{"id":175665,"date":"2019-10-07T12:29:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T12:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=175665"},"modified":"2019-10-11T08:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T08:48:00","slug":"do-you-need-a-new-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/10\/07\/do-you-need-a-new-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Need a New Bike?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought a solid walnut TV stand off some bloke on social media. I collected it from his house and he apologised for still being in his lycra. Within two minutes, we were contemplating the most difficult existential question a cyclist can ask themselves \u2013 does he need a new bike? Let\u2019s simplify this for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have children?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Your days of young, carefree carbon-fibre abuse are long gone. You barely glance at the Colnago hanging lightly from the garage rafters for fear it will mysteriously acquire yet another scratch. Forget rain bikes, you need to buy yourself a family-proof bike.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

Your other half can\u2019t complain if you\u2019re granting them moments of peace when taking the sprogs out for a \u201cfamily ride\u201d. The earlier you teach your kids how to slipstream and observe peloton etiquette the better. Buy yourself a metal-framed bike that can take some punishment \u2013 but still ensure your kids respect it as much as they would if it were the Colnago. A new bike!<\/p>\n

Do you own a car?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cars are wonderful but don\u2019t you find they get you everywhere a little too fast? One of the joys of cycling is that non-cyclists don\u2019t really know how long it takes you to cycle everywhere. Many of my non-cycling friends assume a 20-mile journey will take you the best part of 4 hours \u2013 and I do nothing to dispel this assumption.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

Owning a bike means you can go at your own pace \u2013 which is usually much faster than people assume. If you want to take your time on a journey, stop for a coffee and phone your mother for a chat, you can do this all on a bike and people won\u2019t be upset at how much time it took. If you arrive late in a car, you have to pretend you broke down or drove into a tree. A new bike!<\/p>\n

Do you want to go faster?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The trick to going faster is, of course, to buy a worse bike than the one you\u2019ve currently got. Buy a badly-welded, heavy, metal-framed single speed with a high gear ratio. Your first four months of ownership will be hell but you\u2019ll be able to impress your friends by flicking the tops off beer bottles with your steel-like tibialis anterior.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

So, a new bike doesn\u2019t have to be better than what you\u2019ve got. Trading down from your current bike will mean trading up your fitness. After a year of torture on your new bad bike, treat yourself to a ride on your old good bike. Like magic, it will feel like a new bike again. A new bike!<\/p>\n

Do you want to try riding on a slightly different surface?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Everyone knows it\u2019s impossible to ride a hardtail mountain bike on gravel. If you\u2019re intending to ride on any stone-aggregate type material, you\u2019ll need a purpose-made gravel bike. Make sure you don\u2019t accidentally purchase a cyclocross bike, which looks similar but is next to useless on gravel.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

And don\u2019t think twice about taking your vintage 50s Dawes on a pav\u00e9 riding holiday in Roubaix. You\u2019ll likely bend the frame in two. Make sure you opt for a surface-specific Roubaix frame that are designed to make cobbled streets as smooth as a freshly-tarmacked French autoroute. As my grandfather never told me, \u201cYou can never have enough bikes\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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