Cranky Bikes The British home-mechanic journal

Mend it in the kitchen. Ride it in the rain. No shop talk.

Write for us

We publish a small number of guest pieces each quarter. If you know your subject and can write a clean British English sentence, we would like to hear from you.

Topics we want

  • Home bike maintenance , anything you can do on a kitchen floor with normal tools.
  • UK commuter and utility riding: lights, locks, panniers, mudguards, winter kit.
  • Traffic law and road craft , the Highway Code, local cycle schemes, junctions.
  • Bicycle ownership in the UK: insurance, theft, second-hand buying, frame care, keeping an old bike running.
  • Reader-level writing on how specific systems work , derailleurs, bearings, hub gears , if you know the subject.

Topics we will decline

  • "Top X" product round-ups, buyer's guides and anything that smells of affiliate commission.
  • E-bike conversions that involve unregulated motors, or any piece that encourages riding on footpaths.
  • Gambling, adult, cryptocurrency, pharma and investment-signal pitches, of any kind.
  • Pieces that recommend specific shops or brands as "best". We do not do rankings.
  • Thin content rewritten from manufacturer press releases.

Format and length

Articles run between 900 and 1,500 words. They use a clear structure with subheadings, concrete steps, and plain English. Original work only: if it has been published anywhere else, say so. If it quotes or paraphrases sources, link them.

Rules

  • Original writing. No AI-generated drafts that we need to rewrite from scratch; we can tell.
  • One outbound link to a genuinely relevant source is fine. Commercial links to your own shop, service or affiliate dashboard will be removed.
  • Any paid-for or sponsored relationship between you and anything you mention must be disclosed to us in the pitch. We may still publish; we may not. Disclosure is non-negotiable.
  • Photographs: provide originals you own, or point to CC-licensed sources we can verify.

How to pitch

Send a short email to [email protected] with:

  1. A proposed title and a one-paragraph summary of the piece.
  2. Who you are, in a couple of sentences, and one or two links to work you have written.
  3. Any disclosure of commercial relationship with topics mentioned.

We reply to every pitch, whether or not we take it. If we commission the piece, we send a short set of house-style notes and a deadline. If published, your name goes on the piece and a single, descriptive author link is allowed.

What we do not pay

We are a small independent site and do not offer per-piece fees at present. If that ever changes we will say so here first. We do not charge for publication either.