If you have a problem, bike related or not, send us an email and we’ll try to answer it here.
 
Q: How much is it to fix my bike?

A: Between £5 and £5000. We can’t tell without looking at it.
 
Q: How do I tell a good bike from a bad bike?
 
A: That's complicated. See this page.
 
Q: I think a tricycle is the answer to my problem. Is it?

A: That depends on what the problem is. If you are an athletic and confident cyclist looking for a new challenge, then yes. Larger wheel trikes are great fun to ride, and cornering at speed can lead to a “tricycle moment”, which is great fun if you get it right, and painful if you don’t.

The problem with trikes is that, counter intuitively, they are less stable than bikes. When you corner on a bike, you lean and a sideways force is applied to the tyre’s contact patch. Trikes don’t lean so the sideways force of cornering (“centrifugal force”) is felt at the rider’s centre of mass. If you are going fast enough, then this will flip the trike over. To counter this, the rider must get out of the saddle and lean in to the corner.

Trikes also follow camber on the road and need to be steered constantly.

Trikes are great on ice.

Recumbent trikes get round the problem of needing to lean on corners by putting the rider low down so that the resultant vector does not leave the triangle of stability. In typical engineering fashion, this solves one problem, the agility needed to corner at speeds above walking pace, and replaces it with another, the difficultly of getting on and off them.

If your problem is lack of confidence rather than balance, then a trike will not be that much good. Generally speaking, if you can walk, you can ride a bike. If your problem is getting on and off, a trike will not help as much as a low-stepover bike, such as the Dahon Ciao.
 

Q: Can you make my cable disk brakes work better?

A: No.
 

Q: Can I fit a basket to my bike?

A: As long as your bike has flat handlebars, yes, we can fit a basket. Cost will be from £15 to £53. What will be more difficult is if you supply a basket for us to fit, as many are still designed to fit rod brake bikes, and interfer with cables. Still, it’s worth a go.
 

Q: Can I fit a rack to a disk brake mountain bike?

A: No. Yes. No. You can, but you really shouldn’t. See picture.

 
 

Q: What can I do to make my mountain bike go faster?

A: You can change the tyres for slicks, increase the gearing and fit drop handlebars. This will make it a bit less slow, but still not as fast as a proper bike. The best thing is to replace it with a bike that has 700C or 27” wheels.
 

Q: How many bikes should I own? My wife thinks two are plenty.

A: This is a very interesting question. Obviously you need one. If you rely on your bike for commuting, then a spare is very useful for those mornings when you wake up to find the bike has developed a puncture overnight. The spare bike could be another of the same type, or different. A small wheel shopper bike is often chosen as a spare as they adjust to fit almost anyone and can be lent to friends or houseguests.
Some people have winter and summer commuting bikes. The winter bike can have  a hub dynamo, hub gears, heavy tyres and full mudguards. The summer bike can have lighter tyres, no lights and derailleur gears.
A purpose made touring bike is a good idea. It can keep it’s front rack on all the time, and won’t be worn out by the daily grind of commuting. It also functions as a backup commuting bike.

If you live somewhere it snows, then a mountain bike with knobbly or even metal studded tyres may be fun for a few days a year.

If you often travel by bus or train, a folding bike can be handy. The Brompton is the current best buy, and Dahons are also very good. The Helios P8 is so good that it doesn’t feel slow like most small wheel folders. Large wheel folders are a bit pointless.

A “hack” bike for leaving outside shops or pubs is handy too. Don’t make the mistake of having something too cheap and nasty for this role.

So a sensible collection for one person is:

1    summer commuting bike

2    winter commuting bike

3    touring bike/backup commuting bike

4    folding bike

5    hack bike

That’s for your ordinary fairly keen bicycle user. You may wish to add:

6    Road bike, for racing or just going fast in the countryside

7    Recumbent

8    Tricycle, for icy roads or heavy loads

9    Tandem

10    fixed wheel bike

This is getting into enthusiast territory. If the bug really bites it will get even worse. You may find your shed or front room filling up with broken bikes you are going to fix or restore one day. This is quite bad and probably incurable. It gets really bad if you start keeping all your broken bits as “spares”.

To sum up, two bikes are the minimum, up to five is sensible, beyond that and you are putting your human relationships in jeopardy.
 
At last, a real problem, not one we made up:
 
Q:  Hi, I got the Holdsworth Elan off you before Christmas. I am very pleased with it but am wondering if there is any way I can extend the gear ranges, as it is a bit tough going uphill.
 
Is there a way to put some larger cogs on the cassette? I am note sure if that would mean a new derailer or even be compatitable but really need to do something to make it more rideable. Any advice you can give would be helpful and I can get you guys to do the work if you can give me a quote.
 
A: The Elan has a freewheel, not a cassette. The limiting factors are the rear derallieur, which will only take a 26 tooth cog and the bolt circle of the chainset, which is 144 mm making the smallest chainring  possible 42 teeth.

Any or all of these things can be changed. The first thing to do would be a larger freewheel with 14 to 28 teeth (£15) and a different rear mech (from £10). you may need a new chain too.

If that isn't low enough, then a new chainset will be needed.
 
The above is a modern answer. The rufty-tufty proper cyclists of the old days would say that if you can't get up hills with a gear of 47 inches then just push.