Today I went on a bike for the first time in over 20 years. I wish it to be known that I HAD forgotten how to do it!
There can be few things more embarrassing than struggling to learn how to ride a bike on a public highway when you are fat and middle-aged...
I think I'll go and hide now - and nurse my aches & pains...

W

I am sure you were fine. Don't say that about yourself. I say that all the time and it makes me feel awful and my friends tell me off for it.

Keep trying, willobie - it will come back. Is there anywhere a bit more private you can use to try again?

I did finally manage to ride it around the block without falling off. I think it will take me a while to get used to all the gears etc - my old bike only had one...

W

You don't have to use the gears

I think I need to find one that suits me - at the moment I seem to have to do a lot of pedalling without getting very far...

Aww

How many do you have?

18 apparently... I'll have to get Mr Willobie to explain it all to me in very simple words that I can understand... He doesn't know about this yet...

W

Hehe! 18's not bad. I have 21, I'm usually using 2 or 3 gears. Chances are, you'll have 6 small cogs at the back and 3 at the front, multiplying together to make 18.

What I usually do with mine is keep it on the largest cog at the front, probably labelled 3 on the left handlebar. On the right, I usually change between 3, 4, 5, 6, or even 7 if I'm going fast.

What keeping it on the largest cog at the front does is enables you to make big changes with one change on the right hand.

The lower the gear (you can find your gear by multiplying left handlebar by right handlebar), the more times you feet will go round per turn of the wheel, thus enabling you to go up hills, and to go fast along the flat.

Any clearer?

Eeeeek! That's maths!
Thanks - that sort of makes sense...

W

It probably wasn't very clear, looking back over it...anyway, have a play with the gears thing, and see what's easiest. Lower is easier, higher is harder.

Thanks! That I understand!

W

Lower is easier, but you don't go so far
Higher is harder, but it takes you further...

May I just say that you are not the only one who forgot how to ride a bike.
It happened to me too after only two years' break!

It comes back pretty quickly - the same thing happen to me last year. My husband expected me to ride my bike for some distance along a disused railway line on holiday, and I found it very hard going and only managed to cycle about 2 miles before giving up exhausted. It was only on the way back that I discovered that we had been cycling slightly uphill, and returning was much easier. I can now use gears and cycle for about 15 miles. I still haven't solved the problem of getting a sore bottom though! I have even bought a special padded seat - which does not work

I've never forgotten how to ride a bike, but had forgotten how much hard work it was! A couple of years ago, Husband and I had a few days away in north Devon, and hired bikes for the day. We cycled about 18 miles along a mainly flat cycle path. All fine and good, but I started aching about a mile from the end, and was still aching two days later