frame question

[Over50Newbie]

Hi Melissa,

As you can see from my name, I am also new to biking. I have a used 2003 Trek Navigator 300. I looked on the Trek website and it says that it also has a 28/38/48 chain ring (I don't have a clue what that means - tee hee) but I only have 7 gears on the right side of the handlebars, not 8 like Denise's bike.

Can I just use the chart that you gave to Denise, but not count the last row to find out my gear ratio? I seem to ride around 90% of the time in Gear 2 on my left, and either Gear 3 or 4 on my right (What I call 2:3 and 2:4). But every once in a while I go up to Gear 2 on my left and Gear 5 on right (2:5). If I hit a hill, I go all the way down to 2:1

The other day I went to Gear 3 on my left and Gear 3 on my right (3:3). Is that one easier or harder than Gear 2:5?

Is there a special gear ratio table for my bike?

Don't you just hate it when these newbies ask all of these questions?

I hope you can make sense of all this, because I just confused myself just posting it!

Thank you,

Over50Newbie