⚙️ If You Have Gears, Use Them ⚙️

Or lose them!

HAPPY NEW GEAR!

Srsly, those of you who have multiple sprockets on your freewheel or cassette, and/or on your chainset, please please PUH-LEASE use your gears? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

I know I know, it's so hard to remember to change them, it's just easier to leave them be, and maybe you don't actually know how to use them - but you know what you're doing when you do that?

THROWING MONEY DOWN THE TOILET
 

How to Use Gears?

My quick tips for using gears are:

1. Figure out which button/paddle/twist/lever makes things easier and which one makes things harder and just go from there. Don’t think about high/low gear or 1st/2nd/3rd/etc gear.

2. Downshift to an easier gear when you approach a stop. You can brake and shift at the same time! This puts you in an easier gear when you set off, with less pressure on components and your knees.

3. Use the rear derailleur for small changes in gearing, and the front derailleur for large changes, like when a hill is coming up.

4. If you have hub gears, STOP PEDALLING WHEN YOU SHIFT. If you keep pedalling you will destroy all the little gubbins inside. A customer pointed out that it’s like pushing the clutch down in a car to change gears manually. Genius explanation.

Nothing Lasts Forever

I'm sorry, but you have to hear this - parts on your bike are not going to last forever. They are called: CONSUMABLES. Guess what they do - go on, I'll wait (hint's in the name).
 

THEY ARE CONSUMED.

Yes my friends, the metal parts that make up your drivetrain (that's your chain, cassette/freewheel, and chainring[s]) will all wear down, albeit at different rates, THANK GOODNESS! For if they all wore down at the same time? The bike would explode all at once.

The Hierarchy of Wear

There is a hierarchy of wear in the drivetrain. It looks like this:

1. Chain

2. Cassette

3. Chainring

The chain dies first, then the cassette/freewheel, then the chainrings. And they each double in price as you go up the heirarchy. So, for example, an 8 speed chain is £13, an 8 speed cassette is £30, and chainrings are often £1/tooth each (so a 50 tooth chainring is £50.)

If you're riding almost every day in London, in most weathers, those of you with single speed through 10 speed chains, expect to change your chain at least once a year - and if you have 11 (or god forbid 13) speed, stop commuting with this bike or else expect to change your chain twice or even thrice a year (I'm sorry, but the industry doesn't make metal like they used to, they now mix it with cheese.)

But also it's not soft for no reason - remember that hierarchy I talked about? The chain is the sacrificial part, like Jesus. It gives its life so that your cassette and chainrings may live to see another day. If you replace your chain in time, before it reaches it's wear point (more on that in a sec), then you will SAVE MONEY IN THE LONG RUN.

Spend the money on replacing your chain regularly, and you could get 2-3 lives out of your cassette/freewheel/chainring(s) AND you prevent metal from going to landfill. (Recycling is dubious in this country.)

How do you check the wear of your chain? With a handy dandy cheap and useful tool called a Chain Checker, or Chain Wear Indicator!

We teach you how to use it in our Intro to Maintenance classes, and our How to Change a Chain & Cassette classes. Oh look, there are some coming up now:

---

I am not surprised by the US war machine’s veto in the UN for a ceasefire in Gaza, but what I am dismayed by is how they will use a woman of colour, a black woman no less, to be the face of that vote. Linda Thomas-Greenfield has voted against a ceasefire three times now. The tactic of using a minority group to do your dirty work just reeks of white supremacy hiding behind a shield of colourwashing (that is not a word and not a thing, but I am making it up here - like greenwashing, or pinkwashing, colourwashing is the illusion of a powerful organisation being diverse, making minority groups a shield against judgement or meaningful change.) Would anyone dare to question a black woman who is voting to keep bombing Palestinians?

Once you see this tactic, it cannot be unseen. The Tories use it liberally, and it’s everywhere in the bike industry, especially since 2020’s BLM movement. Faces of colour as the shield for a corporation that is still being run, to this day, by old white rich men.

Those in power will never give it up, it has to be wrestled from their cold dead hands.

Until we realise that it is better to work collectively, divisions will prevent us from ever making progress for the many (not the few…or the one 🖖). I enjoyed Joshua’s latest take on collectivism and unions.

You are not The Problem

---

I have been going for cold water dips for the past 3 winters now. They are a much needed slap in the face when my anxiety starts to take over. I love them (afterwards).

The past month has been a real roller coaster, so I’ve been going almost every other day. As I emerged from the water on Tuesday, my brain started playing a song that I hadn’t heard in over 20 years: You Get What You Give by the New Radicals. WTF? Thank you brain!!!

For those of you who were around in the 90’s like me, it’s a time machine of memories. And for you yunguns who are into the latest 90’s fashion wave, enjoy. It’s a great song, for everyone.

Ride on,

Jenni x