...was a disaster!
i'm new to the forum. after doing a bit of reading last week, i decided to ride to work on Friday because my boyfriend's car was being scrapped (R.I.P little yellow Cinquecento) and my mum was working and I figured riding would be better than walking!
how wrong was i??
i live a little under 3 miles (i think) from work, so it's not like it's a major commute. i walk it in about 40 minutes, so thought it wouldn't take me long to ride instead.
my boyfriend bought each other bikes in november and while he has been riding quite a bit since, mine sat all comfy, tucked away in my shed until last week.
everything was going fine until about half way when i tried to change gear and the chain came off. but it didn't just come off - it got stuck between the frame of the bike and the gear thingies (not very technical, i know...) and i couldn't get it out. so i had to walk and push the bike for the rest of the way and ended up being a few minutes late for work, rather than early (which is what i expected as i left myself plenty of time - good thing too!)
luckily, a couple of the guys at work managed to fix it for me after faffing about with it for half an hour, and i was able to ride home... until the same thing happened again!! luckily, it didn't get stuck this time and i was able to put the chain back and carry on, but i couldn't change gear for fear of the chain coming off and i had to push it up a hill, because i just didn't have the energy to carry on riding it.
i did not realise that i was so unfit. i ache *all over*. i made a point of using a padded seat cover because having a sore bottom is what usually puts me off riding a bike... but it's sore anyway! how am i supposed to convince myself to get back on the bike to ride to work tomorrow when i'm still feeling the pain of my efforts on friday?
also, does anyone know what could cause the chain to come off the way it did? one of the guys i work with thinks that the chain is too long, but i had it on the smaller gear thingies, so surely if the chain was shorter, it would be too short for the bigger gear thingies (i apologise for my lack of technical knowledge)?
the bike came from halfords, and i would have thought the chain would be the right length anyway? it's fine when changing the gears that are at the back of the bike, by the rear wheel, but comes off when changing the gears by the pedals and it's incredibly slow to change gear - no smooth gear changes for me.
i'm planning to just not change gear until it's sorted and take it to halfords one evening after work to get it looked at, but does anyone know what the problem could be?
i'm new to the forum. after doing a bit of reading last week, i decided to ride to work on Friday because my boyfriend's car was being scrapped (R.I.P little yellow Cinquecento) and my mum was working and I figured riding would be better than walking!
how wrong was i??
i live a little under 3 miles (i think) from work, so it's not like it's a major commute. i walk it in about 40 minutes, so thought it wouldn't take me long to ride instead.
my boyfriend bought each other bikes in november and while he has been riding quite a bit since, mine sat all comfy, tucked away in my shed until last week.
everything was going fine until about half way when i tried to change gear and the chain came off. but it didn't just come off - it got stuck between the frame of the bike and the gear thingies (not very technical, i know...) and i couldn't get it out. so i had to walk and push the bike for the rest of the way and ended up being a few minutes late for work, rather than early (which is what i expected as i left myself plenty of time - good thing too!)
luckily, a couple of the guys at work managed to fix it for me after faffing about with it for half an hour, and i was able to ride home... until the same thing happened again!! luckily, it didn't get stuck this time and i was able to put the chain back and carry on, but i couldn't change gear for fear of the chain coming off and i had to push it up a hill, because i just didn't have the energy to carry on riding it.
i did not realise that i was so unfit. i ache *all over*. i made a point of using a padded seat cover because having a sore bottom is what usually puts me off riding a bike... but it's sore anyway! how am i supposed to convince myself to get back on the bike to ride to work tomorrow when i'm still feeling the pain of my efforts on friday?
also, does anyone know what could cause the chain to come off the way it did? one of the guys i work with thinks that the chain is too long, but i had it on the smaller gear thingies, so surely if the chain was shorter, it would be too short for the bigger gear thingies (i apologise for my lack of technical knowledge)?
the bike came from halfords, and i would have thought the chain would be the right length anyway? it's fine when changing the gears that are at the back of the bike, by the rear wheel, but comes off when changing the gears by the pedals and it's incredibly slow to change gear - no smooth gear changes for me.
i'm planning to just not change gear until it's sorted and take it to halfords one evening after work to get it looked at, but does anyone know what the problem could be?