Cycling - what do I really need?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So as to not hijack Bibliovore’s thread, I thought I’d better start my own.

I have been a regular cyclist for many years, never as a hobby, always just to get places. As a student and then a single parent I never had much money - I’m still dirt poor. For seven years I had a men’s mountain bike, rather heavy with weird wide handles that curved under like a racing bike. It was called a ‘cyclo DMV’, bought in Slovakia when I lived there. My bike always seemed slower than every other bike on the road, but I never had any problems with it.

I had to stop cycling for a while after I had my daughter, and then got a child seat and started up again. Last New Year’s the bike, with child seat, was stolen, and it was only last week that I had the money to get a new cheap mountain bike.

(I have no idea of technical terms used or brands or anything like that, so please forgive me for any ignorance of lack of clarity.)

For £109 I got a men’s ‘Probike.’ This includes:

[ul][li]Front and rear removable lights Reflectors[/li][li]Twelve Shimano gears[/li][li]Mudguards[/li][li]Prop stand[/li][li]Chain lock and lock mount[/li][li]Rack [/li][li]Fixed front-mounted child seat.[/ul][/li]
I already have:

[ul][li]A D-lock[/li][li]A pump[/li][li]A puncture repair kit[/li][li]Spanners[/li][li]Helmets for us both[/li][li]Padded cycle shorts (which in practice I rarely wear)[/li][li]A pannier (somewhere) [/ul][/li]
I know I need new gloves and a bell/horn. But now it seems, from the aforementioned thread, that I also need several other things:

[ul][li]Replace knobbly MTB tyres with smooth road tyres[/li][li]Replace pedals with those ones with cages on, or get special shoes[/li][li]Waterproof clothing[/li][li]Reflective clothing[/li][li]Windproof clothing[/li][li]A multi-tool[/li][li]Bike computer[/li][li]More panniers[/ul][/li]I will be using my bike to ride my daughter to school and various classes, 1-4 miles away, to take us both on days out (anything up to 10 miles away), and hopefully to take myself to work, when I finally get a job. If the job is in London, which seems likely, this would be a commute of c.20 miles on flat B-roads plus another couple of miles on busy city streets. I wouldn’t be using the bike off-road.

Given all this, how useful would each of those extra items be, and how much do they cost? What do more knowledgable cyclists recommend?

2

Oh, add a handlebar mirror too!

3

Murphy’s law as it applies to trying to get somewhere on a bicycle states that if you have the supplies, tools, and the knowledge to fix a flat you will never get one. If however you are missing any of the three you will get flats.
To this end I carry
[ul]
[li]spare tube[/li][li]spare folding tire[/li][li]patch kit[/li][li]pump and or CO2 inflator (with spare cartridge)[/li][li]Tire levers or better yet a crank brothers speed lever [/li][/ul]

But Rick, you ask, why do you carrry both a tube and a patch kit? Simple, if I get a flat and use my spare tube, then I am without one of the 5 things necessary to keep Mr. Murphy at bay. The trail head (or home) can be a long damn walk.

As far as the knowledge goes, practice changing a tire and inflating it before you need to learn at night in the rain.

4

I don’t think clipless pedals and bike computers are necessary for the kind of use you described. As for waterproof clothes, Rainshield O2 works well. It looks and feels cheap and tears easily, but it’s breathable, waterproof and much less expensive than the fancy Gore-Tex stuff.

I do recommend slick tires and spare tubes.