by Justin Ross

The year is now 2021 and the great pandemic bike shortage is in full swing. As folks rediscover and take to the great outdoors, the demand for solid gear continues to skyrocket. If you were fortunate enough to score a new bike in the early stages of last year, we salute you - what a pipedream that sounds like now. For those who weren’t as fortunate, it’s time to rekindle your love affair with the bike in your garage. Below is a list of items that YOU can buy to spruce up the ol' two wheeler and get back out on the trail.

Get a Tune-Up

First off, before we go too deep down the rabbit hole, a solid tune up is where you want to start. Believe it or not, cables, cable housings and brake pads will start to show signs of wear even when sitting dormant in your garage - a spring tune up is always a good habit. If you ride mountain bikes, consider a suspension service - it’ll leave your bike feeling buttery smooth all summer long.

Book a Bike Service with the Technicians at Wild Rock

Get Comfortable

Okay, so secondly. When upgrading your bike, whether you prefer to stick to the road, the bike path or the single track - you should consider your touch points and how they feel/fit. Your touch points are the parts of the bike that you interact with the most. These would be your saddle, grips, handlebars, etc. These parts of your bike will inevitably show signs of wear over the course of your bike's life. If you're replacing these parts, don't just buy the first thing you see on the rack - you want to make sure these parts fit your body. Saddles come in all shapes and sizes to fit all body types, and the same goes for handlebars - flat or drop. Ideally, these upgrades should make your bike feel more comfortable. If for some reason they don’t, Wild Rock offers a bike fitting service. This service helps you adjust the fit of your bike to your body using lasers, rulers and 3D computers.

Book a Bike Fit with Wild Rock Outfitters

Keep Rolling

So now you’ve upgraded your touch points, everything is super comfortable and you cannot stop riding your bike. You now realize that you can ride your bike almost anywhere. You ride to work, to the park, to the mountain bike trails and then to the bar, almost daily! Life. Is. Good.

Everything is going great, until you start to notice your tires. You’ve been riding your bike so often that the tires are now showing signs of wear and the tread is gone. Lucky for you though, you have a local bike shop in town that (surprise, surprise) sells all sorts of bike tires. Now, buying tires can get quite technical and that’s okay - we have staff who are happy to help you out with these decisions. However, some factors you should consider are; wheel dimension, frame allowances, rim width, rubber compounds and whether or not they are tubeless ready. If you are really unsure what will work best for your bike, bring it down to the store and one of our staff members can help you out.

Shop Tires on our sister site www.wildrockbicycles.com, or visit us in person.

Some of our favourite tires:

Go Tubeless (Maybe)

And that brings us to our next topic. Tubeless tires. This is all the rage in the bike industry and for good reason. There are many benefits to running a tubeless setup on both road bikes and mountain bikes. The first, and most notable one, is the lack of an inner tube (wow!). Without a tube in your tire, you can’t get a pinch flat and if you can’t get a pinch flat you’ll be much, much happier and able to ride longer.

The other major benefit is that you can play with the tire pressure itself. The lower you set your tire pressure, the more the tire will want to conform to the ground, resulting in more grip. This is especially great for those who ride mountain bikes. The key thing to note is whether your rims and tires are tubeless compatible. Not all tires and rims are created equal when it comes to this, so before you go spending all your hard earned money do some research on what you currently have. It could be as simple as a new set of tires and valves. But if your rims aren’t compatible, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment and a wheely expensive upgrade.

Need help going tubeless? Wild Rock's bike shop can help.

At the end of the day, we want you to get excited about cycling in all ways possible. Some other accessories you might want to consider are: fenders, racks, a dropper post or a phone mount. Depending on what you plan to do with your bike, these things might make your life a lot easier. There’s a world of options out there so find something that works for you and your budget.

Breathe some life into your bike and Go Out and Play this summer!