pedaling

[Geonz]

It helped me to be taught to think "round and round, not up and down." Made me think of vectors and physics... but the idea that it's not a piston engine, but I'm "stirring" the pedals, not pushing them.

If you have to stomp it's probabl time to try a lower gear like other people said

[Laterider21958]

Hi. I hope you enjoy cycling as much as I do (I'm relatively new as well).

Recently we were visited by a person who arrived on his bike and during conversation about how he was, he mentioned he had to have a knee operation, but was recovering with less leg extension than he had previously. When we began discussing how he was going with cycling, he mentioned that he always uses almost the hardest gear there is and rarely changes gears. (Which equates to mashing in my mind.) It turns out he thought it would strengthen his knees and legs to do this. From my very minimal knowledge I thought this method of riding would place excess strain and wear on knees (possibly our friend created his knee problem from his riding style).

If you have gears I would suggest finding the one that is comfortable and easy to start pedalling on, and then gradually progress through your gears if necessary. I find that if I can predict a stop (e.g. at an intersection etc.) I will change down in anticipation of needing an easier start off. It is becoming like second nature now.

Happy riding.

[galaxygirl]

Thanks all, keep responding...I am collecting all of your responses to repeat over and over to myself while I ride!

I have a new Giant OCR3. Compared to every bike I've ever had, this one practically rides itself. I can't believe I'm not sore at all from riding it and that I kept up with my kids for 4+ miles. The pedals feel strong, it's just that I am nervous from my past experience...granted with a cheapo bike years ago...where I dropped a pedal mid-ride.

I am so confused about shifting at this point, I am not sure of anything except that I keep chanting to myself not to cross the chain (big to little ring). There are so many choices and I still forget which side controls which part of the chain. I try to keep all of the gears in the middle because I can't change them very well. Every time I get to a hill, I think...can I make it to the other side in this gear? Because I am unlikely to be able to change while I am concentrating on not crashing on the downhill, and then trying to keep pedaling on the uphill. I can't figure out how (and when!) people change gears on hills. I'll be riding flat streets for as long as humanly possible.

Mostly, I keep telling myself...don't fall! I hate to be fearful. It makes me feel old, but crashing on a bike seems really scary to me. It's been years since I've ridden anything anywhere!

Anyway, pedaling...round and round...stop in a low gear...don't start up hill...no mashing. Got it! Keep the advice coming. I really appreciate it!

[Torrilin]

Don't worry about cross chaining unless you discover that your bike has lots of trouble with it. Loud noises or dropping the chain will tell you it's having trouble. Otherwise, just pick a gear that's easy to pedal at a moderate cadence. Work on keeping your cadence up, and don't feel bad if at first you get tired out quickly. It takes time to get stronger.

If it's a new bike, it probably has indexed shifting. This is good, because the gears are numbered. Big number means harder gear. Small number, easier gear. So 3/8 would be your hardest gear, and 1/1 would be your easiest one. My bike is set up so shifting feels a lot like using the brakes. The easiest way to get comfortable with shifting is to start out on the flat and just practice.

Pick one chainring (the big gears in front) to work on, and play around with all the different gears in back. Then you *know* which gears are easy and which are hard for you. On some other ride, pick a different chainring. After you've done all the chainrings, you should have a list of good flat gears. Combining this with downshifting for stop signs should get you a lot more comfy with the shifters and balancing and brakes. Then hills shouldn't feel so scary . And if you start to feel unstable, stop and walk the bike. There are lots of times where it's not smart to ride through.

The other good part of doing this is you can see which chainring has the most lower gears available to you for hills. You also have an easy source of fitness goals. If the 3rd chainring is just plain too hard, you can make being able to use it a goal. When I got my bike in May, I couldn't ride on the 3rd chainring at all. Now I can sometimes cruise along in 3/6 for a hundred yards or so, and I'm slowly re-learning my hill climbing skills.

[Kano]

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I have a new Giant OCR3. Compared to every bike I've ever had, this one practically rides itself. I can't believe I'm not sore at all from riding it and that I kept up with my kids for 4+ miles. !

It is amazing how a nice bike feels, isn't it?

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I am so confused about shifting at this point, I am not sure of anything except that I keep chanting to myself not to cross the chain (big to little ring). There are so many choices and I still forget which side controls which part of the chain. !

I don't have a good "mantra" for the left hand, but RIGHT REAR is helpful....

Keeping track of shifting from a physically big gear to a small gear can be tricky, and I still get it wrong occasionally even though on my bike, the little levers are pretty niftily intuitive: move the little lever to go to a little (physically) gear, and the big lever to move to a bigger one. I just say OOPS! as soon as I realize I've shifted the wrong direction, and shift again with the other lever!

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I try to keep all of the gears in the middle because I can't change them very well. Every time I get to a hill, I think...can I make it to the other side in this gear? Because I am unlikely to be able to change while I am concentrating on not crashing on the downhill, and then trying to keep pedaling on the uphill. I can't figure out how (and when!) people change gears on hills. I'll be riding flat streets for as long as humanly possible. !

Something that helped me a lot with the gears: play with them a lot on the flats. That will help you get to know them. The more you play with them, the more your body will learn so that you don't have to think so hard about which lever to push to get to which gear. Listening to the bike helps here too -- that cross chaining thing, you can often do a little tweak to the front guy to make the noise go away!

If you have three rings up front, if you can get to the smallest one before you start up the hill, this will help make it easier to go up. Sounds like you've got a down before the up, though, and some folks like to build up as much momentum as possible before starting up on one of those, so they like to be in one of the bigger front rings -- more pedaling resistance. Then shift the front one down to as small as possible first, pretty much. It was a while before I even used my biggest front ring at all -- don't want to do that mashing thing! Also, gearing down before it gets hard to pedal on the up hill is a good idea. I kept trying to save a couple of gears for "what if" and found that it actually works better to get to the easiest one early!

Oh -- going down the hills -- I find that I feel more stable if I hold my knees kind of firm but not tense, close to the bike. Not exactly squeeze the frame, just close, maybe even gently touching with one knee, seems to reduce the wobbly feeling and vibration. I also coast for the most part going down hill, cuz sometimes it's hard to be in a gear that doesn't have you pedalling that crazy pedaling that doesn't really do anything but cause an unstable feeling!

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Mostly, I keep telling myself...don't fall! I hate to be fearful. It makes me feel old, but crashing on a bike seems really scary to me. It's been years since I've ridden anything anywhere! !

This is a reasonable fear, in my opinion! We're not as close to the ground as we were when we were kids, and we don't bounce quite as well as we did back then either. We also don't heal as fast if we damage ourselves. The more you practice, though, the less you'll worry about it, I think!

Karen in Boise

[Kris]

I was afraid too, and I'm still cautious, but after two years, I'm a lot more confident than I was when I started. My balance is better too, I'm sure. Pretty much the only thing that scares me now is traffic.

I stayed mostly in the middle gear at first too. There was just too much to think about to worry about gears, and my childhood bike experience was all on one-speed bikes. Then I started practicing shifting when I didn't need to, and that helped a lot.

Kris

This is a reasonable fear, in my opinion! We're not as close to the ground as we were when we were kids, and we don't bounce quite as well as we did back then either. We also don't heal as fast if we damage ourselves. The more you practice, though, the less you'll worry about it, I think!

Karen in Boise[/QUOTE]