5 Tips for Your First Long Bike Ride

5. Pump up your tyres

Pump-up-your-tyres

You may well get away puncture-free, but neglect this basic bit of maintenance and you will absolutely be:

  1. Sacrificing speed and expending unnecessary physical energy (as the increased area of contact with the road creates additional friction),
  2. Shortening the life of your tyre (by increasing the wear on the tread and squashing the sidewalls as you ride),
  3. Risking damaging your wheel rims (if you hit a pothole or gutter hard and the tyre cannot offer enough resistance, the force will transfer straight into your rims, potentially buckling them)

To do their job properly, tyre pressure needs to remain within the range stipulated on the rubber of the sidewall – this recommended pressure range will change according to tyre thickness (among other factors) so don’t assume all bikes in the household need to be pumped up to the same pressure. The pressure you pump in will also start to drop slowly as soon as you ride on the tyres, and should therefore be topped up regularly to maintain performance.

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