First ride [A Bug's Life]

Well, I got home, just about! For the first half of the journey I walked the bike along the pavement. Got two dirty looks, had to step into the road once, wedged my pedal into someone else's parked bike once. Hard work! Then there was a quiet road leading to the cycle bridge. Managed to wobble my way down, but I brake far too hard and keep nearly coming off at corners or whenever I wobble. At one point my saddle took a lurch backwards, but I've tugged it straight again. Don't know if I'll need to tighten anything there.

Gears - what are they all about? I thought I'd understood Caro and Austin's explanations, but apparently not - especially when combined with having to remember to keep the pedals moving while changing gear.

If I start cycling uphill (on the cycle bridge) and find I have to pedal really slowly, do I have to move the gear up or down? And does that correspond to an increasing or decreasing number on the dial (Left hand goes 1-2-3, right hand goes 1-2-3-4-5-6-7)? Or would you need to look at the bike? And when you go over the top of the cycle bridge and down the other side, how do you slow down safely without lots of jerking to a stop with screeching noises?

God, I feel pathetic. Something to add to my list of things I wish I'd done differently: pestered my parents for a bike when younger so I'd know this now.

Hmmm. When I decided to learn to drive this summer, I never expected this to be the outcome ;-)

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It might not have helped. Dad brought my first bike home from a school jumble sale, when I was 3. It was pretty much solid metal, including the saddle, and solid rubber tyres. The only thing in its favour was that it was bright red. He taught me to ride it by pushing me onto a gravel path between rows of rosebushes and letting go.

And I had that bike til I was about 11. Even my little sister didn't want to steal it.

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Heh!

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When you start going uphill, move the gears down eg from 2 and 5 to 2 and 3.

I tackle downhill stretches by v e r y gently touching both brakes in succession, just to take the edge off the speed and keep at a controllable pace. It also helps to go up a gear or two, as this will help you to keep pedalling and stay in control rather than just freewheeling.

Cor - it's like having Doctor Who teach me how to ride a bike!

Low numbers are easier. The 1/2/3 gears are big changes and the 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 are smaller ones - that is, they make less difference at once.

So if you're going up a hill, it might be an idea to switch the big gears. If you just think "my feet are going a little bit further than I want them to and I can push harder than this" try changing up in small increments. You need to experiment to get comfortable with what works for you.

Sorry my comments are all bitty... the bike is new, it will have brand new brakes with extra sharpness built in. That will settle down with time, but basically you need to be trying to squeeze slower to not jerk down the hill. You're effectively grabbing hold of the wheels, so if you grab lightly it will slow rather than stop the wheel. Try using *just* the back brake if you're not planning on stopping, only slowing. You're less likely to fly over handlebars if you're using the back rather than front brake, so get to know which is which.

I'll give it a go tomorrow - might try to find somewhere a bit flatter to start...

Move to Cambridge? ;-))

given where you are, and given 'tomorrow' is sunday, Rustat road and the cut-through to the old cattle market (cinema etc) should be a pretty good practice ground. Going over the cycle bridge on your first attempt was probably a bit ambitious (though only a bit) so don't worry that it was a bit awkward...

I'm impressed you're able to balance on the bike, which is the hardest skill for people who can't ride a bike to learn. Gears and brakes are a lot easier to remember if you can drive a car, but a lot easier to intuit if you have a bike.

Low number gears are easier, so when you're about to go up a hill, click your left index finger until you get down to 1, and your right thumb until you get down to 1. 1,1 will be the easiest gear of all to get up the hill with.

If you feel silly pedaling madly and not getting anywhere, try higher gears until you feel comfortable. As soon as it starts to be hard work, click down to a lower gear again, and keep doing that for maximum comfort.

The left selector, marked 1-2-3, is the main one; the right selector is more for fine control, so leave that one alone if you're not sure, and just keep switching the left one up and down between 1 and 3 for comfort.

Brakes you should touch very gently if you want to slow down, there's no need to squeeze them hard. Again, it's like on a car, with the added 'fun' that you'll go flying over the handlebars if you squeeze them too hard.

Low gears mean that it's a lot easier to pedal, but you go more slowly. High gears move the bike faster for a given foot speed, but require more effort. So low for hills and accelerating, high for cruising along the flat andor downhill.

On my old ten-speed, I had one set of gears at the pedal end of the chain, and one set at the rear-wheel-axle end of the chain. I'd guess your bikes similar. The full mechanical ratio is thus that of the first set of gears multiplied by that of the second. So left-3 and right-7 will besodding hard work to pedal but you'll fly like the wind, whereas left-1, right-1 will allow you to cycle up 1:4 hills with ease but you'll be overtaken by snails on the way.

When braking: using just the rear brake makes you very likely to skid. Using just the front pedal makes you very likely to go over the handlebars and hit the road with your teeth. So brake with the rear first and then a second or so later follow up with the front brake.

indeed, I don't know how the manufacturers chose to label the gears (because my bike just assumes you know) but generally, you should try and keep the effort the same - use the rear gears (1-7) first and if you move in the wrong direction, you'll find you are working harder so go the other way (honestly, that's how I figured it out, and it becomes automatic quite quickly). When you change front gear, you may well need to change the rear gear in the opposite direction to compensate. In Cambridge, you might well find it easiest to stick to the middle front gear (2 of 1-3) and just change up and down the rear gears (1-7), except on the really steep bits (where steep means Castle Hill in places, the Gogs and maybe the cycle bridges as far as my bike is concerned but of course YMMV)

Your brakes will be very lively since they are new, at the speeds you are likely to be moving you can probably get away with just the rear (probably right hand but check) but if you need to brake sharpish, do use both hands, and in either case be gentle.

One thing we forgot to say in among all the other rules, never* cross your gears - i.e. don't use the large front gear with the large rear one, or the small front gear with the small rear one (you'll have to translate this into the numbers on your gear changers) - the middle front gear can probably be used with all the rear gears but would prefer not to be used with the largest and smallest.

*for values of never meaning it won't kill you, and you might well get away with it, but it's bad for the equipment and may lead to your chain coming off

Congratulations!

One other thing, avoid having extreme combinations like 1-8. as that forces the chain to go on an extreme diagonal, and it might come off the sprokets. This is less of a problem than it was 20 years ago, but 2-4 is a better choice.

A Bug's Life

First ride

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September