Tech Tips

The PACE (Aussie Version)

Helmet Care

Tyre Pressure Tip

Riding apparel and other good advice

How to pick up a bike

Helmet Care

• Do keep your helmet clean using approved cleaners specific by the helmet manufacturer.
• Do ensure the helmet is well maintained and free of defects
• Do store your helmet carefully to keep it safe from impacts, abrasion, and unnecessary sunlight
• Do ensure linings remain firm, fit snugly otherwise replace the helmet
• Don't rest your helmet on the bike seat as it can fall off. Even small drops can generate micro fractures that can detract from the helmet's performance when it counts!
• Don't hang you helmet on your mirror or carry rack frame as apart from the possible fall, you are reshaping the Styrofoam liner thereby reducing the impact absorbing characteristics
• Don't sit your helmet on the fuel tank - apart from the possible fall, the petrol fumes rot and melt the Styrofoam
• Don't use caustic or petrochemical cleaners - these degrade the protective quality of the outside shell
• Don't leave your spare helmet dangling off the bike as you ride
• Don't sit on your helmet - its uncomfortable anyway but most importantly helmet distortion can result

Tyre Pressure

One way, although painstaking, of checking for correct tyre pressures is to do the following:

• Load your bike with attendant people, luggage etc as you intend to take on a trip.
• Check your tyre pressure
• Ride with this load for about 15 minutes
• Check your tyre pressure again

If your tyre pressure has varied by greater than 4 psi, then you are running under inflated.

If your tyre pressure has varied by less than 4 psi, then you are running over inflated .

The variation around the 4 psi reference gives a rough idea of how much to increase or decrease your pressure.