Hello,
First off, I gotta say, any time I've got a question cycling related, when I Google it, this site always comes up, and it's always right. So I registered here hoping I could get some more opinions (I've asked this on a local forum as well).
Next, some background: I've been a unicyclist for 2 or 3 years now. Both road and mountain riding. So I don't consider myself 'new' to cycling persay. Just bikes.
About a month ago, I finally bought a road bike. A 2011 Giant Defy 1 that was very lightly used. I took it to my bike shop and had them do a tune up on it, and bought a few goodies to go with it (some shoes and pedals, etc.)
A couple of days ago I took it out on it's first big ride. I hadn't been on an actual bike in around 10 years before I bought the bike, so it was a different experience for me. My last bike was a POS 7 speed semi-mountain bike that was way too small.
So here's what I'm wanting to know:
I'm a bit worried about damaging my drive train while I actually learn how to shift properly. I know that it's not rocket science, but before I found the trim on my STI levers, I did crosschain it for a few seconds a couple of times. I'm still working on letting up on the pedals when I shift (I'm not stomping on them, but I have a hard time deliberately letting up on them) and I'm sure there's been a few times when I actually did shift without the pedals moving (like when I was figuring out where the trim is).
So how durable are these things? I've thrown my uni's off the hill side before, but I'm afraid to breath too hard on my derailers because I just don't know what they can take. The bike is equipped with 105.
I've built my unicycles from the ground up (laced the wheels, replaced bearings, blah, blah, blah). But on my bike, it's all pretty foreign to me. If I break something, I'll probably end up needing to take it into a shop.
I've even been considering selling the gears later this spring for a single speed that I'd be better able to work on (though it's still not a unicycle).
Anyways, sorry for the long post.
And I know how the newbie things go where you end up hearing the same question over and over again, but I did search and couldn't find anything on destroying your group set learning how to shift.
Thanks for any help you guys can give me.