First REAL bike outing!!!

You will get there.  I suggest getting with your local bike shop and getting with a beginner group.  Riding with other people will help you get confident.  As far as your booty goes it will get used to it.  I definitely recommend bike shorts.  Just don't get frustrated and you will be fine.  Good Luck!!

It will get better. You will either figure out the gears or die trying (jk). Really though, find a beginner group, it will help. Other than that, just keep doing what you are doing.

That's really great to hear. I love it when people get excited about bike riding. Yeah, definitely get some cycling shorts. But also realize that the bike has an amazing way of not allowing you to overdo it. Things like a sore rear-end, sore neck, etc. will almost always completely resolve eventually (assuming your bike is fit OK). Those pains just mean you're body isn't ready to go much further and is in the process of getting into cycling shape.


Since you're just starting out, switch gears a lot. Try to anticipate which gear you'll need (based on the terrain immediately ahead of you) slightly before you need it in order to keep your cadence constant. Don't let your pedaling bog down into a lower cadence before you shift to an easier gear. Most of all don't worry about the learning curve. You'll get it down quickly and it will become second nature.


I'd suggest that you learn some basic bike maintenance and not depend on your LBS for the easy stuff. Brake pads are cheap and it's literally just loosening a screw, replacing the pad, and then tightening it back. The most important thing is that you learn how to keep your rear deraileur adjusted. It's also super easy. IMO, most who depend on taking their bike to the LBS when it starts shifting badly and making noise, end up putting it off and riding on a poorly adjusted bike. Not only is that bad for the bike, IMO, it's also bad for enjoying the ride.

Sorry for all the advice for which you didn't ask, but when I see someone getting excited about the bike, I'm really tempted to throw in my two cents...

Laurie,
There are alot of great videos on you tube on how to change a flat.

Keep at it and biking will become a joy!!!

Brecks comment about anticipating gear changes is so critical it can make or break the ride for you. Shift left and right separately, and try to learn to shift when you can take some pressure off of the pedals, eg if you leave it too late arriving at a hill, you will be in a hard gear, using lots of pressure on your pedals, and pedaling slowly (called a slow cadence), and gears don't like to shift easily when pedal pressure is high. Try to focus on shifting down early when you reach hills.

Good luck. Handsome family, by the way.          

No you never want to shift both at the same time.

Assuming you are riding a double. (I.e. two chainrings in the front)...

You should visualize the gears like this:
Low gears are easy to pedal and make you go slow. ("low=slow"=easy)
High gears are harder to pedal and make you go fast. ("High=hard"=fast)

The front gears are called "Chainrings".
The back gears are called "Cassette Cogs".

The small chainring (in the front) gives you a set of gears where the lowest few gears are lower than any in the big chainring.
The big chainring (in the front) gives you a set of gears where the highest few gears are higher than any in the small chainring.
For the cassette cogs (in the back), bigger rings are lower(slower), smaller rings are higher(harder).

So,
The highest gear on your bike is big-front/small-back.
The lowest gear on your bike is small-front/big-back.

You choose chainrings (controlled by the left shifter) based on the major theme of the terrain.
You choose cassette cogs (controlled by the right shifter) based on the minor theme of the terrain.
Remember, "Right=Rear" for both shifters and brakes.

Lastly, you don't want to cross-chain your gears which is: big-front/big-back or small-front/small-back. This puts the chain at a big angle which isn't good for the gears. It also means you must shift chainrings to get another gear in one direction. You want to avoid that situation.

That's really all there is too it. So for example:

Assume that you're entering terrain where the major theme is uphill, you feel like you're going to need low gears, and if you stayed in the big chainring (front), you might have to cross-chain using the lowest gear in back. In that case you want to go ahead and shift to the small chainring with 1-3 lower gear cassette cogs remaining on the back. You DO NOT want to shift into lower and lower gears on the cassette to the point of cross-chaining and then try to shift to the small chainring. The reason (beyond the fact that you shouldn't ever cross-chain) is that shifting chain rings is more risky and so you don't want to wait until you're barely moving up a hill to do it. There's also just no reason to take that risk. (When I say "risk", I mean risk of the shift not happening quickly and smoothly).

Now assume that you've climbed the hill and the major theme is now downhill. You want to do the same thing and get into the big chainring pretty quickly so that you'll have access to those higher gears as you shift into smaller cassette cogs.

On flats you can do whatever you want as long as you don't cross-chain.

It seems complicated when it's all written out like this but if you just play with the gears a lot and ride, you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Practice changing a tire when you're not on a ride.  Eventually you will get a flat, and it's great to have the experience of doing it without any pressure.

I'll always remember that first ride after I bought my bike.  Just fantastic.

Practice changing a flat while watching TV sometime. Take a wheel off the bike, get your tire levers, pump, an extra tube (in case you damage the one on the wheel),  lay it all out on an old sheet or towel, and change it a few times while watching a show. After a few times it'll seem easy.

+2. Changing out a tube is very easy. Everyone who rides a bike should be able to do it easily. To learn (anything/everything about bike maintenance), just search the 'net for a video or written info whichever you prefer.

Also, there are simple but important hints you'll learn from the 'net info about everything bike related which will make things much easier to do.

EGs.
1. Always be in your smallest cassette cog when removing the rear tire which makes it easy to put back on.
2. Always put enough air into your tube so that it's slightly inflated round like a donut before you put it inside the tire. I do it with my lungs (yeah, gross) so I don't have to use my CO2. This lowers the chance of a pinch or fold in the tube.

ETA:
Interestingly when Lance raced the Leadville 100 up here recently he flatted and had to change it. He said he had some trouble changing the tire because he hadn't done it in so long. He said something like, "Usually when I get a flat, a car pulls up beside me and they give me a new bike."

Edited by breckview 2009-11-04 9:39 AM

This is a timely thread as I just went for my first bike ride last week and it was very humbling.  14 miles with one kickass hill and I was forced to stop/rest 3 times.  I had no shorts either and my butt was not appreciative.  Got my first pair of shorts and rode 20 miles yesterday.  MUCH better result, only had to rest once though it was a less hilly course.

I'm waiting on a riding book and a swimming technique book to come in the mail.  I want to research some technique before I get too much seat time and have to unlearn bad habits.