EEEEEKKK! My chain came off

[Crankin]

Mimi just said what I was going to say. If you start using your granny gear (easiest ring on the front/left), you will get up those hills. Practice in a parking lot or other small street and go through all of the gears. You will soon find out what all of the sweet spots are.

You can get the chain back on by quickly getting the front (left) gear into the big ring (hardest gear) and pedaling hard. I have done this a few times, without even unclipping and it works.

[SouthernBelle]

It's much more difficult to hurt your bike than you think. Heaven knows I've tried.

[pardes]

Mimi just said what I was going to say. If you start using your granny gear (easiest ring on the front/left), you will get up those hills. Practice in a parking lot or other small street and go through all of the gears. You will soon find out what all of the sweet spots are.

Wait a minute, Crankin....are you saying that I'm not already using the granny gear?????? And that there are easier gears than what I'm using????

Okay so there is a shifter on the left with three steps and there is a shifter on the right with nine steps. If the indicator line on the left shifter is set all the way to the right, and the indicator line on the right shifter is set all the way to the right, doesn't that mean it's the granny gear?

Mr. Silver. I think it's great what you're doing! But remember, cycling doesn't have to be solitary...

This is a serious biking area. I need to build up more stamina before I can keep up with the "beginners" in these groups. The typical "easy" rides average between 10-15 mph for a few hours at a time. I'm almost there but not quite.

[mimitabby]

I'm not familiar with your shifters, but I looked at the photo of your bike on the bus and it looked to me as if your chain was on the middle gear (in the front) the biggest one is for going the fastest IN THE FRONT and the smallest one in the front is for climbing hills.
In the back, it is the opposite. the biggest gear is for the hardest climbs, and you will move the slowest.

[pardes]

I'm not familiar with your shifters, but I looked at the photo of your bike on the bus and it looked to me as if your chain was on the middle gear (in the front) the biggest one is for going the fastest IN THE FRONT and the smallest one in the front is for climbing hills.
In the back, it is the opposite. the biggest gear is for the hardest climbs, and you will move the slowest.

Okay, good. That's what I've been using as my easiest gear. Smallest one on the front and largest one on the rear.

Now then....there is something else I'm confused about. Why are there only two rings on the front and nine on the back if this is supposed to be 27 gears? Shouldn't there be three in front?

[Crankin]

From the way you spoke, it sounded like you never moved your front ring to the granny. Sorry. Without knowing the set up of your particular bike, I can't comment, but I am pretty sure you must have a triple on your hybrid!
As I said, experiment with all of the gears in a safe place. You generally can spin your way up those hills in a very low gear combination on a bike like yours. Sometimes new riders tend to "mash" the gears when they are trying to get up hills. Shift to the easy gear on the front before the hill and then shift down on the right as you need to as you go up the hill. There will be less of a load on your chain that way and you will be less apt to drop it.

[Mr. Bloom]

pardes: I'll apologize for giving bad advice...if you just have two chain rings, the third eye probably won't be helpful.

I checked your model on the Trek site and it looked like it had a triple on the front

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes..._path/fx/76fx/

But that's current model year...and I can't tell from your photo what you have.

[mimitabby]

yes, that's what i did too (checked the website). If you only have two rings on the front, then yes, you were already in the lowest ring. But if you're feeling like you don't have enough gears, maybe you ought to get a 3rd one? (the bike shop can do this for you)