Hello world!

A long time ago, I was a cycle messenger. Since then I've ridden around bicycles around cities for fun and personal transportation. My reflexes aren't especially good and I'm actually quite clumsy, so after a while friends and occasionally friends of friends would approach me and ask why I was still alive - usually after a close bicycle propelled approach to being otherwise.

Eventually I realized that most of the people I know who use bicycles, especially in cities, are at more risk of death, injury, and being ripped off by bicycle thieves, bicycle sellers, and bicycle manufacturers than they need to be, hence this blog. Because while riding a bicycle is (as you might have guessed) pretty damn simple, it isn't quite as simple as people think. There are odd bits of knowledge that can save your life and others that can save you from making a maintenance mistake that could cost you $500 in new components for your pretty racing bike.

So my purpose in this blog is to pass on those simple rules - which usually no one tells you and you have to learn by years of experience - which can save you from death, injury, and being ripped off. These are things like -

• Knowing how to use your front brake so that you can make lightning emergency stops yet never risk coming over your bikes handlebars
• How specify an option for your bicycle's chain that will cost you $5 extra but will let you save that $500 bill with hardly any effort
• Where and why most accidents happen and how to avoid them
• Which brakes to buy on a bike if you intend to ride in the rain
• How to choose a fast bike suitable for riding on potholed roads, how to choose a bike that suits a heavier rider, how to get the store you buy your bike at to customize your bike for lower maintenance, how to avoid your bike being stolen...

Whenever possible I'll quote and link to real scientific papers and engineering studies. This might seem boring and anal, but a lot of the "everyone knows" stories about bicycles on cycling forums are nonsense. This is nonsense that has often being carefully groomed by astute bicycle marketing people; among many other things we have to thank the cycling industry for, it arguably invented much of modern marketing in the nineteenth century, including the idea of planned obsolescence. Following this common mis-advice can cost you hundreds of dollars every time you buy a bike, but I don't think I should expect you to take my word against half a dozen Internet know-it-alls just because I so - hence real evidence.