Originally Posted by Standalone

I took my wife along with me into New Haven traffic, largely avoiding sidewalks for the first time. She enjoyed it, but I'm concerned.

I don't think she was aware of things like the box truck that decided to come over into our lane at one intersection, or noticed when and where I took the lane at certain intersections or around debris.

I think one of the missing skills for her was shifting. She was willing to go for it and get out in traffic to go buy a cute new helmet, but I think we need to work on skills before getting out there again. I think she'd appreciate my taking the time to walk her through some stuff.

I can be a bit thick headed in teaching skills that I've known for a long time or ones that I've learned on my own. Any advice on where to look for some sort of a "method" to teach the "theory and practice" of derailleur use?

As a kid, I was fascinated with how a larger gear at the "input" coupled with a smaller gear at the "output" for more revolutions and vice versa. I'm not sure this will necessarily catch my wife's interest in any useful way.

I'd love to get her comfortable enough with shifting for me to fix her up some of the vintage downtube friction shifting bikes I have around.

What other skills should we work on before our next urban venture? How do I teach more advanced road/ traffic awareness and communication-of-intent-to-drivers (body language/ lane placement)?