Tire and tubes are most common wear & tear parts of bicycle. 4 types of bicycle flats such as slow leak, punctures, pinch cuts and blow out. Cyclists should know all these in order to determine whether your tubes & tires should be replaced.

Slow Leak

• Tire goes flat slowly and take long time to goes flat totally. This still can be ridden but just need to pump/inflate the air more frequent. Un-determine hole on the inner tube.
• Usually air inside can last 2-4 weeks before totally goes flat
• Causes: Rubber Material, Short life span of rubber, Wrong tube size using, bended valve
• Frequent of happen: Less
• Solution: Change a higher quality rubber tube (synthetic rubber)

Blowout

• Blowout means sudden happen of “bang”, “pop” sound when the inner tubes has no held by tire properly and cause the tube burst. A big holes can be found on the tubes.
• Causes: Weak wire bead surround tire, tread on tire goes flat, over pressure, etc
• Frequent of happen: Less
  
• Solution: Change new tire & tube

Punctures

• This is the most common case to every cyclist. Inner Tube is cut through by a sharp/narrow small piece of sharp thing on the road/off-road. A small hole found on the inner tube.
• Causes: Construction road, sharp objects on the road, worn out tire, etc
• Frequent of happen: Frequent
  
• Solution: Change new inner tubes

Pinch Cuts

• This is also another common case of flat tire. Pinch cuts mean wheel running through a small holes, narrow gap or sharp edge and cause the create great pressure to the hitting point. A pinch cuts on the inner tube.
• Causes: Low pressure tires, sharp edge, worn out tires, inner rim tapes, etc
• Frequent of happen: Frequent
• Solution: Change new inner tubes

How to buy a new tubes?
Step 1: Get to know the size of the tires e.g 26×2.15, 20×1.50, etc
Step 2: Choose type of valve of your bike, schrader valve or presto valve

The post Type of Bicycle Tire Flats You Should Know appeared first on USJ CYCLES.

You have spent your little savings to buy yourself a brand new bike for your casual rides. Generally, your bike means a lot to you and losing it will make you sick and hinders much important progress.  I bet losing it in other way cannot be of much pain than letting it stolen. It is therefore important to have basic theft prevention measures at your finger tips to safeguard your bike from theft.

1. Never offer a ride to a stranger

2. Give your bike physical identity

There are several ways in doing this. You can brand your bike with a very unique mark. A good mark is the one you can identify it yourself and no one else. As a way of example, you can have a scratched symbol at the frame area, the seat post or even at the handle bar. You can do this by using a sharp object. Make sure the mark is permanent and easy to trace. These marks will help you to easily identify your bike whenever it is stolen or mixed up with other bikes of the same model.

Another way of giving it an identity is by painting it at rare physical areas. Think of painting it at the bottom of the seat, the edges of the handle, the frame joint etc. Paint it sparingly so that it will be hard for someone to conclude that it’s a mark for identifying your bike.

3. Consider safe parking areas

In most shopping outlets and major business premises in Malaysia, there are no designated parking areas for bikes. Some of these areas are under security watch while others are not. Try to identify the much secured places to park your bike. A parking area located at an open accessible place where people move freely is much safer than a hidden parking. You can even offer a token to a trust worthy person who is just at the parking area to act as a security checker for your bike. This will motivate him/her to be vigil on it. He can be someone who is tending to his business, someone waiting for a certain appointment or even a watchman. Essentially, observe any notice given at a certain parking “Bikes are parked at owner’s risk”.

4. Avoid over exposure of your bike at home where necessary

Statistics shows most riders’ bikes are stolen when the owners are not at home. Bike thieves are normally mostly attracted to some bike features that lure them to steal. You can shun the thieves away by ensuring that you keep your bike indoors ever especially when you are either travelling overseas or you have no regular use of it. By doing this, passerby thieves will not be able to trace your bike. Exposing your bike also gives a thief a chance to study the best way possible to steal it.

5. Use enhanced locking devices

In most bike theft incidences, bikes are stolen due to weak locking systems that offer easy access in breaking them. Thieves find it easier to hammer down a lock in seconds to free the bike and have a quick ride on it. This can be a thing of the past if one acquires much secured locks that can never be tampered in any way. A good bike lock should be firm, stable and unbreakable by any means of applied force.

Important Clue:  Never ever leave your bike unlocked in whichever place even at your own home area. 

Additional Tips

Simple ideas on confirming your stolen bike

• Keep safely all your documentations that you were given on purchase of your bike e.g. cash receipt, warranty (if any) and any relevant presentation that you can produce to prove ownership.
• Always be in a position to identify your own made marks on your bike and have a good explanation on how you came up with them. For example, you can confidently say “my bike has a paint patch on the mudguard, at the edges of the handle and at the frame joints,” of which you can prove by showing them up.

The post 5 ways to prevent bike theft appeared first on USJ CYCLES.

Cycling can be diversified to few groups. Riding your bike down from the rocky mountain, or ride your road bike up to the burly hill. Some may riding bike just for transport purposes or even leisure ride. All these are related to CYCLING. Bicycling is one of the best of all activities for improving our healths. From head to toes, the health benefits from bicycling are hard to beat.

• Immune System – The immune system serves to protect the body from infections and diverse systemic diseases. Regular cycling can strengthens the immune system.
• Mental Stress – Cycling has a considerable relaxing effect due to its uniform, cyclic movement which stablises the physical and emotional functions of the body.
• Heart –  Cycling is ideal for training the heart to be stronger which results in less stress of the heart. Based on study, it could reduce the risk of heart attack by 50%.
• Muscles – Riding a bike is great for re-activating and building your less active muscles, especially in the lower half of the body.
• Spinal disease and back pains – Posture and cyclic movement of the legs stimulates muscles in the lower back, where slipped discs are most likely to occur.
• Join protection – Cycling is good at protecting and feeding cartilages as the support given by the bicycle means that the forces that act as a result of body weight are significantly reduced.
• Oxygen Circulation – Through moderate cycling, it strengthens the respiratory muscles hence improved ventilation lungs and improve oxygen exchange.
• Blood pressure – Moderate cycling can prevent, or reduce, high blood pressure and so help to avoid stroke or damage to the organs.
• Waistline – Through cycling, you can burn a lot of calories, especially when you cycle faster than a leisurely pace, and cycling has been associated with helping to keep weight gain down.
• Coordination – Moving both feet around in circles while steering with both your hands and your body’s own weight is good practice for your coordination skills.

Resources:
Discovery – Health Benefits of Cycling
Cycling Helmet Organization

Image by Gemma Luker Illustrator

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Many of our customers do not know how to transport their bike for repairing, checking, upgrading parts, etc. Based on our experience, there are many ways to transport your bike easily and safely.

Firstly, transport the bike without using any transport rack / carrier. For those driving SUV, MPV, Truck car has not issue on this. How about car type like sedan? Sedan car users need to put extra effort and careful to prevent bike scratches the car body.

So how?

For 16″/20″ bike, you can keep the bike in the car boot or passenger seat easily.

Step 1: Enter from left door
Step 2: Place a carton paper/carpet on top the car seat/car cushion
Step 3: Bike rear wheel get in first (rear wheel on top the seat)
Step 4: Push until the end
Step 5: Front wheel will be on the floor
Step 6: If there anything that may poke the cushion (middle chain wheel, stand), place the thicker carton paper on it

NOTE: Put thicker paper or carpet just below the chain.

For 24″/26″ or larger wheel, you can only put the bike into car boot.

Step 1: Move all the stuffs to both sides of the car boot, make sure middle area is empty
Step 2: Prepare two large and thick carton papers/floor mat, and a long string (Nylon)
Step 3: One on top the car boot, the other one would be on top the bicycle
Step 4: Rear wheel get in first (NOTE: Gear components must be facing on top)
Step 5: Turn the pedals (bottom one) to face to you
Step 6: Turn the handler (front wheel facing on top)
Step 7: Put the carton paper on top the bike frame/handle/wheels whichever touching the car boot cover
Step 6: Use the strip to tighten up

Do you feel troublesome?

There is a proper or best solution is to get the bike car carrier. Bike car carrier is design in such a way that user can carry their bike easily to anywhere they like. Cost of one rear bike car carrier is normally cost thousand ringgit and below.

• Carry 2 – 3 bikes
• Mobility
• Stability
• Quick installation
• Available for any type of cars

Looking for budget bike car carrier yet quality one?
Click here to find out more! 

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