EEEEEKKK! My chain came off

[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)

[pardes]

Thanks that's what I'm up to now. I'm looking at the Shimano Deore XT M770 165mm 4 arm Crank 22-32-44. Although I don't have clue about the 165 mm part. I just want the EASY gears.

[DebW]

Thanks that's what I'm up to now. I'm looking at the Shimano Deore XT M770 165mm 4 arm Crank 22-32-44. Although I don't have clue about the 165 mm part. I just want the EASY gears.

165 mm is the length of the crank arm. That length would generally be for a rather short rider.