How soon you forget……..The Carrera is in the LBS just now, so last night, I took the old Dawes Diploma out instead. It hasn’t really turned a wheel since I got the Carrera, but I have been starting to renovate it a bit to use in the poor weather to come. 700 X 35 Schwalbe tyres and a big saddlebag for the wet weather gear are the pluses, and the 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub gear, well not quit a minus. It did have the old style ‘wrap-around’ handlebars, but I’ve replaced them with the drops off the Triumph which I find more comfortable. The bike, about 1990 vintage is the first one I got when I got back into cycling, so I do look upon it fondly.
I set off and all seemed well, brakes working, though maybe a slight rub, and a bit of stiffness getting it into first gear. Heading up the Ayr Road I was really enjoying it, dawdling up in second gear, but when I tried to drop to first on the steeper part before the Mearns Shopping Centre, I couldn’t make it. I dismounted and had a fiddle with the adjustment, overdid it and then underdid it, and then thought “Just get on with it and fix it when you get home.” I went on a bit but by then, as it was beautiful evening, I was really hoping to extend what was just planned as a test run for a bit and head over by Whitelees and back through Clarkston. The run up to Whitelees would definitely be a first gear job, certainly for me, so I stopped again for another fiddle. Nothing doing. It worked fine while I was stationary, but when I tried to change on the move, no chance.
And then, purely by accident, I stopped pedalling while I was trying to change gear, maybe even a little back-pedal, and that’s when I remembered how to change with hub gears
I set off and all seemed well, brakes working, though maybe a slight rub, and a bit of stiffness getting it into first gear. Heading up the Ayr Road I was really enjoying it, dawdling up in second gear, but when I tried to drop to first on the steeper part before the Mearns Shopping Centre, I couldn’t make it. I dismounted and had a fiddle with the adjustment, overdid it and then underdid it, and then thought “Just get on with it and fix it when you get home.” I went on a bit but by then, as it was beautiful evening, I was really hoping to extend what was just planned as a test run for a bit and head over by Whitelees and back through Clarkston. The run up to Whitelees would definitely be a first gear job, certainly for me, so I stopped again for another fiddle. Nothing doing. It worked fine while I was stationary, but when I tried to change on the move, no chance.
And then, purely by accident, I stopped pedalling while I was trying to change gear, maybe even a little back-pedal, and that’s when I remembered how to change with hub gears
[goes away muttering ...] 
