Were you tired of your bicycle running at a snail or slow speed? Understandable. It doesn’t have to stay that way. With a few upgrades, I’ll show you how to make your bike faster without needing to blow all your salary and savings on it.
Get this; you won’t need to change your old, slow bikes for a lightweight and fast bike as advertised in the news. Following these steps would elevate your bicycle in no time. You won’t see this coming. Without further ado, let’s dive into these tips.
Why do you need to make your bike faster?
It’s no news that transporting yourself in a car or bicycle is to get you to your destination faster. In essence, a bike only has value when it helps you literally “fly” to your destination speedily.
In addition, sitting on a slow bus or bicycle can be excruciating and time-consuming. In time, because you’re cycling with both legs, you’ll start to feel your legs cramping, and that’s not entirely great.
To avoid these problems, check out how to make your bike faster without hassle. You’ll improve the performance of your bike, encouraging it to run faster. Let’s dig in.
How to make your bike faster
The trick to making your bike faster is to make certain adjustments here and there. If you’re ready to ditch the slow speed, keep reading about how to make your bike faster.
1. Get the correct pedal tension.
The first trick to making your bike run faster is to fix the pedal tension. Pedaling your bike contributes to your bike’s speed- slow or fast. Generally, when pedaling feels uncomfortable, you’ll find it challenging to ride faster.
So, one way to make the bike faster is to fix the pedal tension. When it is right, your feet would feel comfortable, enabling it to sit longer on the pedal for as long as you need to run.
You should notice two things while adjusting the pedal tension accurately: your feet’s grip and flow on the pedal. That way, you’ll learn how to make your bike easier to pedal, boosting the speed in the process.
2. Change the Tire pressure.
Fixing the tire pressure is the easiest and one of the best ways to make your bike faster. The tire pressure impacts your bike’s speed.
So, if your bike’s pedal tension is fine, you might want to check the tire pressure. Is it at the right pressure?
The right tire pressure for your bike should range from 100 to 120psi. Anything lesser can impact your bike’s speed negatively.
3. Keep your bike clean.
Another thing you need to do to make your bike faster is to clean it simply. Think about it; when was the last time you cleaned your bike? If you can’t do it yourself, leave it to a mechanic to clean it.
Leaving your bike dirty and infested with dirt, grime, and other things would depreciate the bike’s speed. Based on a study, leaving your chain dirty means your bike would lose up to 1-2kph speed.
Now, that’s just the chain. Think about when other vital parts are dirty. It’ll cause more damage to it.
4. Aero boost
Investing in better aerodynamics is probably the best way to make the bike faster. The easy way to achieve this is to fix your bike position.
You might think getting a new aerodynamics-centric bike frame would make all the difference. While it could, your position on the bike could ruin everything and slow the bike.
So, to get that aero boost, you’ll have to fix the bike fit and saddle. You don’t have to mimic one of those positions that athletic bikers do.
All you need to do is sit in a way that exerts zero to less aggression on the bike while riding it.
5. Drive train lube
Lube! It’s an essential factor in improving your bike’s speed. The reason is a less frequently lubricated drivetrain becomes less efficient over time.
The effect? You’ll have to endure painful and slow bike rides. It’ll be painful because it’ll get noisy eventually to indicate the dirt in the drivetrain.
What to do? Take out the dried oil often and lubricate it. Parts of the bicycle, like the jockey wheels, the chain, etc., need to be regularly lubricated. Otherwise, they would start to act up, eating up your bike speed in the process.
6. Clip-on bars work wonders.
Entry-level clip-ons are all you need to pull off this trick. They’ll boost your bike’s aerodynamics to improve speed when appropriately deployed.
If you position them correctly, you won’t have to worry about fixing your saddle position in some instances. To enjoy the impact of the clip-ons, you must adequately grease the thread and bolts on the bicycle.
7. Shrink your weight
Another thing you can do to increase your bike’s speed is to shrink the weight. If you enjoy mountain climbing, excess weight is one of the crucial factors you’ll battle with.
Sometimes, it could be weight from the bike or your body weight. An easy way to shrink your bike’s weight is to ditch the bar ends or front derailleur.
You could also get rid of the bottle cage. If there’s no bike weight to shed, consider dieting to reduce your weight. It might be ruining your bike’s chance of running faster.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What upgrade makes your bike faster?
Changing the wheel on your bike is the foremost upgrade that can make your bike run faster. When you invest in good, high-quality wheels, you’ll enjoy speed gains like never before.
Why is my bike so slow?
One of the primary reasons your bike feels slow is that your tire might be flat. When that’s the case, an increased rolling resistance destroys your cycle’s opportunity to speed. If your tire isn’t flat, check to be sure it is not softer than it should be.
Do more gears make a bike faster?
Not necessarily. It all depends on where you set up these gears. When you add the right gears to the front of your bike, you’ll enjoy more speed, but you’ll struggle with pedaling. To enjoy pedaling, you can install more gear at the rear. However, there’ll be more torque.
Do carbon wheels make you faster?
Yes, carbon wheels make you faster. They also offer a better response.
Conclusion
Learning how to make your bike faster benefits cyclers- athletes and regulars. You might not need to invest in getting a new bike.
Changing or adjusting some features on the bike is a low-cost method of making it speed to your taste.
With these 7-steps, we hope you can transform your bike from zero speed to master speed level. Have fun cycling.
