Things I Wished I'd Gotten Sooner
 

For me, it was a bike repair stand. So many years I'd lean the bike against a tree or flip it up-side down and work on it, usually cursing on how hard it was to do what I was trying to do. Getting a cheap bike stand made a world of difference: put the bike in the stand and everything is SO much easier to do now.

How about you? What things do you wish you had gotten long ago to make your cycling related activities easier?

Mid Drive Motor

A bicycle? We moved when I was 10 and had to leave the bike behind. In my early 50's I realized my knees would not take much more jogging, and bought a garage sale Miyata. Wish I'd had cycling to deal with the stresses of my 30s and 40s.

Bike tools!

A Road Bike! They always looked so uncomfortable. WRONG! Love my Focus!!

A mirror. I grew up in the '70s and '80s using bikes as transportation, but I never had a mirror; not sure if they weren't available or I didn't think one was necessary, but five minutes after putting one on my bike, I wondered how I lived so long without one.

A car, much easier than pedalling. :D

I would say, a bike video camera is the most recent thing. Also, bigger frames, bike shops always put me on something too small.

Others were STI levers. And SPD pedals combined with shoes suitable for walking. Fell down many times trying to walk wearing shoes with LOOK and Time cleats. Padded bike shorts were a revelation as well.

bibs....waited too long to get bibs.

Mechanical/maintenance know how and tools.

Wish I had moved away from 27" wheels and a touring bike faster than I did.
OR at least = owned more than 1 road bicycle for the first dozen years.

The hip replacement. I could have been back to riding earlier, after missing it for so long.

Second the stand.

I recently built a stand I was comfortable putting my CF beastie on. I've been riding on and off since the 70's bike boom, doing all my own wrenching. I never should've waited so long.

Dyno hub and lights. I screwed around for years with batteries, then rechargeable batteries, then USB chargeables before finally dropping all of them and going dynamo. I’ll never go back.


-Kedosto

For my first couple of years back into cycling, I used my mini-pump for all tire inflation. Once I finally bought a floor pump, I kicked myself for not doing it sooner. ;)

Ergo grips.

Always looked at them and thought... ugh. Bought a pair of brown cork-effect Claud Butler ones about 3yrs ago and never ran straight-tube grips since.

Tools. Definitely tools. :thumb:

Tools. And knowledge of bike parts and how to replace them. Would have saved me a lot of money from my LBS.

Ditto on the mirror.


Also getting a rear light that is helmet mounted, to complement my seat post mounted rear light.

I have no regerts.

Wide flared drop bars for my gravel bike

Rollers for indoor training

Good one, I forgot about that. After running Cowbells, I am never going back to non-flared drops on ANY bike.

+1 for the stand and tools. I'm new to cycling, but bought a stand almost immediately and have been slowly building my tool collection. The stand is great, I have room to leave it setup in the garage, makes it super easy to throw the bike up on it after a ride and clean/lube the chain. The easier you make your maintenance, the more likely you are to keep up with it. :thumb:

for me, in general, would be "bike specific" stuff. I have a history of looking for a cheaper, more clever alternative to bike specific (aka expensive) stuff. kinds funny tho cuz if I just went with the bike specific stuff at first I would have saved money!