Introductions - Newbie from Sunnyvale, CA

Hi All!

My name is Ron and think I'm interested in road riding, thus the reason I signed up for this forum. I drove a SAG on a ride from Canada to Mexico a few years ago and have been interested in riding ever since. I will admit that I did buy a bike shortly after that ride, and even though I had ALL the gear I needed, I just gave up on riding because I didn't immediately get the hang of shifting (and didn't have anyone to talk to about this).

Sounds pretty sad, I know...but I I just can't get the urge to ride out of my system. I have since sold that bike, and am now starting off a bit slower. I have a friend who is going to loan me his extra bike for rides that he will be taking me on (every once in a while), and hopefully with his help I will get the hang of it this time around.

I am definitely open to any and all suggestion with regards to riding, safety, and even gear. I currently have NOTHING to get me started in riding, so need ALL of the gear, etc.

Anyone down here in the Sunnyvale area?

Ron

Heya, welcome to the forums.

I'm in the SJ area, and ahve no extra gear, but I can try to point you out.

I'm fairly new to cycling...having only done this seriously for the past 6 months, but I rode quite a bit in my teens.

So far my thing is all about mountain bikes, but some of the basic mechanical concepts and such still apply.

Shifting isn't so bad...jsut find a comfy all-roundd gear an stay with it, only changing the chainrings until you get the hang of that and feel like you could use more. It took 5 months before I felt I was ready to use all my gears...by then I built up a heck of a lot of cardio strength, and some nice sprinting ability as well ;)

Just give it a go, there's also a reason why singlespeed bikes are getting as popular as they are...some folks jsut don't like to shift gears.

Now not shifting (until I am comfortable) makes all the sense in the world to me. For some reason I was thinking that shifting is required, like in a vehicle. I guess this is my lack of cycling knowledge showing. :-(

The only bike I have access to right now is my girlfriends mtn bike. It's not too bad, but I have a feeling that I'll be pretty embarassed if someone sees me riding it in public. ;-)

Thanks for the tip, shoot me a PM sometime and we'll exchange email addresses.
Ron



Heya, welcome to the forums.

I'm in the SJ area, and ahve no extra gear, but I can try to point you out.

I'm fairly new to cycling...having only done this seriously for the past 6 months, but I rode quite a bit in my teens.

So far my thing is all about mountain bikes, but some of the basic mechanical concepts and such still apply.

Shifting isn't so bad...jsut find a comfy all-roundd gear an stay with it, only changing the chainrings until you get the hang of that and feel like you could use more. It took 5 months before I felt I was ready to use all my gears...by then I built up a heck of a lot of cardio strength, and some nice sprinting ability as well ;)

Just give it a go, there's also a reason why singlespeed bikes are getting as popular as they are...some folks jsut don't like to shift gears.