes.

Often bike companies have their own line of parts. For example, you'll find Specialized components on Specialized bikes and CODA components on Cannondale bikes. It's sometime hard to tell how good these parts are. Often they are excellent quality and value (especially for Specialized and CODA parts), but sometimes they aren't quite a good quality as you might like. There is no general rule here, so ask someone you trust about these parts if you're worried about it.

Make sure it fits

It is of the utmost importance to buy a bike that fits you. If the bike doesn't fit, don't buy it, even if you find a bike that's really great at a low price. A bike that doesn't fit will annoy you every time you ride it, and will get in the way when you get out on the trails.

First, I recommend that you read Peter White's excellent article on bicycle fit.

Now I'll give some specific tips about getting a mountain bike that fits you well. There are two main things to consider when getting a bike that fits you. They are height of bike (usually determined by seat tube length) and length of bike (usually determined by top tube length).

Bike frame sizes usually bear some relation to the length of their seat tubes (i.e., they tell you something about the height of the bike). But what is the length of the seat tube? The entire length of it, or from say the middle of the bottom bracket to the middle of the top tube? Haro bikes often have curved top tubes, does their frame size number take that into account? Are the seat tube extensions in Kona bikes included in the frame size? Different manufacturers do things differently, so don't treat the numbers as any definite indication of what bike will fit you best. You may think a frame size sounds too small or large, but what's important is how you feel when you're on it. The only thing that's certain is that given the same model of bike in the same year, a larger number will mean a larger bike.

To start with, you need to ensure that you adequate crotch clearance. Generally, you should be aiming at a minimum of 3 to 4 inches. Because mountain bikes are designed to allow this sort of crotch clearance, they are generally very long for their height. Even if you aren't planning on riding your mountain bike offroad (there are reasons to do this: mountain bikes make good touring bikes, especially for shorter people) you must allow a large amount of crotch clearance to get the appropriate saddle to handlebar distance. If you know the size of a road bike that fits you, you should be getting a mountain bike that has a "frame size" (seat tube height) of at least 2" smaller.

This is only the beginning. Now you must look closely at the relative position of the handlebar with respect to the saddle. The best position for you depends on how upright you like to be when riding. Do you want a stretched-out, low-handlebars position (best for maximum speed)? Or an upright position (better for control on downhills and more comfortable for longer rides)? If you're like most of us, you'll want something in between.

If you're not sure what position will suit you best, you will want to ride a few bikes around to see what you like. The main thing you should look for is feeling balanced. You shouldn't feel too stretched out. This can put too much weight on your hands, which will make your hands tired and can make the bike likely to nosedive (throwing you over the bars) going downhill and off dropoffs. On the other hand, you shouldn't be too upright, as this can lead to a feeling of being cramped (if the handlebar is too close). Also the higher center of gravity can give you less control over the bike since you can't maneuver your weight around well enough. As a general guide, most of the people I ride with are into recreational cross-country riding, and they usually have handlebars that are at the level of the saddle or a bit below. If you want to race, you may want the handlebars lower.

The relative position of handlebars and saddle are affected by several things: the length of the top tube, the height of the head tube, the angle and reach of the stem, and the type of handlebars. Different bikes can offer quite a difference of positions, so try out quite a few bikes before you buy. If you like a more upright position, look for a bike with features like a shorter top tube, a stem that is higher (larger angle between head tube and stem, which makes the handlebars higher) or shorter (which brings the handlebars closer to you), and riser bars.

Keep in mind that most bikes are designed with the average person is mind. However, some people have much longer legs than average, some have much longer torsos that average. It used to be part of bike lore that women usually felt to stretched out on bikes because they tend the have proportionally longer legs and shorter torsos, but it turns out that this isn't the case: the real problem is that smaller bikes (which smaller women need to ride) tend to have proportionally longer top tubes than larger bikes, so the handlebars tend to end up further from the saddle.

If you have a short torso with respect to your height, or if you are small and thus ride a small bike (which tend to have proportionally longer top tubes), you'll want to find ways of bringing the handlebars back towards you. It may be simply a matter of putting on a shorter stem (this is easy to do as MTB stems almost always have well-positioned bolt to let you swap them without disturbing anything mounted on the handlebars). If this doesn't work (you find that the steering is too quick with the shorter stem, or the bars are still too far away) you'll have to look for a bike with a shorter top tube. You could buy a smaller size bike to get a shorter top tube. This usually works reasonably well, as you'll end up with more crotch clearance. You can run into trouble, however, with finding the handlebars too low, which if it's not too low may be fixed by changing the stem for one with a higher rise. Note also that different bikes tend to have different lengths of top tube, so you can choose one that suits your needs better. For example, you might consider the Fisher Tassajara over the Fisher Kaitai because the former have shorter top tubes.

If you are small, finding a shorter top tube can be made easier by the womens specific bikes that many manufacturers are making. These bikes have several adaptations for the smaller riders that work as well for shorter men as for short or even average-sized women. They have shorter top tubes, suspension settings for lighter weight, sometimes brake levers with reduced pull.

However, don't assume that all bikes labelled as "women's specific" are going to be appropriate for a women or small man rider. Some of them, for example the Trek and Juliana bikes, are very well thought out fpr the needs of the smaller rider. Many so-called women's specific bikes are way too heavy and offer a ridiculously upright riding position, or really don't have short top tubes.

If you have a long torso with respect to your leg length, you may find the distance to the handlebars too short. One thing you could do is buy a larger framed bike to get a longer distance between you and the handlebars, but this is not at all recommended. Crotch clearance is essential for safe off-road riding. You can replace the stem with a longer stem, but on many bikes this results in slow steering, as it increases the distance from the end of the handlebar (where your hand rests) and the pivot point (the end of the stem that meets the head tube). However, recent trends in mountain bike geometry (pioneered by Fisher with its Genesis geometry) are in your favor. The trend involves somewhat longer top tubes, which enables you to have a shorter stem (which speeds up the steering) and still have the handlebars the same distance from the saddle. In your case, you can then put a longer stem on to get the handlebars out to a good position.

Check your cranks!

Most modern MTBs come with 175mm cranks. This is too long for many people, and too short for some. The chart above has leg lengths (crotch to floor in bare feet) in the left column and suggested crank lengths for MTBs on the right. Note that this chart is adapted from the chart in my cranks article, by adding 5mm to each crank length in the original chart. This reflects the fact that MTBers tend to use longer cranks than road riders. Note that the industry-standard 175mm cranks actually are ideal for only a very small segment of the population. Taller than that you'll benefit from longer cranks, and shorter than that you'll benefit from shorter cranks.

Measure your leg length and see where you fit on this chart, and compare this with the crank length on the bike you're thinking of buying. If the suggested crank length is a sizeable distance (5mm or more) from what's on the bike, it will benefit you to get different length cranks.

Some length cranks are easier to find than others. If your ideal crank length is 170mm, you are in luck. All Shimano cranks come in either 170mm or 175mm, so if the bike comes with 175mm cranks, ask your bike shop to swap the cranks for an equivalent 170mm crank. They may charge you a small fee to do this, especially if the cranks they take off aren't the same brand as the ones they put on, but it will make pedalling much more stressful on your knees, and it will well and truly be worth it.

If the suggested crank length is less than 170mm or greater than 175mm, it can be hard to get exactly what fits you. The shimano Deore XT cranks offer the widest variety I know of: they come in lengths 165/167.5/170/172.5/175/177.5/180mm. Even if your suggested crank length is less than 165mm, or greater than 180mm, it would be very beneficial for you to have a crank length that comes as close to your ideal as you can. I know this is alot of money (these XT cranks aren't cheap) but if you're a serious cyclist, it willd definitely be worth it. Note that it can be difficult to get these non-standard lengths of cranks. For example, 165mm versions weren't available in the UK. But you can order them from the US.

If you have very short legs and can't afford a 165mm Deore XT chainset, then if your bikes comes with 175mm cranks, at the very least get them swapped for 170mm cranks. It won't be optimal for you, but it will be far better than sticking with the extremely long cranks that came with the bike.

The bike-buying process

If you want a bargain bike, the best time to buy is in September. At that point, next year's models have come out, so bike shops clear out their old stock to make space for the hot new items. As time goes on, prices continue to go down, but selection decreases as well. By February, you might get a very good deal on the previous year's model, but you'd be really lucky if you could find the bike you want in your size.

You should buy a bike from your local shop. At least, a shop that isn't too far away, so you can go back if you have any problems with the bike. You can often get bikes cheaper if you buy them by mail order, but if you haven't ridden the exact bike you want to buy bike, you could very well end up with one that doesn't fit you. Even if you have ridden the bike you want to buy, you should still get it from a local shop. Not only can you then get them to fix it if there are any problems with it, but they will also do swaps for you for little or no money. For example, they could add bar ends or change the stem, saddle, or shifters.

Go into all the shops that you would consider buying from, and see what they have in your price range. Take home a catalog so you can check out the details of the bikes (frame material, quality of components, suspension fork, etc). Or you can check out these details on the Web. This will allow you to find the highest quality bikes in your price range.

Go back to the shops and try out the bikes. Convince them to get a bike of your size in, if they don't have it already. If the bike doesn't fit you perfectly, see how willing they are to swap parts (e.g. stems) to get it there. After this, you should have a pretty good idea of what you want: you'll have found a good bike that fits you. If you're still uncertain as to what to buy, you can post to a mailing list or newsgroup to ask if anyone has experience with the bikes you're contemplating.

If you want, you can try to haggle a bit when you buy the bike. You'll have the best luck trying to get accessories for a reduced price rather than getting money off the bike itself. Here are some accessories you will need.

• Something to carry water. It's a good idea to start off with a water bottle and cage. Lots of people use water packs like Camelbak for mountain biking, but even these people often use water bottle for short trips.
• Basic lights, if there's ever any chance that you might be out on your bike after dark. These lights are of little use off-road, but they can be used as torches to get you back to roads if you're out later than you expect, and from there you can ride safely back home.
• A minimal toolkit
• Bike gloves. They protect your hands in case of a fall, give you a better grip on the handlebars, and help dampen shock.
• Helmet. You crash alot off-road, and there are hard things like rocks and roots along to bash your head against.

HAPPY RIDING!

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A minimal toolkit

by Myra VanInwegen

Here is a list of stuff you should take with you on every ride that's long enough that you wouldn't like to walk back from it. It will fix the most common problems you will have with your bike.

• A pump. The best ones for road use are the Xefal HP X pumps. You can get away with a mini-pump on mountain bikes, since they don't need such high pressure. The Blackburn Mammoth is the best I've seen.
• Tire levers for getting your tires off the wheels. Plastic ones are better than metal ones, as they won't damage your rim. For some mountain bike tires you can get away without this, as you can get the tires off the rims with just your fingers. Obviously, try this before going out without tire levers.
• A spare tube. This allows you to get back underway rapidly if you only get one puncture.
• A patch kit. You often get punctures in both tires. You can get either a traditional patch kit with rubber patches and glue, or a glueless patch kit like Park Super Patch. I find that the glueless patches don't work very well for me on road tubes, but they are fine for MTB tubes. However, they are more expensive than the traditional patches.
• If your wheels are fastened on with plain nuts (not with a quick release), you need a wrench (spanner) to remove and reinstall them. Either carry one of the right size, or a 6" or 8" adjustable spanner.
• Allen keys or wrenches (spanners) for the bolts on your bike. Most bolts on modern bikes have heads that take Allen (or hex) wrenches. If you take 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm keys, you'll cover most bolts on your bike. It's a good idea to see if this set covers what you'll need to adjust. You can get these in a folding tool that keeps them all together, or you can get them at part of a multi-tool. If you have an older bike, it will have lots of traditional bolts and nuts, which require open end or box end spanners (wrenches) to adjust. You should have a small adjustable wrench with you to tighten them up, or several sizes specific to the bolts on your bike.

Well, that's it. There are more things you can carry if you want, like screwdrivers, pliers, chain tools, and spoke wrenches. These sometimes come in useful, but they won't be needed as often as the items in the list above.

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All About Mountain Bike Tires

By Joeseph Pucci

Remember, changing the PSI level a few pounds for the trail condition can alter any tires performance. If it starts to rain, you can reduce the PSI a few pounds to give you a bit of extra grip.

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Build a super-bright LED tail light

by Myra VanInwegen

My goal for this light was to have a simple, reliable, bright tail light with a wide angle of visibility. I don't like flashing lights so I wanted mine to have a steady on mode only. This made the circuit much easier! The LEDs I chose were hyperbright wide angle LEDs. They are actually two 30 degree red LED devices stuck together in one clear plastic package, so the viewing angle is 60 degrees along one axis and 30 degees along the other. The resulting package has three leads; the center one is the shared anode (gets the positive voltage), and the two outer leads are the cathodes for the component LEDs (they get the negative voltage). Note that the description of these LEDs in the Maplin catalog is incorrect, as it says that the middle lead is the common cathode. For my light I aligned the LEDs so that the 60 degree axis was horizontal, giving lots of side visibility.

The Maplin catalog seems to suggest that all the their ultrabright and hyperbright LEDs should be run at 1.8V. However, they gave the current at 1.8V as 20mA for all the LEDs, most of which were the usual two-lead LEDs. I measured the current with 1.8V applied to both of the component LEDs in my 3-lead LED and got 30-33mA. I used 30mA in my calculations.

I planned to power this with my Lumicycle battery, which is a 13.2V NiMH battery. The idea is to have several LEDs in series with a resistor to limit the current going through the LEDs. Theoretically, I could have had 7 of the LEDs in a row (7 * 1.8V = 12.6V), with a resistor to make up the remaining 0.6V. This would have resulted in a resistor of 20ohms (R = V/I, where R = resistance in ohms, V = voltage in volts, and I = current in amps).

However, the battery's voltage varies over its discharge cycle, and using such a low-valued resistor would have allowed the current through the LEDs to vary a great deal over the operating voltage of the battery. So instead I used 6 LEDs, making 10.8V. To make up the remaining 2.4V, I needed a resistor of 80ohms. The closest we had in the box-o-resistors was 82ohms, so that's what went into the circuit.

Since I wanted a fairly bright light, I used two strings, each of which consisted of 6 LEDs and an 82ohm resistor, as shown in the circuit diagram below:

The rectangles are the resistors, and the triangles with the vertical lines at the point are the LEDs (the slanted lines coming from them are meant to resemble light rays). The slanted line below the "bat +" is the switch. The current flows in the direction the triangle points (from left to right in the diagram). In diode terminology, for each LED the anode is the side with the flat part of the triangle, and it gets the positive voltage, while the cathode is the part next to the vertical line, and is gets the negative voltage.

If the battery you want to use has a different voltage than the Lumicycle battery, or if you want to use different LEDs, you can use similar reasoning to work out how many LEDs to have in a string and the size of the current-limiting resistor.

One problem was what to put the circuit in. What I really needed was a clear box, or at least a box with a clear lid. Maplin didn't have any appropriate boxes, but I hit pay dirt in the Farnell catalog. I used a bracket for a VistaLite 5-LED tail light to attach the light to the seat post: I have a couple of these VistaLites mounted directly to racks, so I had some spare mounts.

The electrical supply to the circuit was accomplished by an in-line (i.e. attached to wires) 2.5/5.5mm power socket. I needed an in-line socket because the Lumicycle power cord wasn't quite long enough to reach the seat post. If your power cords are longer, you'll be able to get away with using a panel-mount power socket mounted in the side of your box. The 2.5/5.5mm power plugs used by Lumicycle are common in the bike lighting world: I have owned VistaLite and NiteRider systems that used the same size plug. However, make sure you check what kind of power plug your battery has, and get a socket to match. In my parts list below I have included the in-line socket, although I didn't really have to buy it (I had one already, salvaged from an AC/DC converter).

The switch I used came from Maplin. It seems to be very similar to the toggle switches used in Lumicycle lighting heads. The switch has two positions and a very positive action: it doesn't jump from one position to the other with jolting caused by riding off-road. It actually has three contacts on the bottom: in one switch position the switch connects the middle contact to one side contact, and in the other position the middle is connected to the other side. I soldered it up with the positive connection of the battery going to the middle contact, and the positive voltage supply to the circuit coming from one of the side contacts. I also got a rubber waterproof switch cover to keep the circuit dry.

Well, that's about it. Drilling holes in the box, installing the socket and switch and wiring everything up was tedious but straightforward. The result is a very bright, lightweight, robust light that consumes about 0.8W of power. (P = IV, P = power in watts, I = current in amps, V = voltage; for my light voltage was 13.2V and current was .06 amps because I'm using two strings in parallel.) You can see it all wired up below.

Part numbers

All the parts came from either Maplin or Farnell.

In the above table I haven't accounted for things like wires, resistors, and the mounting bracket, as we already had these. The total cost was 23.44 UKP. Quite favorable in comparison to say the NiteRider tail light, which is somewhere around 50 quid!

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Mountain Biking

Gear & Equipment Guide: Mountain Bikes

By Eric Hagerman

If you want a bike that you can actually ride in the
dirt--even if that dirt comes in the form of an unpaved road--you'll want to spend at least $400 to $450. For about $800 you can get a front-suspension mountain bike that even the most avid riders will respect. As you go into the four-figure range, you'll be paying for dual suspension, lighter weight, greater durability, increased cachet, or some combination thereof.

Suspension
Any good mountain bike will have a suspension fork in the front for shock absorption. So your first real decision is whether you want a dual-suspension bike or a so-called hardtail. The latter, which has only front suspension and thus is typically lighter in weight, has traditionally been the choice for people who want to ride up hills as well as bomb down them. But that's starting to change: Bikes with shocks in the rear as well as the front are getting lighter, making them more suited to climbing. Perhaps the ideal balance of weight versus cushioning is a hardtail supplemented by a suspension seatpost, which gives you a little extra shock absorption for very little weight.

Frame
The frame is what gives a bike its ride quality, so get the best one your budget will allow. With aluminum and steel (often "cromoly") frames, this means making sure the tubes are "butted"--thin at the middle to save weight and thick at the joints for the requisite strength. Don't let anyone tell you that an aluminum frame is by definition lighter and stronger than steel--both can offer light, resilient rides, though all things being equal, aluminum is stiffer and cromoly more lively. Titanium, the metal of choice among connoisseurs, is lighter and stiffer than both and will never rust, but will put a heftier dent in your pocketbook. Finally, there's carbon fiber, which really deserves a category unto itself. It can be even lighter than titanium, stiffer than aluminum, and more comfortable than steel. But it's also superexpensive and essentially a glorified form of plastic, making it somewhat less durable than the other alternatives.

Wheels
Consider this: A rear wheel outfitted with a cassette (for shifting gears), inner tube, and tire weighs as much as an entire bike frame. So to keep it as svelte as possible, make sure your prospective purchase has aluminum rims, aluminum spoke nipples, and double-butted spokes. Also, ask if the hubs are of the same caliber as the rest of the parts--some manufacturers skimp on the hubs becuase it's hard to tell that they're doing so.

Shifters
Shimano or Grip Shift? Most riders have a strong opinion, so be wary of pushy salesfolk, since it truly is a matter of personal preference. (Full disclosure: I use Grip Shift for my front derailleur, and Shimano XT Rapidfire for the rear.) Grip Shift works like a motorcycle throttle: You twist through a series of clicks by cocking your wrist. It's lighter than Shimano but unquestionably less durable because it's made of plastic. Shimano Rapidfire shifters have two aluminum triggers that you operate with your index finger and thumb. They're comfortable, intuitive, and require very little effort. Both systems work equally well when tuned up, but I think the Shimano system requires less ride-to-ride fiddling.

The Extras
Make sure the shop will exchange the bike's seat if it's not comfortable and the stem if it doesn't give you the right fit. They should do this for free before you leave the shop. Also, make 'em throw in a couple of water-bottle cages--they're like the floormats for a new car

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Strong Durable Bike Wheels

by Myra VanInwegen

Everyone wants strong wheels that stay true and don't buckle. On top of that, they want them light and cheap. Well, the good news is that you actually can go a long ways towards getting this ideal wheel. This article aims to cover the basics of what you need to know to approach this, whether you want to make your own wheels, or whether you want to select parts for a wheel that someone else will build for you.

Almost everything I know about wheelbuilding comes from reading Jobst Brandt's book The Bicycle Wheel. If you want to be an expert in wheelbuilding, buy it and read it. This article has only a small amount of info that isn't contained in the book. My main purposes are to provide info on parts of wheels for people who want others to build their wheels, and to inspire people who are thinking of building their own wheels.

What makes a strong wheel?

The strength of a wheel comes mostly from the spokes, and secondly from the rim. To have a strong, durable wheel, the quality of the wheelbuilding is far more important than the quality of the parts.

Most people seem to think that wheels fail in impacts because spokes break. In fact this isn't true. Most of the time when you have a buckled wheel, you'll find that despite the now potato-chip shape of your wheel, the spokes are all intact.

Wheels collapse when one of more of your spokes loses tension as a result of an impact. Obviously, the spokes that lose tension are the ones right at the point of impact. Then there's nothing supporting the rim, and it twists. The tighter your spokes are to begin with, the further they have to go before they lose tension. Thus a high-tension wheel is one that will resist impacts well.

And yes, spokes do break, but it's not usually as the result of an impact, typically they just break as you're rolling along. Spokes break as a result of fatigue. If your wheel is loose, then every time the wheel goes around, it flexes a tiny bit, and eventually it breaks. In fact spoke breakages are the most telling sign of wheels that don't have high enough tension. If your spokes are tight, the spoke doesn't move as the wheel turns, so they can last much longer. Thus a high-tension wheel is one that will last a long time with few spoke breakages.

The rim does contribute to the strength of the wheel, which is why rims for downhill mountain biking or expedition style touring are quite wide. However, they do this at the expense of quite a bit of weight. While you don't want a rim that's too wimpy for your intended use, the best way to increase the strength of your wheel is to increase the spoke count and make sure the spokes are about as tight as they can be.

Another thing that affects the strength of the wheel is the amount of dishing. This is mainly a problem with the rear wheel, although it is an issue with front wheels with disc brakes as well. On a normal front wheel, you have flanges equidistant from the center of the hub, and spokes go from these flanges to the rim. The spokes coming from each flange go at the same angle to the rim. On the other hand, consider a rear wheel. The right side of the hub has to have room for lots of sprockets, so the right side flange is much closer to the center than the left side flange. Thus if the rim is aligned with the center of the hub as it should be, the left side spokes will be more slanted than the right side spokes (in some cases the right hand spokes are nearly vertical). Thus, in order to keep the rim in the center, the right hand spokes will have to be much tighter than the left hand spokes. When the wheelbuilder is tensioning the wheel, the right side spoke will reach their maximum tightness long before the left spokes will. It is the weakness of the less-tight left hand spokes that makes a highly dished wheel (one where the angle difference between the left and right spokes is great) less strong and less durable than a wheel with less dish.

In order to offset the growing numbers of cogs used in the rear wheel, the total width of hubs has been expanding. Fixed gear track hubs have an over-locknut (basically, the width of the space between the dropouts on the bike) width of 110mm. The old 5 and 6-speed screw-on hubs have a width of 126mm. Now hubs are usually 130mm wide for road use, 135mm wide for off-road or touring use, and 140mm to 160mm wide for tandems. The idea with the wider hubs is to put more distance between the right flange and the center of the hub, so that there still will be a decent slant to the right hand spokes. You can then move the left hand flange in a bit to try to make the angle more equal.

Ingredients

Hubs

At the center of it all is your hub. Almost all hubs have aluminum shells and flanges (the bits of the hub with spoke holes). First, it's lighter than steel. Second, the flanges deform a bit to support the spokes better. (This is why if you build a wheel using an old hub, you should look closely at the hub and lace it up the same way as it was used before.)

For the purposes of building a wheel, what you want are flanges that are going to support the spokes properly and aren't going to rip apart. To achieve this, the main thing to look for is a hub that's built via forging rather than being CNC machined. CNC machining allows the manufacturer to make all sorts of fancy shapes, but the result isn't as strong as an equivalent forged part.

In my opinion, there isn't much point in buying anything other than Shimano of Campagnolo hubs. They are good quality forged hubs and are good value for money. The only exception is if you want disc brakes. Shimano have gotten into the game only recently, and their offerings aren't as good as others yet. In particular they're quite a bit heavier than most other hubs. But given their track record, in a few years they'll have top-notch disc hubs.

Rims

Rims should be made of aluminum. Steel may last longer, since the sidewalls don't wear out under braking as with aluminum rims, but they are an absolute nightmare when it's wet. If you've got steel rims in the rain you're more likely to stop yourself by putting your foot down than by using the brakes. The only way to make steel rims work in the wet is to use leather brake blocks, which wear out very quickly. In addition, steel rims are heavier than aluminum ones. Wheels with alu rims also survive impacts better: they are less stiff than steel rims, so they bend a little bit under an impact, spreading the load to more spokes. This helps to prevent spokes from losing tension and collapsing the wheel.

Rims can vary in cross-section from a simple squared-U shape, to a multi-cavity box. In general, the bigger the cross-section, the more walls, and the thicker the walls are, the stronger the rim is. For most purposes, a narrowish (say 19 to 23mm width) single cavity (a simple box) rim will do fine. If you want something stronger you can get wider rims (for off-road and touring use) or deeper rims (for fast road use). The deep-section rims have the additional advantage of being a fair bit more aerodynamic than one with a more square profile.

Most better rims have steel eyelets lining the holes for the spokes. These distribute the stress of the spokes to a slightly larger section of the inner wall of the rim, making the rim less likely to crack. Some box-section rims have "double eyelets" which form a little cylinder in the cavity between the walls of the rim. This can help distribute stress from the spoke to the other wall of the cavity (the one nearer the tire) and also helps to prevent your nipples from going wandering in the cavity while you're lacing up the wheel. Unfortunately, many rims are made with only single eyelets.

Rims are extruded as straight bits, then coiled up into circles, and then the ends of the hoops are joined together. The old way to put rims together was to simply line them up accurately, put a small insert in the cavity, and press the two ends of the rim together. The newer way to do this is to weld the ends together, and then machine the sidewalls so they are even. The benefits of the old system were simplicity. Sometimes there would be a slight misalignment at the join, and this would result in the join catching at your brakes. However, the braking quickly wore this smooth. The benefit of the new system is that it's nicer right out of the box: there is no unevenness at the join. In addition the little ridges left by the machining initially improves your braking performance, but this wears off quickly, leaving smooth aluminum. The drawback is that it's a more expensive process which leaves the walls thinner. Of course you can argue that the walls are designed thicker to start out with, so machining leaves them with the right wall thickness. But then this is a waste of materials, and you're likely to end up with a varying wall thickness.

What the pinned or welded-and-machined argument boils down to is the initial impression. Once your brakes have worn down the unevenness of the join or the little machined ridges, both rims perform the same, except that the walls of the machined rims may be thinner or even an uneven thickness. Welded-and-machined rims cost quite a bit more than the old pinned rims. Given a choice, I would buy pinned rims exclusively, but they are getting hard to find. I do sometimes manage to pick them up at bike rallies, and when I find them there they're generally dirt cheap.

Some rims meant to go into rear wheels have spoke holes that are offset to one side. The idea is that you build up the wheel with the spoke holes offset towards the non-drive (left) side of the rear wheel. This decreases the angle of the left spokes while increasing the angle of the right spokes. With more equal angles, they are more equal in tension as well, allowing the left hand spokes to be tighter when the wheel is tensioned up. This theoretically makes the wheel stronger, but there doesn't seem to be any proof that it works in practice. As for me, I'm convinced by the theory and tend to by asymmetric rear rims, unless I'm buying vintage pinned rims, which definitely don't come in asymmetric versions.

Rims can have several finishes put on them. Some finishes are strictly decorative, giving a nice color to the rim. Hard anodizing (Mavic calls this CD) is touted by rim manufacturers as something that makes the rim stronger or longer-lasting. However, it is best avoided. If the anodizing is on the sidewall of the rim, then it will make the sidewall last slightly longer: first the black stuff wears off the brake surface, and then the aluminum underneath starts to wear. So theoretically your sidewalls could last a bit longer. However, this coating wears off quickly, so this is of minimal benefit. Furthermore, the anodizing decreases braking power considerably. You'll be eager for that black stuff to wear off your rim as then your brakes will start to work again... In fact some rims are machined after anodizing so the rim starts off with a clean braking surface.

You might then think that once the sidewalls have been scraped clean by your brakes (or the machining) that you'll then have some protection from the bits of it still clinging to the spoke bed. However, this not only does no good, but can lead to premature failure of your rim. The anodized layer is hard and brittle. Rims do flex slightly as they go around, and the anodizing can crack. These cracks can then propagate into your rim, and then the spokes can rip out of their holes. I'm not sure how seriously to take this danger of cracking. After all, I've had some hard anodized Mavic MA40 rims for years and have had no problems with cracking, so it may do no harm to your wheels. But it certainly won't do any good either. If you really want black rims, go for a cosmetic anodizing instead.

A ceramic coating on your rims is a more useful thing. This coating takes ages to wear off, and in fact doesn't come off at all unless you nick it with a rock. Once it starts to come off it will gradually flake off, but even if you ride in a very rocky area you can still get greatly increased rim life. In addition, braking in the wet is improved. There are some downsides though. First, the cost. The ceramic coating can just about double the price. If you generally retire wheels due to trashing the rims rather than wearing them through, ceramic rims will not be cost-effective. Second, the coating insulates the rim. Usually when you brake, the heat of braking goes into the rim where it is then dissipated. The ceramic layer prevents this, so all the heat stays in your brake blocks, and they can melt. You need to buy special brake pads for use with ceramic rims to prevent this. Third, although braking in the wet is better with ceramic rims, even with ceramic-specific pads it isn't quite as good in the dry as bare alu rims.

Spokes

Spokes are mostly made from steel. On very expensive wheels, you can get titanium, carbon fiber, or aluminum spokes, but steel is the standard choice for several reasons. First, steel is cheap. Second, it is strong and has good fatigue resistance. Third, it's easy to cut smooth, strong threads in it for the nipples.

So the main things you need to ask yourself is: what shape (profile), how many spokes, and what thickness? First, shape. Almost all spokes are round in cross section. If you want the wheels for time trialling or triathlon, where you'll be going very fast and aerodynamics are important, you can get ones that are a bit flattened in profile. However, if you get them too flattened, you won't fit them through the hole in the hub. You can get special hubs for this if you're desperate for very areo wheels.

Second, number. Low spoke count wheels are trendy nowadays. But let's face it: spokes really don't weigh all that much, and they are really what gives the wheel its strength. So you really gain very little by using few spokes. Consider, for example, Rolf wheels. They have very few spokes, but the rims have to be heavier in order to provide structure for the wheel in the large gap between spokes.

Still, if you're very light and ride only on the road you'll be putting less stress on your wheels than if you're heavy or ride off-road, so you can get away with fewer spokes. As a general guide: for road riding, 32 spokes make a good durable wheel, while if you're large, ride off-road, or go touring, 36 spokes is better. If you're light and want a light wheel, 28 spokes will do. 28 spokes is also fine for a racing wheel, where you're willing to trade off some strength for speed (reduced spoke count makes for reduced areo drag) and lightness. For off-road riding, the greater strength of MTB rims (their smaller diameter and wider profile) means that most people can get away with 32 spokes. Heavy people or people who want to carry a significant load off-road, dirt jumpers, or downhillers would be better off 36 spokes. Tandems generally need more than 36 spokes: 40 or 48 is the norm.

Third, thickness. Here, you not only have a choice of how thick you want the ends of the spoke to be, but also a choice of having spokes that are narrower in the middle. The spokes that are thinner in the middle are called double butted. Double butted spokes are definitely the way to go. They are slightly lighter than straight gauge spokes, but their main advantage is that they make a stronger wheel. The thinner middle section allows them to stretch a bit when the wheel is hit, spreading the load to neighboring spokes to help distribute the impact. This helps to prevents the elbow near the spokes head from flexing (which leads to fatigue and spoke breakage), and also takes the stress away from the rim wall near the nipples.

One of the most common myths about wheels is that double-butted spokes will make your wheels weaker. Where people get this idea from, I have no idea. Spokes almost never break in the middle, only at the ends (usually near the spoke head), so common sense should tell anyone that a wheel built from double-butted spokes will be at least as strong as one built from straight gauge spokes. In fact because of their greater elasticity, double-butted spokes result in a stronger wheel.

In general, the thicker the spoke is near the head, the stronger it will be. However since spokes mainly fail from fatigue (see above, under What makes a strong wheel?) if the wheel is built well, this does not make a big difference. So don't go thinking that to have strong wheels, you need to have super-thick spokes. In fact you'd be better off by having more thinner spokes to distribute the load better.

I tend to use 14/15/14 gauge (2mm/1.8mm/2mm) DT stainless steel spokes in all my wheels, mainly because that's what the local bike shop stocks. I wouldn't hesitate to use 15/16/15 gauge (1.8mm/1.6mm/1.8mm) spokes if they were as easy to come by. You can also get spokes that are drastically thinner in the middle than they are at the edges, such as DT's Revolution spokes, which are 14/17/14 or 15/17/15 gauge. I wouldn't use these because it's hard to prevent spoke windup (twisting of spokes) with these spokes as they have so little torsional rigidity. However, if you're getting the wheels built by someone else, use them by all means as long as you don't mind the extra cost.

Nipples

With nipples there's much less choice. You get nickel-plated brass ones, or aluminum ones. The brass ones are stronger, and the brass helps to lubricate the threads a little. (However, this alone is usually not sufficient, so it's best to put some grease or oil on the threads of your spokes before putting on the nipples to make sure they don't bind when the tension is getting high.) The alu are lighter, but in most people's opinion there is not enough of a weight savings to make up for their shortcomings. Serious wheelbuilders use brass nipples.

Tools for the DIY approach

First and foremost you need a spoke wrench. The best one you can get without paying a fortune is the Spokey. It's a cheerful plastic disc with nipple-gripping bit on one side. The advantages of the Spokey are that the textured disc is easy to hold and gives you lots of leverage, it grips the nipple well, and it's inexpensive. Just make sure you get the right size for the nipples you use.

While it's possible to build a wheel without a wheel truing stand (using your brake blocks to tell you when the wheel is out of true) the task is made immensely easier with the use of a proper stand. You need to look for several things. First, it's useful if the feelers for the left and right sides of the rim can be moved independently, so you can choose which bumps to take care of first. Second, you need a gauge that goes up against the edges of the rim so you can check radial trueness.

I've used two truing stands. I wasn't pleased at all the the TACX Scorpio. The feelers didn't move independently. One knob moved them both in or out, and you had very little fine control over this movement. In addition it had nothing to help you with radial trueness. The Minoura Workman Pro I now own is much better. The feelers are simple screws, so you can move them independently and have fine control over how close they are to the rim, and there's a little movable plate for radial trueness. My only complaint is that the plastic bit that holds the feelers and the plate has cracked. I haven't been abusing it, so this suggests that it isn't very durable. It still hasn't broken though. Regular Performance catalog shoppers should note that the Minoura Workman Pro is exactly the same as the Performance Spin Doctor Truing Stand.

Finally, you need a dishing tool to make sure that the rim is centered between in the middle of the hub. These are pretty basic and all are similar. I have one by Minoura, but I'm sure any would do.

Building a wheel

Lacing

Making a wheel from the constituent parts has basically two phases. First, you put everything together. This is called lacing. I've done this enough times that it's pretty automatic, but there's no point in me typing it all out, as others have described it so well already. See Part II of Jobst Brandt's book The Bicycle Wheel, which has excellent illustrations. Or see Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding pages. I'll only mention here that you should thoroughly grease the spoke threads before you start. That makes them easy to turn in the nipples and allows you to get the needed tension.

Tensioning and truing

Once you've laced the wheel up, screw all spokes in until the threads of the spokes just disappear into the nipple. Then shove the thing on your wheel truing stand and get tightening.

Basically, the idea is to bring up the tension of the wheel while maintaining lateral trueness (lack of side to side wiggles), radial trueness (even distance of rim to hub) and dishing (equal distance from rim to locknut on both sides of wheel). For the first, you have the feelers feeling the sides of your rim to tell you when they're out of true. For the second, any decent truing stand will have a bar that you put next to the rim, and where it scrapes, that part is further from the hub. For dishing, you have your dishing tool, which is basically an arch with feet on the ends of the arch (you put that on the rim) and a feeler hanging down from the top of the arch. You adjust the feeler so that it just hits the locknut on one side of the wheel, and hopefully it just hits the locknut on the other side.

If the thing is out of true laterally, what I do is try to bring up the tension at the same time as I'm truing, by finding a place where the rim is out of true, and finding a looser spoke opposite the bulgy side (find looser spoke by plucking), and tightening that until it's roughly the same tension as the spokes near it. If there isn't a looser spoke, I tighten up two or three of the spokes a bit (half turn maybe) to bring up the tension.

If the thing is out of true radially, I tighten a few spokes near the bulge about a half turn, and ones next to those about a 1/4 turn, tightening spokes on both sides of the wheel. (Again my goal is to increase tension as I'm doing my truing).

If the thing is dished wrong, set up the feeler on the dishing tool so that it hits the locknut on one side, but has a gap between feeler and locknut on the other side. (Only do the dishing bit when the rim is laterally true; if you have side-to-side bulges you get different results depending on where you put the dishing tool on the rim.) Say we're looking at the wheel so that the gap side is on the right. Now, your goal is to bring the rim further to the left to try to close up that gap. What you need to do is tighten the spokes on the left (non-gap) side. Don't tighten too much at once here. Maybe 1/2 (or even 1/4, if the gap isn't too big) turn per spoke on the left hand side. This will bring the rim slightly closer to the left, giving a small gap on the left side, and making the gap on the right side smaller. Hopefully the gaps are now the same size, and when you realign your feeler, you'll get it just touching the locknut on both sides.

Your goal is to get a wheel that's true in all three senses, and tensioned enough. "Enough" is hard to gauge when you're starting out, but a rough rule of thumb is that the nipples should be quite hard to turn when you're finished. If you've managed to get all three aspects true but the wheel isn't to a high enough tension, then tighten all spokes about 1/2 turn, and retrue. Repeat until done.

When you're tightening (or even loosening spokes), turn the spoke a bit past the amount you're trying to tighten (or loosen) then back off. So if you want to tighten by 1/2 turn, then tighten by 3/4 turn, then loosen 1/4 turn. This helps prevent spoke windup (twisting of spokes). Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, you can end up with windup. This is the method I use to let the spokes unwind. Put a magazine on the floor and pull the quick release skewer out of the hub. Put on end of the hub on the magazine, and put your hands on two opposite places on the rim, then lean your weight on your hands. This releases the tension on the lower spokes just beneath your hands and lets them unwind if they've got wound up, making a pinging sound. Go around the rim this way, then turn over and repeat. You'll then have to put the wheel back on the truing stand to make sure this hasn't made the wheel go out of whack. If you've gotten spoke windup and you don't do this, you'll hear the pinging noises when you go to ride your bike with your new wheel.

Stress relieving

Once you've got your wheel all tight and true, you want to stress relieve it. This relieves minute stresses that may have built up in the spokes. Again, see The Bicycle Wheel or Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding pages for info on how to do this.

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What to look for in a women's bike

by Myra VanInwegen

This is meant to be a guide for the sort of things you should look for if you're buying a bike for a woman, whether it's a "women's specific bike" or not. It covers all kinds of bikes, whether for on-road or off-road use.

Frame Size and Design

This is the most important part of buying a bike, as the frame is the heart of the bike.

Bars and Stems

One of the main concerns for women is getting the bars closer to them. This can be achieved by both getting the bars futher back (via a shorter stem) and higher up. Getting the bars higher can be accomplished by getting a stem that has an upward slope in the extension part (an old-fashioned quill stem consistes of two parts, the quill that goes down into the steerer tube, and the extension that goes forward and grips your bars; if you have a threadless stem, the entire length of the stem is the extension), getting a stem with a longer quill (if you use a quill stem) or getting a longer steerer tube on your fork (if you have a threadless stem).

You should also consider the width of your handelbars. For both road and mountain bikes, the width of the handelbars should have some relation to the width of your shoulders. Since women generally have narrower shoulders than men, they shouldn't have the same width bars. I'm 5'5" (medium height for a woman) and I get along pretty well with 23" to 24" MTB bars, and this is using bar ends, which moves the grips in a bit. Many MTB magazines will complain if a bike has bars that are "only" 24" wide, and praise bikes with substantially wider bars. Remember that the reviewers are exclusively men (unless they're reviewing a women's specific bike), so take their comments with a grain of salt. Also keep in mind that I like 24" bars for real technical off-road riding, where wide bars are very useful for meneuvering the bike around tricky bits of track. When I use flat bars on the road, I prefer them narrower. My commuter bike (essentially a hybrid) has 21" bars, which I find perfect. However, before you cut your bars this short, make sure you can fit everything you want on your bars. My commuter bike is a fixed gear, so I didn't have to leave space for shifters!

Many MTBers use "riser bars", handlebars which bend upwards and back a bit away from the stem area. They can be useful for raising the grips up if you can't get the hand position up high enough otherwise, but they have a problem for women: they are usually significantly wider than flat bars. This means that you can end up with bars that are far too wide for you, and you really can't cut off the ends of them, because they curve at the wrong place, preventing from moving your shift and brake levers far enough in. One handlebar which offers quite a bit of rise, but is not too wide is the Juliana handlebar, made by Wylder. It also has a narrower grip area, allowing you to use grips that are either much thinner, or much better padded, than standard grips. However, this thinner grip area prevents you from using bars ends or SRAM twist-shift levers, so if you like these things, you'll have to look elsewhere for a solution.

For road bikes, I find that I am comfy with road bike bars that are 40cm wide (center to center). I think this is wider than the bars many women of my size use, perhaps because I do alot of MTBing. I also like bars that have a short reach and shallow drop, like the Morphe bars.

Another drop handlebar that is very useful is the Terry handlebar, which has indentations to put your hands closer to the brake levers when your hands are on the drops. This is especially useful if you want to use Shimano or Campagnolo integrated shifter/brake levers. These levers put the brake lever even further from the bar than the usual drop bar brake lever, making them more difficult to use from the drops with small hands. I do have quite small hands and have difficuly reaching plain brake levers, and even worse problems reaching integrated shift/brake levers from the drops.

Brake Levers

Note that Dia Compe make short-reach brake levers (the BL-24C) for drop bars, but these tends to have more cable friction than brake levers from Campagnolo and Shimano, which compounds the problem that women often have a weaker grip than men. Magura make hydralic rim brakes that with drop bars, which, as Chris points out, help by reducing losses from cable friction and stretching.

Despite the difficulties of reaching the brakes/shifters from the drops, many women still prefer to use Shimano or Campagnolo integrated brake/shift levers because of the convenience of operating them from the brake lever hoods. If you have small hands and want to use these levers, consider getting the Terry handlebars mentioned above. Another thing to consider is that Shimano Sora shift/brake levers have an adjustment screw that brings the levers closer to the bars, which can help. I find that Campagnolo and Shimano shifter/brake lever combination equally easy to use while riding with my hands on the brake lever hoods, and equally difficult to use while riding on the drops. However, the Campag levers are wider when you're riding on the hoods, and some women who have very small hands find the Campag levers pinch nerves in the gap between their thumb and forefinger.

For MTB brake levers, there's little problem, as long as you take advantage of the reach adjustment screw found on your MTB brake levers. Setting these up properly makes it much easier to reach the brake levers.

Saddles

The place where "women's specific" bits most often show up is in the saddle. However, there is by no means any agreement about what makes an appropriate saddle for a woman. Maybe women find they don't get on with women's saddles at all, and I'm one of these.

Cranks

Another very important feature to look for are crank lengths that suit the length of the rider's leg. Some women are quite short, and yet most manufacturers expect them to use the same crank lengths as tall guys, or at best they put 175mm cranks on big bikes and 170mm cranks on small bikes. This is only a 3% difference, for an entire line of bikes with typical sizes for MTBs 16" to 22" (a 38% difference) and for road bikes 49cm to 62cm (a 27% difference). In fact the big bikes ought to have much longer cranks and the smaller ones shorter cranks.

See also

• Pamela Blalock's comments on women's bikes. I am amazed at how much she and I agree about the causes and fixes for women's discomfort on a bike.
• Chris Juden's test of touring bikes for small women

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