Too Fat to Ride??? (Gear shifting problem)

[planetluvver]

Thanks, gals for thinking about me!

I was thinking of moving the shifters lower down, onto the bike frame. (I think this was a popular spot to place the shifters. But noone has suggested that placement, so perhaps I need to look into the bar-end shifters. I will probably rejoin the PSU (Portland State University) Bike Coop, so I can have some hand-holding. I do not understand WHY I am such a wimp when it comes to working on my bike.

Though, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself, I remember as a kid, that all the guys who worked on their cars would have a bunch of other people hanging around, in fact, working on the car was probably an excuse for hanging out in the garage, and drinking beer.

What I REALLY need is to clean out the garage. There is still some automobile related clutter in the garage, as well as general clutter. And I haven't owned a car for several years now!

[xeney]

Moving the shifters to the down tube is probably the easiest thing to do. My husband likes down tube shifters; I have never gotten the hang of them. The reason nobody suggested that, probably, is that both down tube shifters and stem shifters (what you have now) are something you mostly only see on older bikes.

Before you do it, I would test to make sure you're going to be able to reach them easily while you're riding. If you can grab a water bottle you can use down tube shifters, though.