Hey all, couple of newbie questions. Firstly, Im on an extremely tight budget so please try and avoid suggesting I get xyz pedals at £100 a set :-)

1. The bike I purchased had strap pedals, they were awefull, I quickly swapped them for non strap pedals, but now need to looka t clipless ones. I ended up going cheap and purchased Exlistar EPS-R pedals, they came with the shoe clips. My question is, I know how to clip the shoes in and how to get them back of with enough speed to not fall off the bike, but is there a tip as to how to clip them back in fast, I find it a little fiddly to get them back in at first push off?

2. I think my bike only has the standard basic 18 gears. I dont want to go to the extreme expense of a new rear hub, wheel, etc to increase the gears, is it possible to change the front derailer instead, mine has 2, would 3 work? what would I need to change and would this be cheaper than doing the rear.

Many thanks all. I am sure I have missed out some important information.

"increase the gears".

What front chainwheel and rear cog teeth combinations (numbers of teeth) do you have at present?

What exactly is lacking in the selection of 18 gears you have currently, that you need to "increase"?

Are you struggling on hills at the low end, "spinning out" at the high end or what? Adding more gears, many of which will be redundant, will not make you go faster, better conditioning will.

As far as clipless, it's just like how you get to carnegie hall: practice, practice, practice. It'll come with time.

I have a feeling that you're not in the U.S. but if you can get your hands on these shimano pedals at nashbar, they're a rather good deal- https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...67_-1___202530

+1 -- All good questions...

But just to add: Going from a double in front to a triple can be expensive as it often involves replacing many of the shifting components on the bike. You would almost certainly need a new crank and possibly shifter and derailers and chain...

Plus, most decent road bikes have doubles up front. So yours is not inferior in any way...

One route (if you are looking for more power) would be to go from a standard double to a compact double. New cranks aren't cheap -- but cheaper than a new crank and a bunch of other stuff...

adding a chainring is the more expensive approach to changing the gearing.

Explaining the problem with the current gearing will help with answering your questions. Providing the bike manufacturer, year and model will also help.

Also what shifters do are you using?

I think you answered my question.

It would be easier to just say, Newbie = muppet (just in case, translation Muppet = fool)

I did feel the uphill gear was a tough one, but I suspect this is down to my lacking the fitness levels, so will get easier in time, and the down hill one seems to be fine.

Those pedals are actually cheaper than the ones I got, which I thought were cheap. No am not in US, wish I was, the roads around Carlsbad are great for cycling

Again, we'd need to know tooth counts for a detailed answer. But usually the inexpensive way to lower gears (easier climbing) is to fit a MTB cassette + a new chain + maybe a new long cage derailer. A shimano Tourney is likely to work.

Hi,

Starting I thought the low gears weren't low enough and the high gears fine.

Now i'm running out of high gears and struggling less with the low gears,
basically as I've got fitter/faster for each typical situation I using a higher
gear, hence running out out of gears at the top, but I've only got six gears.

I'm getting faster at the top end more quickly than the low end (hills).

rgds, sreten.