• 570-413-8080
  • 115 PA-423, Pocono Pines, PA 18350

Pocono Bicycle Shop

Pocono’s only bicycle shop in PA

Benefits of Regular Bicycle Service Tune Ups

Benefits of Regular Bicycle Service Tune Ups 1247 741 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

Bicycle Service / Tune Ups 

Bicycles are refined pieces of advanced engineering. Like any precision machine, bicycles benefit greatly from regular service and maintenance. 

Bikes that are regularly used can easily develop less than optimum function in multiple systems without their rider noticing the incremental changes that occur over time during use. Even bicycles that are not regularly used can develop issues from sitting that affect their overall performance and their owner’s enjoyment of them. 

While much of the basic maintenance can be done with a few tools, anything more can require special tools and training to ensure the best results. Why invest in a high quality bicycle unless you are going to provide the care necessary to keep it in prime working condition? 

Gears to Wheels- Power Input and Output 

Caring for your bike’s drivetrain involves much more than just making sure that the gears are shifting properly and the tires have enough air. While these are essential to proper operation there are many more moving parts that need to be considered. 

Ensuring that all of the components are functioning takes special tools and know-how. The difference between a well maintained drivetrain and a poorly cared for, worn one is obvious in function and power output efficiency. The well maintained drivetrain will function smoothly, put power to the ground efficiently and quietly do its job without you thinking about it. 

To ensure optimum function you need to assess every bearing, gear and pawl between your pedals and the ground. This involves work outside of the scope of the average home mechanic. Regular bicycle service tune ups can be the difference between recording a PB or a DNF. A well maintained properly functioning drivetrain ensures that as much of the power you input is felt in the bicycle’s output as possible. 

Tires and Wheels- Ride Quality, Traction and Handling 

Everything changes gradually on your bike. Not only from riding, but also from age which causes rubber to dry, lose elasticity and grip, and can cause greases and oils to break down. This can be very hard for many riders to sense causing them to ride components till they are well past their prime. 

Tires are consumable components which need regular replacement and wheels need basic maintenance to help ensure that they function properly and have a long life. They should be inspected before every ride to make sure that they have sufficient rubber, are inflated to the right pressure, have no cords showing, and no visible cracks. There is nothing you can do to your bike that will as profoundly alter its handling for the better as having the right tires for your riding type, style and conditions. 

Properly trued wheels with clean and greased bearings and drivers are one of the most important pieces of maintenance you can have done. It will help improve performance while saving you money on replacement parts by improving your ride quality, reducing rolling resistance and improving handling. 

Ergonomics- Ride position, Handling and Stability 

The benefits of regular bicycle service tune ups goes beyond just making sure that your bike is functioning at its best. It gives you a chance to consider how you interact with your bike. When your bike is functioning mechanically its best it is easier to notice where your interface is less than optimum. Where you touch the bike with your feet, and hands as well as in the saddle affects your performance. Regular maintenance gives you opportunities to make changes when the baseline of your machine’s performance is reset were changes to your setup can be more honestly assessed. 

Changes to your handlebars, pedals, cranks, saddle, etc. are best made when the rest of your setup is known to be functioning at its peak. This ensures that any changes are considered for their own pros or cons and not for issues in other systems and components. 

There are not any drawbacks to regular bicycle service tune ups. They save you money and time by keeping your components functioning within their optimum range, prolonging their life and helping to prevent damage. Regular tune ups help ensure the safety of you and your investment. What better way is there to ensure your continued enjoyment of a valued possession? 

bicycle repair store near me

The Benefits of Getting Outside on a Bike

The Benefits of Getting Outside on a Bike 1200 900 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

There are many benefits to getting outside and riding your bike any time of year. It goes way beyond the obvious physical benefits, riding your bike can help to elevate your mental and emotional wellbeing. Understanding the benefits that getting out and riding has on your health and wellbeing can help you to handle stresses better when you cannot get outside.

The Physical Benefits of Getting Outside on a Bike

Movement is important for your body. It increases circulation, and respiration while also boosting your metabolism to burn energy and fat.
Without that boost in energy and efficiency, mental clarity and focus can suffer.

Exercise is essential for your body and mind to function at its peak performance level. Cycling has some unique benefits that allow you to really take advantage of what exercise can offer, and it is essential to train outside to get some of these benefits.

Getting outside in the open air and practicing deep breathing opens and clears your lungs. The powerful breathing that cycling regularly develops stretches and strengthens many of your core muscles, opens your chest increasing lung capacity, and helps you to clear accumulated particulate matter from your lungs.

Indoor air quality, unless treated is dramatically worse than outdoor air quality. Getting outside on your bike allows you to take advantage of exercising in the best possible environment for your lungs. Cycling does so much more than that though.

The Mental Benefits of Getting Outside on a Bike

This is highly personal with many different potential answers, and there is overlap between the relative benefits to your physical and emotional health as well. There are some specific mental benefits that getting outside on a bike offers everyone.

Riding your bike is a kind of moving meditation. Many riders will report feeling like this is one of the few times that their mind is quiet. Having a quiet mind allows your brain space to work without having to address your thoughts and feelings as directly.
This space and activity can help your brain to process complex thoughts and ideas while also increasing the supply of blood and oxygen. This basic change in perception and reduction in internal mental stimulus can literally make color brighter and perceptions richer. The creative
afterglow this can induce is very healthy and helpful.

The Emotional Benefits of Getting Outside on a Bike

If the mental benefits of getting outside on your bike are highly personal, the emotional ones are even more so. There are so many different potential causes of emotional stimulus and how we react to them is highly individual. No matter who you are or what level of athlete you are the emotional benefits of getting outside on your bike are much the same though.

Living an engaged life has become a popular term, and in many respects it can help you to address the uniqueness of the moment. Feeling engaged, locked in, or focused would likely rank high on the list of potential benefits of cycling to many riders. What is interesting is that much of the emotional benefit derived from getting outside on your bike might be what is disengaged.

Physical, mental or emotional stresses cause difficulty and illness. The effect on your body and wellbeing can be overwhelming. Any stress or pain is a depressant to your body and moods. Movement and physical activity help to eliminate those stimuli, even if just for a time.

The key to this process is proprioception or the awareness of the position and movement of the body. Nerve impulse from proprioception travels faster than pain signals, out competing them for the use of the nerve pathways. So much like the ability of cycling to clear your mind of
thoughts, it can also clear your mind of your perception of different physical pains.

The benefits of getting outside on a bike are many, weaving through the fabric of your existence. There is no real definition in the borders between the physical, mental and emotional benefits of riding a bike outdoors. It gives us so much and asks relatively little from us in return.
It is an honor and a privilege to be part of something so great.

mountain bike shop in Pocono, PA

The Benefits of Tubeless Tires on Bicycles

The Benefits of Tubeless Tires on Bicycles 937 499 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

The benefit of tubeless tires on bicycles is profound. Your tires are your connection to the ground. There is simply no other modification you can make to your bike that will have a more direct and profound effect on its handling than the right tires. There are numerous reasons why no matter what tread pattern or rubber durometer you choose, it will perform better under almost any conditions if it is tubeless.

Tubeless tires rose to popularity in mountain bikes because their combination of reduced rolling resistance and better traction could really shine here, even though early tubeless tires had their challenges. Retaining air pressure was an issue with leakage through the carcass (body of the tire), and at the bead. Because of this early tubeless tires were heavier than their tubed counterparts as they needed extra layers of rubber in their carcass and special bead construction to improve sealing.

The Basics of Tubeless Tires

Tubeless Tires have numerous benefits over conventional tubed or tubular tires. These benefits have to do with how the tubeless tire reacts and interacts differently than the other two.

Tubeless tires attach directly to the bead shelf of the rim and are held there by tire pressure the same as conventional tubed tires. This has been shown to be better for the stability of the tire both under inline and lateral acceleration. Tubular tires cannot handle lateral loading with the same stability that a beaded tire can.

What puts the tubeless tire out front in terms of performance is that without a tube it is free to interact with the ground without friction between the tube and tire carcass. The lack of friction between the tire carcass and the tube allows the tire to react as it should in realtime to new obstacles, instead of binding, creating heat, and handling variability as it would with a tube. This allows lower pressures to be run for better traction, while maintaining the desired rebound characteristics in the tire.

Another benefit of tubeless tires is that without the friction between the tube and the tire there is less heat produced and therefore less of a pressure increase under extreme use like downhill mountain bike races.

Better ground feel, more control, and more consistent breakaway (drift) are all good reasons to use tubeless tires on mountain bikes, but it took tire technology improving before the benefits became universally appreciated on other bikes. 

When tubeless tire construction became more consistent and lightweight they gradually started to become the industry race standard. Not just on downhill mountain bikes, but more and more on cross country, road and even BMX.

Another defining technology for tubeless tires has been tire sealant. Tire sealants allowed the tire carcass to be thin while not leaking air and helped to prevent all but the worst flat tires. The tire sealant also helps to attach the tire carcass to the rim and seals in through even the largest impacts.

Benefits of Tubeless Tires on Road Bicycles

High performance athletics involves a balancing act while searching for incremental change. Traditionally in road racing trade offs were made in training to promote the durability of your equipment vs the need for maximum performance in races. Tires were a spot where the difference in performance between training clinchers and racing tubulars was known to be a problem.

Inconsistency between training and racing setups lead some racers to have less confidence in their tires when they really needed it, in races. Tubeless road tires allow for racers to train on race day like tires. This consistency can only have a beneficial effect on confidence and performance.

Tubeless tires are a component that allows you to positively affect ground feel, traction, and smooth ride, while reducing rolling resistance and rotational mass.

The one place where tubeless tires can get a bad reputation is in installation and maintenance. It is true that they take more work to set up and maintain, but the performance benefits outweigh the drawbacks for most habitual cyclists.

The benefits of tubeless tires on bicycles can be experienced by anyone. For many cyclists the thought of ever going back to using tube or tubular tires isn’t even an option. Once you go tubeless you will never look back.

1% for Nature Monroe

1% for Nature Monroe 1620 1080 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

1% of certain services are products go towards benefiting a local non-profit in our area. 1% for Nature Monroe County, Pennsylvania.

Their mission is to protect and establish and conserve natural and green spaces in the Pocono’s and Monroe County. Don’t take my word for it. Check them out at the link below. More details to follow.

http://www.1fornature.org/index.html

bicycle store in Pocono, PA

Spring is Almost Here – Premier Bicycle Shop

Spring is Almost Here – Premier Bicycle Shop 810 1080 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

We could not be more excited for spring to be on its way. We have made so many upgrades and updates to our website and our store. We have hats, and koozies and even custom Fetty’s Cycle Service water bottles for sale. We have spent the winter building new bikes that will certainly be very popular come warmer weather.

Over the past 5 years we have slowly and steadily established ourselves as the premier and ONLY bicycle shop in the Pocono’s and Northeast PA that will come directly to you. One of our favorite parts of this business and this business model is to see the expression of our customers when they may very well at first be skeptical and uncertain of how a Mobile Bicycle shop operates, but once they book an appointment online and see the ease they are thrilled to just set back and relax while we take care of their issues. Often many times, once we establish relationships with these customers these choose to not even be home while we perform our services. Giving them more time to run other errands and check things off their list.

Now is the time to start thinking about getting your current bikes serviced or getting a new bike (starting @ $299.99) for the upcoming season. Our mobile optimized site offers for online appointment booking with many different options and price points. We are going to offer for the foreseeable future 10% off all labor costs for any appointments booked online. All our same pricing still applies, but there is an incentive for booking on our simple platform.

Our phone still works and we still enjoy speaking will all of our customers. We will most usually send a text or make a call to confirm the appointment with you anyway. If you prefer.

Thanks for reading and we will see you soon.

About Fetty's Cycle service

My Story

My Story 500 335 Fetty's Cycle Service Fetty's Cycle Service

The journey of this whole business really has a neat and pretty humble beginning.   Myself personally have over 15 year’s experience in the bicycle industry.  I started at a young age working in a very successful brick and mortar bike shop, and was very fortunate that the owner kind of took me in.  It was at that  bicycle shop where I have learned stuff that I really still use to this day.  My mom and dad bought me some of my first bicycle specific tools at around age 13-14, a few of which I actually still use every day.  There were so many things I learned along the way, that I never dreamed that I would use to operate this business.

The whole concept of Fetty’s Cycle Service really started organically when several years ago some of my very good customers NOW, caught wind that I was knowledgeable with bikes.   I would either pick the bikes up and take them with me or work on them onsite with what was a pretty small mobile operation compared to what we have now.  For the First year, I was super fortunate for some of those really good customers to carry me thru.

After that first year I really saw the potential in this business.  I knew that customers loved not having to take their bikes back and forth to the bike shop.  And I knew that I really enjoyed traveling around and meeting new customers, getting to work on bikes and helping folks get to enjoy their bikes and cross something off their list with minimal effort on their part. We are really just changing the way that folks view what a bicycle shop can be.

Since those first days, we have evolved to now operate out of our fully equipped Ford Transit connect van. We have greatly expanded our website and our online booking platform.  You can always give us a call or text, but a great feature about this is that you can go online any time and book an appointment to get your bikes serviced on your schedule.  Estimates are most usually free.  We are fully stocked with parts to repair most any bike.  We carry everything from tires and tubes, to brake pads, Chains, water bottles, flashy safety lights and tons more inventory.

Like I mentioned, we do sell new bikes from Raleigh and Diamondback and a few smaller brands as well as racks for your car to carry the bikes.   One common question we get is how are you going to sell me a bike at my house that fits me correctly?  Once the customer calls, we will discuss things like height, weight, riding style and budget.  I will then take a few models out of my inventory and bring them to you.  We can discuss then more details and get you the best bike for you.  I will get you fitted correctly and you have a new bike ready to enjoy!

Really the biggest takeaway from this business is service and convenience, if nothing else.   Over the years and the relationships I have developed, I have really grown to take the customers satisfaction personally. The only real complaint we get is that folks wish they would have found us sooner.  Usually once a customer uses us, they don’t go back to the traditional way.  As long as my customers are satisfied and they keep spreading the word, I am confident we will be around for a long time.