Best Bike Accessories (2023): Helmets, Locks, Pumps, Rain Gear, and More

Bikes are fantastical machines. Splendid companions, they by no means complain they usually by no means ask you, “Are we there but?” An all-day pleasure cruise or a grueling workday commute are not any huge deal. They return to us much more devoted service than the occasional care we pour into them. That mentioned, most bikes arrive from the manufacturing facility prepared for an informal Sunday joyride however not a lot else. If you wish to put your bike to work hauling cargo or commuting to the workplace, you will want some bike equipment to make these journeys snug and enjoyable. 

Fortunate for you, most bicycles are extremely and simply customizable, and there’s a mountain’s value of substances to select from. Virtually all of those equipment will work for non-electric bikes and most electrical bikes, too. Check out our guides to Ebike Classes and Best Electric Bikes for extra.

Up to date August 2023: We have added the Lezyne Matrix Saddle Tagger, ODI Rogue Grips, PDW Alexander Graham, and Mile Huge Fork Cork. We have additionally swapped out just a few merchandise for comparable fashions, and up to date pricing and availability.

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Desk of Contents

So many issues nowadays are a ache within the again. Using your bike doesn’t must be considered one of them. Swapping out handlebar grips, seats, and even seat posts are a few of the best modifications you can also make that’ll considerably enhance your journey.

Good Grips

Poor wrist posture can result in carpal tunnel syndrome or bike owner’s palsy, the place you are placing strain in your median and ulnar nerves, respectively. The ergonomic Ergon GA3 are my favourite bike grips as a result of they’ve small wings that right your wrist posture to stop these circumstances. Even after lengthy rides, I discover my wrists haven’t got the soreness that I used to undergo from.

A Excellent Seat

I haven’t discovered any low cost or closely padded gel aftermarket saddles to be a lot enchancment over the seats that include bikes. The Brooks B17, an old-school legend, is ultra-comfortable regardless of its stiff leather-based building—or maybe due to it. I’ve spent hours in its saddle with out acquiring the sore spots that accompany using in comfortable gel seats. Like a superb chair, agency help is extra essential than pure plushy softness. These saddles are additionally rugged; they normally final for a decade or extra. Should you don’t do leather-based, Brooks makes a nylon option for $130.

For some further shock absorption over tough roads, you may add a suspension seatpost to a hard and fast, hardtail bike. Some reviewers discovered its twin coil spring suspension bouncy, however I did not have that challenge in any respect. Make sure that while you’re shopping for the Kinekt that you simply’re shopping for the precise springs for the rider’s physique weight.

Extra Add-Ons to Make Your Trip Comfier

• ODI Rogue Grips for $33: Rogues are such a mountain bike basic that it appears half the businesses on the market are making clones of them. With a giant, knobby rubber texture, they’ve grip in spades. Personally, I am not an enormous fan of utilizing them barehanded, however when you like mixing a little bit off-road into your journeys or journey with gloves (or simply aren’t as bothered by them barehanded as me), then they need to do the trick.
• REI Co-op Link Padded Liner Shorts for $35 (Women’s Sizing, Men’s Sizing): These add an additional comfortable layer between rider and machine on longer rides and wick sweat away to maintain you from feeling clammy. The chamois padding helps present consolation on longer rides, too, or for bike saddles that lack enough cushioning, as many bikes’ customary seats usually do.

Few bikes include the attachments wanted to hold cargo on errands and grocery runs. Whether or not you put on a backpack or a pannier bag—a mode of bag that attaches to a baggage rack that you simply set up over considered one of your wheels—just be sure you can get actual work performed by turning your bike right into a cargo hauler.

A Good Rack

In case your bike does not have already got a pannier rack, you will want to put in one if you wish to use pannier luggage. The Explorer matches most bikes (with and with out disc brakes) and carries as much as 55 kilos. It solely weighs 1.5 kilos, too, so it will not noticeably overwhelm your bike. The vast gaps between the deck and outer bars makes attaching and detaching pannier luggage a breeze.

A Pack for Riders

The Heritage was named the perfect price range bag in our information to the Best Laptop Backpacks for its padded laptop computer sleeve that may match laptops of as much as 15 inches and for its robust, 600-denier polyester cloth. After utilizing hers for years, my colleague says it is barely exhibiting any indicators of wear and tear.

A Stronger Rack

If you must lug round greater than the Topeak’s 55-pound restrict permits, take a look at this stunning steel-and-bamboo cargo rack that holds as much as 77 kilos. It weighs 3 kilos, however the building is rock strong. You possibly can mount any customary tailbag or pannier bag to it, as properly. The Loading Dock for $115 weighs a pound much less and holds as much as 35 kilos, because of its aluminum building, when you’d fairly avoid wasting weight however preserve the beautiful appears.

Different Stuff We Love For Carrying

• Handlestash for $38: Ever attempt to carry a cup of espresso (or some other drink) house from the café in your bike? We will not advocate going far whereas holding it in a single hand and using with the opposite. Not like a daily cargo basket, the Handlestash’s unfastened cloth and built-in springs take up sufficient vibrations to carry a cup of espresso or can of soda with out splashing it all around the highway. The Gear Staff’s commerce director Martin Cizmar hasn’t taken it off his bike in over a 12 months.
• Miles Wide Fork Cork for $29: The pinnacle tube—that vertical pipe linking your handlebars to your entrance axle—is free cupboard space. The opening close to the tire is sort of all the time open. The Fork Cork is designed to plug up the top of it to maintain the within of the tube free from mud and highway particles and, extra crucilly, provide you with a discrete, watertight place to retailer spare elements, instruments, sweet bars, and no matter else. You want a tapered steering tube for it to work, and it is designed for mountain bikes with sufficient clearance between the tire and head tube to get your hand between them.
• Rad Power Rad Trailer for $299: Want to hold a severely cumbersome or heavy load? It is best to tug it. This metal bike trailer (with a polymer deck) weighs 25 kilos and might maintain as much as 100 kilos. Senior affiliate evaluations editor Adrienne So paired it with the soft-sided Rad Trailer Pet Insert for $229. Collectively, the mixture can transport any pet weighing as much as 84 kilos.
• Banjo Brothers Grocery Bag for $60: It holds as much as 1,100 cubic inches of storage in an oblong kind that maximizes carrying house. That is massive sufficient for one stuffed grocery bag, however you may all the time add a second one to the opposite aspect of your pannier rack to double your carrying capability. When not in use, it folds flat in opposition to your bike. Should you plan to hold your laptop computer, put it in a water-repellent, padded Incase Laptop Sleeve for $45 to guard it from drizzles, splashes, and impacts.
• Wald Basket for $46: This fashionable, primary choice mounts simply onto the entrance of your handlebars. Regardless that it appears simply nearly as good empty because it does full, you may’t fold it away when it is not in use. The REI Co-op Beyonder Soft Folding Basket for $40 requires a entrance rack, nevertheless it has carrying straps so you may take it into shops with you, and it folds flat while you’re not utilizing it.

Should you journey sufficient, you are going to get caught in a storm now and again, however you do not have to journey soaked and depressing. With the correct rainwear and protecting tools, you may preserve your self (principally) dry and make using within the moist a bearable, if not pleasurable, expertise.

The Finest Fenders for Most

These environmentally pleasant fenders are produced from 97 % post-recycled bottles and are extremely simple to pop on and off the bike. They do not present as a lot protection from moist highway spray that full fenders present, however they’re simple to take off when the skies are sunny. So long as your bike has a gap within the fork crown, they’re going to probably match. There are two variations: MTB (65mm) for bikes with vast tires and and Metropolis (48mm vast) for bikes with slim tires. Be sure to get the precise one.

Even Higher Fenders

They’re expensive, however I’ve discovered that with bike fenders, you are inclined to get what you pay for. The PDWs present fuller protection than numerous opponents that do not lengthen as low to the bottom, and their aluminum building is harder than plastic fenders, with hardly any further weight. In case your bike does not have eyelets for fenders, these include further {hardware} you should use to mount them.

This hardshell rain jacket will preserve your higher physique dry throughout a rainstorm. The women’s sizing sells for a similar value. Check out our information to the Best Rain Jackets for extra picks.

Cowl up your saddle if you realize it is going to rain, and you will not must journey house with moist pants. The Planet Bike cowl’s elastic drawstring cinches down tight over the seat in order that it does not threaten to blow off, like some seat covers. Some individuals use disposable grocery luggage, however they have a tendency to wish fixed changing, they usually can blow away and turn into litter.

Few American cities are designed with bicycle infrastructure on the high of metropolis planners’ minds. And even while you do end up in a blessedly welcome bike lane, it’s a must to deal with different cyclists, scooter pilots, and pedestrians. Be sure to’re seen with a lightweight and preserve that noggin protected with a helmet.

The Finest Bike Helmet

Swaddle your melon with all of the safety you may get. Significantly, a visit at the back of an ambulance is far much less snug than right now’s well-vented and properly padded helmets. And classy, while you’re speaking about Nutcase. This helmet comes with MIPS, which means Multi-directional Impression Safety System, which permits the interior liner of the helmet to rotate inside the outer shell, lowering the chance of rotational brian accidents within the occasion of a crash.

A Good Helmet With Lights

The Vio (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has LED lights built-in 360 levels across the helmet to enhance visibility on the highway so that you simply need not put separate headlights and tail lights in your bike. It comes with MIPS, too, which signifies that it may well rotate barely to dissipate the rotational influence pressure of a crash, and its entrance gentle’s 200 lumens is sweet sufficient to see down metropolis streets, if not utterly abandoned nation roads. It solely runs for 3 hours earlier than you must recharge it through a mini-USB cable, although. Should you’re planning on hopping onto an ebike, the Bern Hudson ($140) is rated for as much as 27 mph, which is nearly as quick as a class-3 ebike can legally go at full velocity.

Different Stuff To See and Be Seen

• Kryptonite Incite X3 and XR Set for $80: The 30-lux headlamp and 0.06-lux tail lamp aren’t the brightest available on the market, however they’re sufficient to verify motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians discover you. They’re USB-rechargeable and final for as much as 24 and 36 hours on a cost, respectively. For a extra compact, handy various, So has been a giant fan of the Thousand Magnetic Head Light for $35. It is USB-C-rechargeable and clamps rapidly onto any customary handlebar. Simply pop the little 2-ounce gentle off and into your pocket while you head indoors.
• Bookman Fabric Reflective Stickers for $10: Lights are essential for being seen, however a simple option to choose up further visibility on a budget is so as to add reflective stickers to catch automobiles’ headlights. You possibly can stick them in your bicycle, or you are able to do like senior affiliate evaluations editor Adrienne So and stick some in your biking garments.
• Portland Design Works King of Ding II Bike Bell for $25: In order for you a well mannered option to inform individuals to get out of your approach or simply give close by bikers and pedestrians a heads-up, get a bell. (Many states require them.) There’s one thing charming about its basic “ding!” that makes it nice—though attention-grabbing—to listen to. The Alexander Graham for $28 is similar primary bell, nevertheless it permits you to save beneficial handlebar actual property by changing a spacer on the steering tube. That makes it a bit extra thief-proof too, particularly if in case you have a locking high cap. Each bells are nearly painfully loud and produce a stunningly clear, long-ringing “ding” with every flick of the striker.
• Park Tool Rescue Tool for $34: You might simply select the necessary hex keys that suit your bike bolts and carry them in your pocket or pannier bag, or you possibly can get a pocketable, bike-specific set just like the Rescue Device. Its 16 included instruments fold right into a compact package deal you can slip right into a bag or pocket while you head out for a journey.

Make sure that your bike stays your bike with the precise locks, GPS trackers, and safety bolts. Take a look at my information to the Best Bike Locks for extra picks and extra tips about safe your bike.

The Finest U-Lock for Most

No lock goes to discourage probably the most decided thief with an angle grinder, however no less than half the battle of safety is making your bike a much less engaging goal. At 2.9 kilos, the KryptoLok strikes a wholesome steadiness between moderately gentle weight with sufficient (however not top-level) safety. It additionally comes with Kryptonite’s Transit FlexFrame bracket, which helps you to mount the lock to your bike’s body for simple transportation round city.

A Higher U-Lock for Metropolis Dwellers

For the best degree of safety on a motorbike lock you can take with you on rides, improve to the Granit X-Plus 540. Each ends of the U-bar lock into the cylinder, so in an effort to grind by means of this lock a thief must do it twice—as soon as on both aspect of the thick, 13-millimeter-thick bars. Thieves do not wish to spend a very long time thieving, because it means extra probability of being caught, so that is top-notch safety.

Different Nice Stuff

• Lezyne Matrix Saddle Tagger for $17: At all times forgetting the place you parked your bike? Anxious someone will stroll off with it? Stick an AirTag or Tile tracker underneath your bike’s saddle with this inconspicuous, waterproof tracker mount. Not like dropping a tracker inside a motorbike body or steel mount, the Lezyne’s plastic building gave me no points with AirTag’s vary or accuracy. It comes included with a safety Torx bolt and took lower than a minute to put in.
• Abus Steel-O-Chain 9809 for $85: Should you lock up at awkward spots, akin to fences and railings, you would possibly want one thing longer than a U-lock. Regardless that it is heavy at 5.5 kilos, it was loads versatile and lengthy sufficient to tie up wherever, and even round thick-frame ebikes just like the Super 73 that will not work with U-locks.
• Invoxia GPS Tracker for $129: Quite than attempt to shove a Tile tracker contained in the body, you should buy a stand-alone bike tracker that depends on GPS fairly than Bluetooth for a lot wider protection. The Invoxia syncs up with a smartphone app to point out your bike’s location and provide you with a warning if it strikes, and it lasts from 15 to 49 days on a single cost. The worth contains one 12 months of wi-fi information protection (extra years are $30 every).
• Safety bolts. Bikes use widespread bolts to make upkeep and meeting simple. It is an unlucky aspect impact that utilizing customary bolts makes it simpler for thieves to steal the precious elements off your bike when it is parked. Exchange the bolts on probably the most weak elements (seat submit, saddle, handlebars, and wheels) with Pitlock or Hexlox safety bolts. The bolts are individually keyed and may be unfastened by a customized device that solely you personal. Thieves hate these items. Safe your entrance wheel first, then transfer on from there.

Maintaining your bike on the highway is normally only a matter of protecting the tires correctly inflated and the chain properly lubricated. However slack on upkeep, and you possibly can ultimately be taking a look at a restore invoice. Luckily, sustaining a motorbike could be very simple. (Your native store or REI additionally provides yearly tune-ups at an affordable value.)

Our Favourite Pump

Steel pumps are definitely worth the expense over plastic pumps, which do not are inclined to final very lengthy. The Lezyne’s elements are metal the place it counts. It really works with the three widespread valve sorts (Presta, Schrader, and Dunlop) and inflates tires as much as 220 psi, which is properly greater than sufficient for many highway tires. It is effortlessly fast to vary valve adapters, the psi gauge is evident to learn with out stooping over, and it does not take too many pumps to fill a tire.

For Cleansing Chains

You have to preserve the chain clear to maintain it functioning accurately. With three adjustable-width brush heads, scrubbing my bike chain took far much less time with the Grunge Brush than a typical straight brush, and I bought into the chain’s nooks and crannies higher, particularly on the aspect that faces the bike body. I take advantage of a Grunge Brush on my bikes, too, however I converted to this model that has a narrower brush for bicycle’s narrower chains as a result of it takes much less finagling to get it to wash three sides without delay.

Different Nice Instruments

• Park Tool Bicycle Chain Cleaning Kit for $40: You are going to have to periodically clear the bike chain to maintain it from gunking up and malfunctioning. This equipment features a brush and a bottle of cleansing answer, along with the cleansing device itself.
•  Feedback Sports Sport Mechanic Repair Stand for $180: Eventually, you are going to have to work in your bike with the wheels off the bottom. Earlier than you suppose you will simply get cute and save a buck by balancing the bike on a field, take it from me: it will fall, and both you or the bike will find yourself harm. It is occurred to me. This stand is regular, with three toes versus two, and has a sturdy clamping mechanism with adjustable top.
• Finish Line Dry Lube for $10: The chain wants to remain lubricated to work correctly. On occasion (and after cleanings), spray it with the little dry lubricant, which is barely much less messy than the old school lube. Wash your palms after utilizing these items; it has Teflon in it.
• Finish Line Brake Cleaner for $9: In case your bike has disc brakes as a substitute of pull-brakes or calipers, you are going to want to wash the brake {hardware} periodically to maintain your stopping efficiency from degrading. These things removes cussed brake mud, which is troublesome to take away with out purpose-made solvents.
• Sram Disc Brake Bleed Kit for $55: For years, hydraulic braking programs (operated by fluid) had been discovered solely on high-end bikes. In recent times, although, they’ve begun to trickle all the way down to mid-priced bikes, particularly on bikes with electrical motors. They supply smoother stopping however require the proprietor to interchange the fluid usually. You want a particular bleeder device, akin to this one, to interchange fluid. This equipment comes with a bottle of brake fluid, however when you want extra, a 4 fluid-ounce bottle of Sram 5.1 Dot Fluid for $14 ought to do the trick.
• Feedback Sports Velo Hinge Bike Rack for $32: Whether or not you stash your bike in a cramped residence at evening or in a storage, you possibly can all the time stand to liberate a little bit extra room. It was simple for me to mount the Velo utilizing three anchor bolts in a wall. It holds as much as 50 kilos, and as soon as mounted the bike might be swung practically flat in opposition to the wall and out of the best way.