A bicycle is equipped with a pair of wheels. They consist of a hub, rim and spokes. A hub is the centre part. It allows the wheel to spin. The rim has three main functions. It holds the tyre, provides a braking surface and it’s an anchor for spoke nipples. Spokes hold the hub and the rim together. Their job is to transfer the loads between the rim and the hub. Well tensioned spokes will ensure that your wheel is strong and straight. If they are loose the wheel will often need truing and if they are too tight the spokes might cause the damage to the rim and a hub flange.
The wheels come front and rear. Back wheels differ from the front ones because they have longer axles and hubs that can fit a cluster of cogs such as freewheel or cassette. If the wheels are designed for one type of the cogs it will be impossible to replace them with the other one.
Tyre sits on the rim and provides a flexible cushion to absorb shock and friction between a wheel and a road surface. There are many different types and sizes. Some tyres come with thread, others with patterns. Most tyres are designed to accommodate an innertube that is pneumatically filled with air. Some come without one. They are called tubeless.
If the innertube is punctured it will release the air through the hole and make the tyre flat.
In this section you can find how to fix a bike puncture, how to put a front wheel on a bike and much more.
Bicycle Spokes play a crucial role in a wheel. Because they do such a good job, spokes are often ignored, until, that is, they start failing. This causes the wheel to lose strength and integrity and eventually your bike can become unrideable. What are bicycle spokes? Bicycle spokes are the thin rods that radiate from … Read more
Hopefully refitting the front wheel will be straight forward, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem to want to go in. This is particularly frustrating if you had no problems removing it! Fortunately, Cycle Maintenance Academy is here to show you how to put a front wheel on a bike with whatever brakes or wheel fastenings … Read more
Knowing how to pump bike tyres is an excellent skill to have when it comes to cycle maintenance, but this begs the question ‘why do we need to pump our tyres’? Cycling on under inflated tyres makes the tyre rubber “stick” to the road and slows you down. This could be an advantage on muddy … Read more
What are bicycle inner tubes made of? Latex inner tubes – Latex is a natural rubber that is lighter weight than butyl and more expensive. The tubes are very elastic and lightweight and they are used to reduce rolling resistance. However, they lose air quicker than butyl tubes and usually can’t be repaired once they … Read more
Is your tyre worn out? Have you treated yourself with more puncture protection? Either way, at some point you will need to remove the old tyre on your bicycle to fit a new one. Find out how to change a bike tyre this easily and effectively with our step by step guide. Why do we … Read more
While many of you may know how to pump up a bicycle tyre, some valves can be more difficult than others. Before you can pump your tyres you will need to check which valve your bike has. There are two common valves, Presta and Schrader. In this case we are going to be explaining how to … Read more
Knowing how to replace a back wheel on a bike is a useful skill to have you use your bike regularly. You may need to change an inner tube or tyre and being able to replace the wheel is an important part of this. Cycle Maintenance Academy have put this guide together on how to … Read more
When it comes to bike tyre pressure, the bottom line is that air is being lost constantly. However, this air is being lost at a very slow rate which means you may not have even realised that your bicycle tyre is deflating. In this article we are going to be discussing the basics of bike … Read more
We have covered the set up process in of how to use a bike pump, now we wanted to discuss how to pump up a bike tyre, covering both the attaching and detaching process. Knowing how to do this is a incredibly useful skill for any cyclist and a basic element of cycle maintenance and … Read more
In this article we are going to be discussing our tips on how to use a bike pump. The article will cover how to pump bike tyres with both a Presta valve and a Schrader valve. For a Presta valve you will either need a Presta only pump or a normal air pump with a … Read more