7 of My Best Bike Purchases That Changed My Cycling Forever!

I'm somebody who rides bikes for fun and over the years I've found some things that make riding my bike more fun and encourage me to ride my bike more here's six of my best bike purchases that I made that have changed my cycling forever speaking of something that's changed my cycling forever this video is sponsored by wobby Cycles I've written a lot of bikes and wobi makes the most fun bikes that I've ever thrown a leg over they're so good that I only own one bike my wobby special find out what makes wobby so fun check them out Linked In the description and stick around until the end of the video to learn more about them the problem with a lot of bike Bells is that they can be really big and take up a lot of your handlebar space especially on drop bars where you don't have a ton of room for accessories it just makes using a bike Bell not a priority because there's nowhere to put it unless you want to get a really small dinky one that you can't even hear and sounds terrible and looks ugly it's just this culmination of factors that led me to not using a bike Bell unless I was using alternative hand Le bars but the spur cycle Bell may just be the perfect bike Bell it is loud really loud especially for its size it looks really sick comes in some fancy anodized colors is really well built in the USA if you're into that thing it doesn't take up a whole lot of handlebar space but most importantly it makes riding my bike a lot more fun also this Bell is the loudest bike Bell that I've ever heard meaning that when you're on a bike trail or just trying to pass through a blind intersection ringing this thing makes you feel really safe and people can hear me much more clearly with the spur psycho Bell than when I'm trying to say on your left using a bike belt to alert people that you're passing them also just feels a lot more polite than yelling at them all the time and it just allows me to sit back in my ride and just pleasantly ding my bell rather than having to yell at people on the trail I do have to say though that some people people maybe like half the people out on trails are really boneheaded um mostly pedestrians and when I'm ringing and it's getting louder they still don't even turn around they still don't get out of the way I mean that's just something you have to deal with but half the people do understand what a bike Bell is like this guy who enjoyed my bell is that Sani thank you I also really enjoy having this Wahoo element bolt version 2 head unit on my bike way more than I thought I would I used to be like a Bare Bones accessories kind of guy like I would only throw lights on my bike at night and then take them off during the day but now I love having a head unit on my bike mainly for the GPS functionality I can have maps with me wherever I go and I can can leave my phone at home and not worry about taking pictures on my ride and posting it to Instagram for why why I don't care I don't care to do that and the Wahoo really allows me to just be in the moment on my ride um I don't really care about all the stat tracking features the average speed and all that stuff it is a nice function to have it syn with straa once I get back home once it repairs with my phone but the main thing is I have GPS I can go wherever and I can leave my phone at home and I don't have to worry about getting super lost even if I'm riding in an unfamiliar place like when I'm riding my bike it's time for me to get away from screens get away from the internet get away from my phone and to just be in the moment so now that I have the Wahoo and also an Apple Watch for emergency contacts I can now have a pretty rudimentary but good enough map for me to get around and also be able to contact people if I do really need something while leaving my phone at home so I could just enjoy my ride and on that note it's now seven things I'm just adding this in the Apple watch has effectively replace my phone for a lot of things and it's very expensive but for me it was worth it because I was wasting a lot of time on my phone and now I can just get on my bike with a lot less friction leave the phone at home and just be completely with my bike seriously try going for a ride without your phone it's different it's it's way better I was never really a daytime light kind of guy because I really enjoy it when my bike is super clean and just looks really sick but also because I didn't really like either replacing batteries all the time or having to recharge batteries all the time but the Night Rider Lumina Pro 1200 in the front and the V-Max 150 in the rear has changed that for me because finally finally in the year 20123 the bike industry has been embarrassingly slow to this both of these headlights have USBC it makes them super easy to charge them up because every device I have pretty much is now USBC I don't have to go fishing around for a micro USB cable to plug in so now my headlight and tail light are USBC it is so frustrating to me as a bike reviewer how many companies have USBC headlights and then not a USBC tail light they'll sell you a pack of a headlight and a tail light and only the front will be USBC and the back will be micro USB you have to use different chargers for the same lights in the same pack what my bike head unit is USBC my laptop can charge off of USBC my switch my Bluetooth speaker whatever they all use the same cable now and it's amazing and because of that I always have USBC cables plugged in ready to charge something so I use my headlight and tail light during the day a lot more often and it actually makes a difference people see me a lot sooner maybe half a second to a second earlier it feels like people see me and they actually give me space when they're passing me a lot more often and my theory is that oh people can visibly see me and react to me a lot faster which even just for split seconds out on the road can mean the difference between life and death it just puts me a lot more at ease in that regard but it's also when they see a guy in the daytime with lights that you you can tell that that person takes their safety seriously and when they can tell that I'm taking my safety seriously they also take my safety seriously and pass a lot slower pass with more space and also just give me right away at an intersection using daytime lights is great it's like a cheat code for making everyone else on the road respect you more and it just makes riding a whole lot more fun and more relaxing oh yeah a super cool thing about this headlight is that it actually has a battery indicator to tell you if you need to charge it or not so it doesn't just die on you I need to charge this and an up and a down like so you can make it brighter or less bright just with the directional buttons why has this not been a thing oh my gosh this I love this light for a lot of people the biggest pain point on the bicycle is the saddle and some people like to buy bib shorts with padded cushioning to be more comfortable on the bike I went the other direction and got a more comfortable saddle it's like if you have a comfortable saddle whatever pair of pants you wear it will be comfortable to ride your bike in I've been riding the brook Swift for the past almost 6 years it is the most comfortable saddle that I have ever ridden and I refuse to ride a saddle on my own bike that is not a Brooks leather saddle they say once you go Brooks you don't go back and that's good reason for it because it eliminates the biggest pain point on the bicycle period I've put probably over 15,000 miles on the saddle and it's just one of those things that I don't have to think about and if you're looking at Brook Saddles you may be thinking like oh I don't want to have to deal with the break-in period or deal with the having to lotion it every every year but it's really not a big deal if you can lotion your face every few days you can lotion up a brook saddle once a year and the break-in period it does kind of suck but I even found breaking in a brook saddle to be more comfortable than the vast majority of other Saddles that I've tried it's not that bad it is slightly higher maintenance than a plastic and foam based saddle but it's well worth it the other thing that you occasionally have to do is tighten up um this bolt for the tension rod again maybe once every 2 years give or take more hot and more humid environments we'll have to do it more often maybe once every 6 months which is like what I had to do when I was in Taiwan my brck Swift is so comfortable that I regularly ride long distances of like you know 50 to 100 miles in jeans no issues whatsoever no chafing no aches no sores nothing but the way I see it this is the way Saddles should be and this should be your default Choice when it comes to a saddle because the saddle's job is to make sure that you're comfortable when you're pedaling your bike this is the best at it period oh hey I didn't see you there H just kidding I actually did because I have this dorky helmet mirror that lets me see behind me it's actually like having eyes on the back of my head as overused as that cliche is but I ride my bike in the streets and here in Suburbia people kind of suck at driving and I would like to know if they're giving me space or not when they're passing so rather than craning my head around every time to see that I can just take a glance over with my y helmet mirror I unironically love this thing like it is absolutely a GameChanger for cycling and I don't ever want to ride without it heck sometimes when I'm using a different Helmet or if I make a bad judgment call and don't use a helmet at all I'm riding a bike I feel really exposed when I don't have this helmet mirror because it turns out being able to see behind you is kind of super important for vehicles out in the street that's why cars have rear view and side view mirrors that's why motorcycles have side view mirrors and this helmet mirror is like a side view and a rear view mirror combined because it swivels with your head you can see absolutely everything behind you just by turning your head there are no blind spots with this mirror and it's only 15 bucks the real cost that you have to pay is that it looks kind of silly going tubless on my bike was a game changer for me but it comes with a copat that tuist is not for most people and it was a big pain in the butt to set it up get all the stuff I needed learn how to do it and troubleshoot it whenever necessary but now that I've got it all set up and I have everything I don't really ever want to go back to a tubed Tire because there's just something really satisfying about hearing and then the sealant just plugs up the puncture it's amazing cuz that's something that I would normally have to pull over to the side of the road and slap a new tube inside but it's just something that is not even an issue I don't have to worry about glass as long as it's not too big I don't have to worry about Thorns I don't have to worry about a lot of road debris and I can just keep on riding my bike and having fun on top of that I can run lower pressures for off-roading I can go more places and it just makes the experience of riding my bike a lot more worry free the other nice thing about tupas I mean I did have to pay for it it is expensive is that I can run race tires these are Continental Grand Prix 5000s these are the grippiest fastest best cornering tires I've have ever ridden and I don't have to worry about getting a flat once a week or even once a month I've never flatted out on these tires for the past 6 months or so that I've been riding them they are expensive but this is actually a do anything that I would want to the best of the ability kind of setup just like this video sponsor wobby Cycles the thing that makes them so darn fun to ride is that they're constructed out of lightweight Lively springy Reynolds 725 or Columbus Spirit tubing that's the fancy stuff that's made in the UK for the Reynolds steel like on my wobby special or made in Italy like on their top and wobby lightning on top of that they are meticulously handmade with love and care and a disgusting amount of attention to detail by Master Craftsman in Taiwan whether you just want to buy the Standalone frame set or build up your own wobby you can choose everything down for the fine details so that you can really dial in your bike and have a perfectly fitted and perfectly riding bikes right out of the box the bottom line is anytime I choose to ride my wobby it is one of the best decisions that I make in that day be sure to check out wobby Cycles Linked In the description fix your famous shout outs to Julian Corona Brandon black Brent David Mario Perez and Ted Anie for helping to make these fix your videos possible through the support on patreon remember that life is short but don't make it shorter so be sure to ride your bike every day to be reasonably dangerous

Channel: Zach Gallardo

Views: 48,312

Keywords: fixed gear bike, fixed gear bike review, single gear bike, best cycling, fixed gear cycling, fixed gear track bike, fixie bike, bike, fixie review, fixed gear road bike, best bike purchases, best bike accessories, best bike purchases that changed my cycling forever, 7 of my best bike purchases, best cycling purchases, best cycling accessories, best bike accessories for fun, best bike commuter accessories, best bike accessories for commuting, game changing bike accessories

Id: QzRfWX96pvY

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023