Bike trailer

There are certainly a lot of people who have the impression that traveling back and forth, to and from shops, precludes the use of their bicycle. The theory goes that if you are cycling, you will not have the wherewithal to bring back whatever you buy. But this is not strictly true. You just need to consider alternative solutions, and one possible solution which too few people consider is a bike trailer. You may be sitting there and laughing at the concept, but you would be surprised how well they work.
It is not a difficult concept to get your head around. A car can take a trailer with it by means of attaching it to the back axle. In the same way, you can hook a trailer on to your bike and load it up with your shopping (as long as it’s not too fragile – you wouldn’t throw a box of bone china into your car boot, either) and, although it will take a little bit more pedal power, you can take things home without needing to add to the amount of pollution in the atmosphere.

Naturally, there are limitations to what you can load on to a bike trailer and where you can ride it. Going over a certain speed leaves you with the concern that the trailer might become detached, as it does with a car. You don’t want to be riding on a freeway with a trailer on your bike, either. However, in the right circumstances and with the right bike (ideally a sturdy one), the bike trailer can be a wise investment, of that there is no doubt whatsoever.

The Beach Cruiser Bike - Retro bike

We can all think of a few things from the past that we are only too happy to make a part of our modern life. Fashion, technology, music and more, they all end up being part of one of the human race’s endless obsession with retro. One of the major elements of our retro obsession is the unending love of the Sixties, but going a little bit further back it is easy to find one of the most classic bicycles of all time, the beach cruiser bicycle. Designed to be easy to ride on a beach – unsurprisingly – the cruiser with its wide tires and single-gear mechanism is one of those things that is built to last.

The beach cruiser is modeled after the traditional bikes seen all over America from the 1930`s until the 1950`s, and has become a trend in recent years, though the modern version is more lightweight than the bikes of the early days. The first beach cruiser was made by the Schwinn bicycle brand, which still sells many cruisers today, along with a wide range of mountain bikes.

The interesting thing about the beach cruiser bike is that it pretty much went away entirely for some time. If you think about classic retro developments, there is usually a line going through time which shows you how they have been popular and continued to be so throughout time. The Beatles would be a good example. The beach cruiser bike appeared in the 30s, dropped off in popularity in the 60s, and suddenly appeared in people’s estimations again towards the end of the last century. Our human utilitarian instincts mean that we like things that are built to last.

In bringing back the beach cruiser bicycle, people have shown that quality will always have its day. It should be noted that you do not need to be on a beach to ride a beach cruiser bicycle – although it is quite an experience when you do – but just appreciate it for what it is.

Shopping by bike

As we all take account of the message of environmentalism, it is not uncommon for individuals to think about what small impact we can make on our own carbon footprint. We want to reduce it, and taking our cars everywhere is one way we can be sure of increasing it. So if you have a bit of light shopping to do, it is worth considering taking your bike to the shop or supermarket. The big question is in how we get the shopping home. Although it seems like a quaint idea, many people consider bicycle baskets to be a good idea.

Sometimes you will see a person hooking the shopping bag over the handlebars of their bike. This is a terrible idea. It stops you from being able to react as quickly if you need to brake suddenly or take evasive action. The bag can get caught up in the front wheel of your bicycle. It can bang against your hand, and it can split and spill its content in the road in front of you. There are so many things that can so easily go wrong. A bicycle basket avoids this happening because it sits in the center of your handlebars, secured above the wheel, and will not affect your ability to control the bicycle.

Of course, it depends on the quality of your chosen bicycle basket. It needs to be fixed very well to the front of the handlebars, and it needs to be both narrow enough to be out of the way of your hands and shallow enough to not get in the way of the front wheel. Cycling requires an element of control, and the right bicycle basket prevents you from having problems of control.

Bicycle locks

Although bikes in general do not cost as much as an equivalent quality of car there is no doubt that owners want to make sure their bicycle is protected. It is not uncommon to leave your bike somewhere you consider to be safe, even chain it up, but come back to find that someone has stolen it. It is selfish behavior, and it leaves the cyclist high and dry, but the bicycle thief has one thought in mind – freeing up that bike so that they can sell it on. It is important to remember that thieves can be enormously resourceful, so your anti-theft measures need to be of a high quality.

Bicycle locks are not a new innovation, but there are changes made in the mechanics all the time, as thieves learn how to crack older models and their efforts need to be countered. The main problem with bicycle locks is that you will be well advised to update the kind that you have, and possibly use more than one or two to make sure that even if the thief gets past your first line of defense, they will have a tough job to steal it without anyone seeing them and stopping them.

A little bit of online comparison shopping should enable you to find at least one good bicycle lock, and if you put the lock through the frame and the front wheel of the back as well as adding a back wheel immobilizer you can feel relatively secure in the knowledge that the person who tries to steal your bike will usually shrug their shoulders and move on to another target – which is really the best that we can hope for.

The bicycles are the future

We all like to go places. Seeing the world, even a bit at a time, is always good, but we need to bear in mind that every time you get in a car you add that little bit to your carbon emissions. It may seem like a small impact every time, but a small impact made often means that there is a large impact building up. Although no-one likes the guilt trip, we can make a difference to the impact we are making on our environment. Our children will inherit the world we give them, so it makes sense to avoid polluting the planet. One way we can do this is to leave the car in the garage and take the bike with us.

Eco green bicycles allow us to travel wherever we want to go – providing it isn’t too far away – without making a serious impact on the environment. If you are behind the wheel of a car, then you risk pumping out fumes which contribute to global warming, aggravate people’s breathing problems, and can cause damage to visibility and quality breathing air. If you have ever been to a city bigger than the one where you live, you may have noticed that you often come back with a headache. The reason for this is that pollutants in the air get in our bloodstream and from there can be carried to your brain. Although it is not enough to do serious damage in small doses, it can make you feel pretty sick. For that reason, it makes sense to buy a bike. The more people that do this, the less pollution will be pumped into the atmosphere and the better we will all feel. That has to be something we can all agree with. Eco green bicycles are the future.