How many times have you fallen?

[KnottedYet]

I wonder if I should have gotten just one skosh smaller bike - the seat is pretty high.

Lower the saddle a bit if it is too high right now.

Take a look at your seatpost, and follow it down to where it inserts into your bike frame at the seat tube of the frame.

You will either find a collar with a lever, or you will find a collar with a bolt with a hex socket in it. OR you may find a pair of bunny-ears that are pinched together with a bolt.

Put a little pencil mark on your seat-post about 1/8 inch above the collar. Loosen the bolt a teeny bit with a hex key, and slide the post gently until your mark meets the collar. Check that the saddle nose is still pointing straight ahead, then tighten the bolt back up with the hex key.

If you found a lever (quick release) instead of a bolt, pull the lever handle away from the bike frame. It should be really tough to pull! Slide the post down to your mark, check that the saddle is straight, and then push the lever back to the frame. It should be really tough to push shut!

Try riding again with the saddle at your new mark. If you still think it is too high in a day or two, repeat the process.

As far as the tippy bike is concerned, if you get really good at scooting the bike, you can pull it back in the direction you want it to go if it starts to tip the wrong way. Find a grassy field and practice leaning the bike one way and then the other underneath you while you stay upright over the bike. I learned to ride in a cow pasture and then was on gravel roads long before I ever got to ride on asphalt, which I think is the best way to learn! (find a cow pasture )

Chamois will get caught in the saddle tip if you are not lifting yourself high enough to clear it before pushing your butt back, or if the shorts are too big so the chamois is poking out, or if the saddle is just too high for you to clear it no matter what.

ETA: Here's Sheldon: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html Scroll down a ways, he gives much better directions than I did!