All about bicycles

Bicycle parts..

Types of bicycles

Tour bicycles are best suited for long rides in changing road conditions. These are bicycles made for expedition trips. These bicycles are made with one idea in mind: be strong. For instance, they usually have more spokes on their wheels to increase the usable workload. These bicycles can carry as much as 60 Lbs of extra weight, evenly spread over the back and front wheel racks. The ideal weight ratio should be around 70 / 30 for back to front racks. You do not want to put too much weight on the front wheel as it will greatly reduce your bicycle's maneuverability during turns. The bicycle will tend to want to keep a straight line path. So be carefully about weight ratios. Of course, as you load any bicycle with extra weight, you must pay close attention to your tire pressure. Inflate the tires at about the middle recommended value, between the minimal and maximal pressure values. These values are written on the side of the tire.

The brake system choice is also made toward stronger types of brakes such as the V-brakes or even disk brakes on newer, more expensive models. As the weight augments, it becomes harder to stop these bicycles, especially if you are traveling during rainy conditions. Dirt and mud can greatly diminish the efficiency of some braking systems. The V-brakes and disk brakes are much less sensible to this and will remain effective over all conditions.

A note about racks. You can see on the first picture that the front wheel rack is located lower, just over the wheel hub. This is the preferred front rack model. The reason is that the weight is lower, thus lowering the bicycle's center of gravity. This will provide a more steady and stable ride.

The ATB bicycles (all terrain mountain bicycle) are made with one goal, sustain about any physical stress that they encounter. Nowadays, shock absorbers are common on those types of bicycles. The fork shocks are almost standard on most mid to high-end ATB bicycles. There are various sub-types of ATB. From downhill ATB to cross country ones. Each has specific functionality and refinements, depending on the type of road they are built for. On downhill ATB, disk brakes and rear wheel shocks are common. This is not the case for a cross country model, which is made lighter with less parts. This type of bicycle has long been the choice of many casual cyclist who wanted comfort over speed and performance. At that time, the hybrids were not yet available on the market. Even today, a few still prefer the ATB bicycle over an hybrid.

The ATB bicycle is characterized by the widest tires of all bicycle categories. The tires comes in various threading patterns, from motocross patterns for off road conditions to slimmer patterns more suited for asphalted roads. Typically a bicycle is called an ATB bicycle when its tires are more than 1.75 inches wide ( 43.75 mm ).

The brake systems used on ATB are either V-brakes or disk brakes.

The racer bicycles are by far the fastest and lightest of all types. They have one purpose in mind, offering the most performance they can be. That is, to use the cyclist energy to its maximum and minimize energy loss. For such bicycles, the frame is usually made of allows like aluminum or carbon. The frame must be the lightest it can be, while being the stiffest possible. By stiffest, we mean a frame that does not bend too much when submitted to external forces. These forces can come from various sources. The cyclist is one big source of stress on any bicycle. Every time he pushes on the pedals, the whole frame will inevitably bend to some extent. The road disparities and imperfections will also induce high energy stress to the frame. The more the frame bends over these forces, the more energy is dissipated by it. If the frame dissipates energy, this is fundamentally bad because that energy is lost instead of ending up pushing the bicycle forward.

There are other subtle things you can notice on frames that will give you valuable information on its quality to be a good race bicycle for example. The distance between the seat tube of the frame and the rear tire is one of these. The closer the tire is from the seat tube, the most efficient your race bicycle will be. It will be efficient in term of transferring more energy into motion. It does so by making the frame stiffer and more aerodynamic. Keep this in mind as we go along and look at other types of bicycles. You will see great differences of this tire to frame distance. You will notice that bicycles that are less performance minded will have great tire to frame distance. These bicycles do not need it and it makes it probably easier to make them as well.

Observe the height of the saddle and the steering handle. On a race bicycle, the sitting position is favoring a more inclined position. The cyclist must offer the least air resistance as possible. The result of this is a quite uncomfortable position. This is obviously not made for everyone. Needless to say, it requires a good muscular tonus from the cyclist, especially in the back dorsal regions. Even then, it usually feels quite painful for the first few rides of a new season, when you haven't ride it for a long period of time.