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05-17-08, 06:10 AM
I bought my wife a new fitness bike for Mother's Day and she has been toodling around for a few miles at a time the past few days. I get a call at she says "I have been getting this strange knee pain on the front of my knee". After working her way up to 6 miles and with the hills around here, my first thought was not saddle height but spinning. I ask her what gears she is using, and she says "all of them in the back, but I don't know how to use the front and don't want to try in the middle of a hill".
So I get home and go to look at the bike. She has it in the biggest front ring, so if she hasn't been shifting out of the front she must have been killing herself. We have really big hills here, in fact the hill to get out of our development is 6% for a few hundred yards and her route takes her on another 8% 1/4 mile hill (which she admitted she had to walk 3/4 of the way up). I give her lots of credit for being a trooper, but I can't climb these hills, after thousands of miles under my wheels, in the big ring either!
So if the weather holds off today, we are going to have a shifting lesson. I didn't think bicycle riding was that complicated and that she'd remember how to shift from riding bikes 20 years ago. My mistake.
BTW, I am pleased as heck that she asked for a bicycle and am going to do my best to really encourage her. She has seen me lose 15 pounds from just riding every day, not really beating myself up, just riding an hour every other day. Hopefully it'll be as enjoyable for her as it has been for me!
So I get home and go to look at the bike. She has it in the biggest front ring, so if she hasn't been shifting out of the front she must have been killing herself. We have really big hills here, in fact the hill to get out of our development is 6% for a few hundred yards and her route takes her on another 8% 1/4 mile hill (which she admitted she had to walk 3/4 of the way up). I give her lots of credit for being a trooper, but I can't climb these hills, after thousands of miles under my wheels, in the big ring either!
So if the weather holds off today, we are going to have a shifting lesson. I didn't think bicycle riding was that complicated and that she'd remember how to shift from riding bikes 20 years ago. My mistake.
BTW, I am pleased as heck that she asked for a bicycle and am going to do my best to really encourage her. She has seen me lose 15 pounds from just riding every day, not really beating myself up, just riding an hour every other day. Hopefully it'll be as enjoyable for her as it has been for me!