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Daily Commuting Tip - Save your Trousers!

Posted: 20th October 2009 | Eddie Allen

More: Daily Commuting Tips Archive

Assemble a line-up of commuters in your office you could pick out the cyclist straight away. They're the fit-looking one with the torn, sullied right-hand trouser cuff and the tell-tale chainring marks. It's not a good look and it's one that can be easily avoided.

Tuck in, clip in, or roll up?

These are the everyday workarounds that most riders use to avoid the dreaded oily cuff: you can tuck your trouser into your sock; you can use that comedy-favourite, the cycle-clip; or you can do what the cool kids do and roll up your right trouser leg. All three solutions will get you by. All three will also make you look stupid in varying degrees.

Hail to the Chainguard!

Chainguards are great. Sadly though, they've become deeply unfashionable and much maligned in the past few decades, ever since ‘sport' bikes have become the norm. The mountain bikes and road bikes that we've ridden since we were kids ape stripped down competition bikes, so one of the first items to get junked, along with mudguards, is the humble chainguard. Great for going fast, not so good for getting from A to B. The result is your right leg churning up and down next to a blunt sawblade (AKA your chainset), with catastrophic results for your trousers.

However, the chainguard is a wonderful device for people who like to ride in their normal clothes. And the good news is that they're being fitted to more and more dedicated commuter bikes, along with a host of everyday-friendly stuff like mudguards, racks and kickstands. If you're in the market for a new commuter bike, make sure that it's got a guard fitted as standard, as they can be difficult to get hold of as an aftermarket item.

All shapes and sizes

 

Disc Type: A chainguard at its most basic is a plastic or metal disc fitted on the outside of the chainset, shielding your clothes from the sharp teeth on the chainset. However, the chainguard disc doesn't protect you from the upper run of the chain, so still means dirty trousers unless you ‘tuck, clip or roll up'.

Hockey Sticks: More effective are ‘hockey stick' chainguards which fit over the chainguard and the upper run of the chain. These can be easily retrofitted to many bikes and are available as standard on many ‘city' and ‘trekking' bikes. Make sure the one you get is doesn't interfere with your gear change.

Chaincases: More effective still are the full coverage chaincases found on ‘Dutch' style city bikes. These completely enclose the drivetrain - good news for your pants and good news for the bike too.

The Killer Hack

If you've got a ‘road triple' chainset there's a great hack you can do to create a killer commuter chainset. Remove the outer 52t chainring and replace with an alloy chainguard outer, available from SJS Cycles, Salsa and stockists of cyclo-cross kit. This is a really neat solution which lets you keep your quality chainset and avoids the cheap and nasty plastic chainguards which tend to break and fall off after a few months. In practice, you won't miss the 52t outer ring too much. You'll still have the 42t and 30t rings - more than adequate for commuter duties. You can do the same with a road double - just replace the outer ring with a guard ring and away you go with a much simplified trouser compliant setup.