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How to Clean Your Electric Bicycle

During the current pandemic, it is crucial to maintain clean and healthy environments. You wash your hands and sanitize your home, but how often do you think about cleaning electric bikes? COVID-19 is a mysterious illness, but the one thing that remains consistent is that regular washing can prevent infection. Therefore, to limit the risk of bicycle contamination, consider washing your bicycle. The process is straightforward, but it does require some equipment and caution.

Equipment and Tool Needs

Before you dive into cleaning your bike, make sure you have all the necessary tools. When washing a women electric bike or a men's bicycle, you will need at least eight items.


1.    Dish soap

2.    Sponges

3.    Shop rags

4.    Garden hose

5.    Two buckets

6.    Scrub brushes

7.    Bottle brushes

8.    Soft, square head brush

Beyond the above tools, you may find the addition of a bike stand, chain keeper and degreaser useful. The stand is especially helpful, but it is also expensive, so you can make do without.


The 3 Don'ts

Whether you ride some of the best electric tricycles for adults or depend on an affordable hybrid, there are certain practices that you should not use or rely on when washing your bike. First, do not use abrasive sponges or brushes on your frame because they will scratch the finish, which can result in rust. Second, do not mix rags, buckets or tools. Using the same rag you used on your drivetrain will only cover the frame in grease. Finally, as tempting as it is to use a pressure washer to speed up the cleaning process, do not. High-pressure systems can force water and debris into your bikes bearing and sensitive components, which will lead to degradation.

The Process

Now that you have all the tools ready, it is time to dive into the washing of your bicycle. The process involves three distinct steps, and depending on your experience, you may finish washing your bike in about 15 to 30 minutes.
1.    Setup: Before you can start washing your bike, you first need to fill your two buckets with soap and water. Make sure to add a generous amount of soap. You will then need to mount your bike to the optional stand or find a way to prop the bike up for the wash. Then, remove the wheels and use the chain keeper to maintain tension. Finally, lay out your tools near you for easy access.
2.    Wash: To wash the bike, you want to focus on four sections: the chain, drivetrain, frame and wheels. It is best to use a degreaser on the chain, spraying it and letting it sit for ten minutes before rinsing. Then, use the first bucket of water and a stiff-bristled brush to clean the drivetrain. Finally, use a soft sponge to thoroughly coat the frame and wheels with the soap mixture from the second bucket. Get every nook before rinsing.
3.    Finish: To finish the wash, dry everything, and reattach all components. Also, lube the chains and give it a few cranks to ensure it is working.
Cleaning your bike, like cleaning everything else in the current pandemic, is crucial. If you would like more information about washing or sanitizing your bike, contact a local shop.

I've been so so so busy with my family... you see,  yours truly have given birth to her 5th kiddo (recently turned 4 months old!) and I'm now slowly getting back into the swing of my old self so for my regular fans who have not been reading much updates on my blog here, do check out my Facebook page as I'm still very much active there as it is easier to just share interesting articles on FB.

Every now and then I do order take-away foods especially when I'm just too overwhelmed and caught up with my work as I need to help hubby in the administration side of the business since Nov 2018 when our admin staff broke her arm and is currently on long medical leave. Anyway, I was really surprised when we received free books in our Happy Meal order early this year.

Turns out McDonald’s is using its Scale for Good approach to instil a passion for reading and to provide a moment of closeness for families. How nice is that?! I think this idea is so cool and beneficial and I'm very happy to know the books we got for free was authored by Cressida Cowell, who is well known for her bestselling ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ books.

As we live in Malaysia, I think it is cool to know that the books are available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia which caters specifically for the Malaysian market. I like that each book comes with a fun fact page about the dinosaur featured in the book.

For those tech-savvy parents, there are also digital versions of the books which you can find through the Happy Studio app that can be downloaded on both the Google Play Store and Apple Store. My 2 older kiddos (between 7 to 10 years old) seems to prefer the app and enjoyed playing the games and activities in the app.

I believe that reading changes my children's lives positively, that knowledge is key and never harm anyone if we read up more and know more. Every time I stumbled into books that are age-appropriate for my kiddos, I snapped them up and am very encouraged to see my kiddos getting all excited to read the new books in our collection. If the books are a bit advanced for any of my kiddo, I will either read together with them or read aloud before their bedtime. That way, they get to hear the right pronunciation and the way sentences sound as we read along.

I remembered reading an article on what reading aloud to your children does to their brain. Excerpt from article below:

"When parents read to their children the difference shows in children's behaviour and academic performance. And according to a new study, the difference also shows in their brain activity. The researchers saw that, when the young children were being told a story, a number of regions in the left part of the brain became active. These are the areas involved in understanding the meaning of words and concepts and also in memory. These same brain regions have been found to be active when older children listen to stories or read. 

The brain develops rapidly from zero to six years of age, and the more exposure, the more you enrich and nurture these brain networks that are related to social and academic ability, the more the kid will gain the future."

There are benefits of parents reading to their children beyond the child's performance, too. "It's one of the most pleasurable activities that you do with your child -- there's physical closeness but it's probably the most unhurried time that children have with their parent and it is focused on them."

Reading helps in spelling, grammar and pronunciation, the benefits multiplied many times more if we as parents are there to guide our children as they read along. Even our 4th kiddo learns by observing his elder brother and sisters reading most of the time and tried to emulate them as well.

Although he is just 2 years old, that does not mean we should stop him from reading. At this age, what I usually do is teach him about colours, shapes, naming of objects, anything interesting for his age right now. It is up to our creativity to know how to make use of the reading materials in our kiddos' lives.

As McDonald’s will be releasing one book every month throughout the year 2019, please don't miss out on these books since they come free with the Happy Meal. We have this poster of Dr. Seuss's quote which said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost every day) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Let us say that you want to start your own online business. How are you going to begin? You can always ask for some help from people who have had other businesses in the past. You may need to get a tax id number in Texas. Do you know where you should go?

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There are different things that you have to think about when you start an online business. You want to make sure that you are creating a website that will be appealing to your potential customers. You need to find some products that your customers would like to buy. Once you have finalized these things, you can focus on knowing the reasons why you need to have a tax ID.

What is a Tax ID For?

The tax ID number is a nine-digit number that will be assigned specifically to your business. This means that whenever there are taxes that you have to pay for. They will be assigned to your business and not to your personal account. There are some online businesses that are not required to get a tax ID immediately but there are some other reasons why you may need a tax ID.

These are some of the common reasons:

• You would need a tax id for trust. This is true when you are involved in owning an estate. 
• You are currently organizing a non-profit organization that aims to help different people depending on the type of people that you would like to help. You need a nonprofit tax id for that.
• You are currently seeking employment from another company.

No matter what your reasons are for getting a tax ID, it cannot be denied that there are some uses that will be beneficial for you in the long run. For example, there is no need for you to worry if you have a business because you can apply employees when you need to do so. It will also be easier for you to file taxes so this will not be a problem later on. One more thing to remember: you cannot apply for a business license without a tax ID.