Brakes and Gears

     There are several different kinds of brakes, gears, even pedals!  In this post we will go over the different types.

Caliper brakes

     There are three different kinds of  brakes. Caliper brakes, V-Brakes, and Hydraulic disc brakes.  Calipers are mostly found on road bikes because, although not as strong as the other two types, they are small and aerodynamic, in other words they don't have much wind resistance.  V-Breaks are on lots of hybrid and some amateur  mountain bikes, they are bigger than calipers, but more powerful. Due to there simple design, these brakes are the most easy to maintain. hydraulic disc brakes are seen on mid-high level mountain bikes. They resemble the brakes of a car or motorcycle, and do not interfere with the wheel as much.

Hydraulic disc brakes

V-brakes

Gears are next. The actual gears are pretty much the same on every bike, its the way they change that makes them different. there are two ways they change, Rapidfire, and Grip shift. Grip shift is on the handlebar and you simply twist it back and forth to go up and down.  rapidfire is more advanced and is simply two switches that you press to make the gears go up and down here are both pictured below

Rapidfire shift

Grip shift

panniers

panniers are bags that can be hung on the side of your bike or on the top of back wheel like this picture above. they can be hung to side of both the front wheel and the back wheel and they are hung from pannier racks. Different panniers have different ways to hang and different ways to put them on, but for the most part, there is an eyelet on your bike. It is located close to the where the hub of the wheel is nutted into the frame. and you screw it into it. then you put the pannier bag on, which is what you store everything in.  for the most part, panniers are for long biking trips, not short little mile bike rides, unless you are commuting to work. panniers are good for all kinds of biking when you need to carry something, and are much more portable than a trailer or backback. (or a suitcase).

An intro to Road Biking

Most of this blog has been about mountain biking. so now i will focus a little bit on road biking. the techniques of road biking are much like that of mountain biking, in my opinion mountain biking is much more fun, but you may enjoy road biking more!  ou can road bike with a mountain bike as well as a hybrid or a road bike.  So if you do not have a road bike you can still ride on the road.  you need to find a nice place to ride though, because otherwise, it might get a little boring.

Biking on a Rainy Day

Rainy Days are the most fun to bike on Except the cleaning up you have to do afterwards. mud is alot of fun to ride in, but it can harm your bike if you dont clean it up. also, if your gear and brake cables get wet they can rust inside there covers. if this happenns, take out the cables and put some oil on them, and then put some oil down the covers, this should help. you may also want to put some oil on your chain. Then take a brush and in all the cracks of your bike, mud finds those cracks and it will enhance your bikes performance if you clean them out.