Nigelnaturist
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Hi all, I'm new to both the forum and cycling
Well, after one year of hankering after more expensive hybrid models, (not knowing if I'd stick to cycling or not), I made an impulse buy of a basic Carrera Crossfire 1 from Halfords during last bank holiday sale. After my first ride out of just 5 miles in 45 minutes I promptly took my bike to my nearest Specialized shop and changed the saddle to a womens specific design, the Ariel, and also go them to set the bike up properly for me.. 'Nuff said ;-)
I've since done 8.69 miles, 11.15 miles, and today 13.27 miles in windy North Lincolnshire. I've also learned my hybrid is heavy for me, and that I really am a complete newbie as I am clueless about gears, and therefore currently hate hills!But I am loving cycling, and already plotting the next bike.... any advice on gear shifting would be very welcome!
Happy cycling
In a nut shell, if I read it right you are on a hybrid which should have numbers on the shifters, (usually) left numbered 1-3, 1 being the lower gear, this coupled with the right shifter and low numbers, will give you the easier gears, and conversely higher numbers on both will give you higher gears, with a lot of cross over in between, as you point out don't cross chain, but don't get overly worried about it as it's more about doing it all the time, briefly wont do to much damage, also dont fall into the idea that the inner ring (left 1) is just for hills (granny gear), gears are there to be used for optimum performance, so use the gear that is most comfortable for the speed and conditions.
Your inner ring (1) will have some gear combinations that will be covered by your middle ring (2) and maybe one or two by the outer ring (3) though you probably would not want to use those, the thing is depending on the rear cassette you may find that by using the inner ring when you are on the middle ring and say 2 on the right shifter, you may have gears that are about the same and easier and harder on the inner, but the stepping is closer so you have a better choice of gears.
It's a matter of using the right gear, no matter where it is on the combinations.
I tried to stay away from numbers.
Open fields do suffer badly in the wind, don't struggle in too high a gear, go down a few till you are spinning easily, you will be slower, but it wont be such hard work, and over time you will naturally increase the gear, as your fitness improves. i hated the wind last year, it doesn't bother me quite so much. though I did consider Friday a little dangerous.
Hope this helps.
I think short spells off can renew your enthusiasm a bit. Hope you enjoy your bike cleaning. Some of the back roads around here were caked with mud this morning. Took a bit of washing off.
