Denise,

That's awesome! You keep riding that bike path by your house. I can't wait to hear about the day that you decide to go around the entire path -- all 22 miles of it! But remember that doing the part you're comfortable with is so much better than not doing any of it at all.

There's no substitute for Time in the Saddle (or TITS as it's sometimes referred to around here.) You'll just keep getting better & better, and will have a ton of fun during the process.

As far as your gearing goes, well, we could figure some of it out by looking at the gear ratios. How many teeth on the front chainrings and how many teeth on the back rings. Let's see, according to the Gary Fisher website, your front chain rings have 48, 38, and 28 teeth. Your back rings range from 11 teeth on the little one to 30 teeth on the biggest one. And if we convert that to gear inches...

Wait a minute! When you say that you shifted to two gears easier, are you shifting the front (using the left hand control) or the back (using the right hand control)? Each time you change the front, there's a huge difference in gear inches. So...if you're changing from your big chainring to the little one, yeah, it's gonna feel like spinning! Changing to different cogs in the back is the way to fine tune.

My apologies if you knew this and you're changing the gears using the rear derailleur.

Well, if you're interested in knowing the gear inches, let me know!

Have a great time riding -- it's what it's all about!! And keep on pedaling!

-- Melissa

PS If you want to build confidence riding with traffic, one of the best ways to do this is to join a club and go on a group ride. There's strength in numbers, plus some of the seasoned members can give you safety tips on riding in traffic.