​Make it personal: give your bike some colour and comfort

You’ve bought the bike, but unless you plumped for a custom-built frame, its factory-freshness means it’s exactly the same as thousands of others. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s lots of scope for really making a bike your own.

There are two main reasons why you might want to get customising – to achieve more tailor-made comfort while you’re riding, and to make your machine stand out from the crowd. It’s up to you whether you make a few inexpensive changes, or go to town with posh upgrades and bespoke components.

Here are some ways in which you can tailor your bike and stand out from the crowd.

• Picking out a few key components to upgrade or add colour is a pretty straightforward way to add some extra personality to your pride and joy. Wheel skewers, seat clamp bolts, handlebar plugs, chainring bolts and headset caps are all relatively inexpensive parts that you can find in matching colours.
  
  
• Matching a few key elements of your bike with your clothing kit is another good way to start. For example, if you’ve got a blue cycling top, fit some handlebar tape in a matching hue, and a saddle cover or new saddle if your budget allows.
  
  
• Investing in a new handlebar stem can make a lot of difference to your level of comfort on the bike, allowing you to fine-tune the position of your handlebars. Of course, it’s important to get the right frame size to start with, but changing the length of the stem can ensure you’re not reaching too far.