Cycling

Jargon Buster

All bikes are wonderful, and you don’t need to know what the bits are called - but here’s now to talk bike lingo.

ALLOY WHEELS: All good bikes will have aluminium alloy wheel rims – they are lighter, don’t rust, and the brakes work much more efficiently than with steel rims.
STAINLESS STEEL SPOKES: A mark of quality. Stainless steel spokes are not really any lighter than the cheaper galvanised ones, but they do look better and don’t rust.
DERAILLEUR GEARS: These are what you find on most bikes. Derailleur gears work by having several cogs at the front and back of different sizes. There’s a cage mechanism (the derailleur) to ‘derail’ the chain from one cog to another. Throwing the chain this way sounds a bit rough, but it is a light system, and works surprisingly well. Derailleur systems are open to the weather, so need some looking after from time to time. They can have 15, 18, 21, 24 or 27 gears, although there is quite a bit of overlap in the ratios. The idea behind having all of these gears is to allow you to crank the pedals at a constant pace (cadence) no matter what kind of slope the bike is on. Keep pedalling when you change gear.
HUB GEARS: You don’t see so much of these on children’s bikes. They have a gearbox built into the middle of the back wheel, sealed away from the rain and mud. You still operate them from the handlebars. But you should stop pedalling when you change gear. Hub gears are heavier than derailleurs, but need a lot less maintenance, and are more forgiving if you treat them badly. They can have between 3 and 14 ratios, with no overlap between them. Stop pedalling when you change gear. You can also change gear when the bike is not moving.
GEAR SHIFTERS: Gear shifters are the controls on the handlebars which you use to change gear. Nowadays, almost all of them are indexed – this means they click into gear and you don’t have to guess how far to move them. They come in three basic types: THUMBSHIFTERS – These are simple levers sitting on top of the handlebars - push them one way to go up a gear, push the other way to go down. PUSHBUTTON SHIFTERS – These use two buttons or levers, usually one for your thumb and one for your index finger. Push with your thumb to go up a gear, push with your index finger to go down. TWIST SHIFTERS – With these, you twist a section of the handlebar grip to change gear.
RIM-BRAKES: You find these on most bikes. When you pull the brake lever the brakes squeeze the wheel rim. Rim brakes can problems in poor conditions – because the rim gets very close to the road it can get clogged up with mud or water, making the brakes less powerful. So always brake early in wet weather. There are two main types: V-TYPE OR CANTILEVER – These have two arms fitted to the frame or fork, pulled together by a cable strung between them. V types have long arms and one cable that pulls across the top of the tyre. Cantilevers have shorter arms and a Y-shaped cable which pulls upwards. Both types are very powerful, and are found on mountain bikes and many others. CALLIPER – These are like pincers: pulling the cable makes them clamp onto the rim. They are not as powerful as V-type or Cantilever, but the recent ‘Dual Pivot’ ones come very close. Callipers are found mainly on racing bikes.
DISC BRAKES: These work at the hub, in the middle of the wheel, not the rim. The big steel disc at the hub is squeezed by a small calliper. Discs can be very powerful, and are also pretty light. Because they are away from the rim they are less affected by mud and water. Discs are popular on mountain bikes because they are so powerful.