Urban biking is one of the scariest aspects of biking especially for those who are just learning how to bike. The presence of huge cars and the blaring honks of trucks are enough to scare new cyclists out of their wits.

Of course, urban biking isn’t as difficult or dangerous as many new cyclists think but if you aren’t complying with safety rules while navigating a busy city, you’re likely exposing yourself to the danger of being crushed by a motorist. To avoid this and any other sort of accident, we’ve come up with this article as a useful beginners’ guide to urban biking.

Ensure You Keep a Basic Repair Kit with You

Keeping a basic repair kit with you is very necessary especially if your urban commuting requires biking far away from home. Meanwhile, the items a repair kit should have often vary from one cyclist to another but basically, there should be a patch kit for fixing faulty tires. If you’re very conscious of your biking needs for long-distance urban commuting, you should be willing to stuff your repair kit with other essentials including a multi-tool, a spare tube, tire levers and a hand pump.

Select a Bike that Fits You

As a beginner with little or no knowledge of suitable bike types, you may have to contact a nearby bike shop so that the professionals there can help point out the appropriate saddle height, the suitable frame size and other important things for you. Advisably, avoid selecting just any bike without finding out if it is appropriate for your bodily composition. Remember that an unsuitable bike will make you feel uncomfortable and this might expose you to accidents during an urban commute.

Choose A Suitable Bike for Urban Commuting

Don’t assume all bikes are suitable for urban commuting. For biking around cities, commuter bikes or road bikes are considered better options compared to mountain bikes. You can check out this massive collection of urban bikes for sale. Perhaps road bikes are somewhat cheap and easy to maintain. However, the noticeable downside to road bikes is that they may be slightly difficult to ride on hilly areas reason being that they do not have gears. The other cool option is that you can build a custom bike for yourself.

Equip Your Bike with Lights

If you’re riding a bike well fitted with front and back lights, you’ll attract the notice of motorists and avoid being crushed by them especially while riding at night. There is a variety of lights from which you can use but ensure the lights you’re choosing are not only good but also easy to fit and remove.

Avoid Wearing Headphones

Some experts recommend that headphones may be used only when biking on car-free roads while others caution cyclists not to use headphones at all especially while biking on traffic-ridden roads.

Find out and Comply with Your State’s Biking Laws

Perhaps your State has biking laws which are to be strictly obeyed to avoid silly accidents and assure yourself of safe biking. States usually have different biking laws that caution cyclists about where to bike, the need to use helmets and how to pass cars and other vehicles. Some laws can also state whether cyclists are permitted to bike on sidewalks or not. As a beginner who wishes to comply with State’s biking laws, endeavor to get a handy guide that outlines the laws applicable to your current State of residence.

Be Cautious of Drivers

Perhaps, urban biking has to do with commuting on busy roads alongside drivers of giant vehicles and this could expose you to accidents particularly if you’re oblivious of the fact that drivers are around you. First of all, you shouldn’t assume every driver can see you and will veer off their path to avoid crushing you.

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