My new bicycle is my new bicycle

That's what she said.

 

Heck, I learned something in this thread, since the last bike I rode was this . . .

 

Try adjusting the rear derailleur by turning the little knurled barrrel thingies located where the cable goes into the derailleur or where the cable leaves the shifter housing on the handle bars (or both).

When you totally screw it up, take it to a shop of have the neighborhood teenage bike dude tune it for you.

Oh, and make sure you use some clothes pins to fasten playing cards to the frame near the wheels so that they stick into the spokes and make that "Click! Click! Click!" sound.

That way, you'll be able to tell how fast you are going.

 

I'm definitely still doing something wrong. Rode it home from work, the left shifting mechanism moves with some difficulty, the one with just a "Hi" and "low" and about 10 little lines on it. The right one, numbered one through six, will not move from the "six" position, even while pedaling forward. It isn't as difficult to pedal now, and it will glide pretty good downhill, but now the brakes don't work (when they definitely did earlier).

I did figure out that I had the handlebars turned upside-down, but they are still too loose. A quick screwdriver turn should fix that.

My wife, who wasn't on board with the idea of buying used bikes, is looking very self-satisfied at my failure.

 

Is it a Mt. Fury?

 

Sport sx. But looking at the wal-mart web site, it looks like they are pretty much the same thing.

I'm way too proud to take my crappy, used, Wal-Mart bicycle to a shop and ask them to fix it. I actually interviewed a bike shop owner once, and he said he hates it when people do that.

 

I've been doing that for years. I also always skip gears. Oh yeah, and my favorite, shifting too late and getting stuck on the hill.

 

For real, it doesn't matter what bike you have. Your brakes are gonna wear out after a bunch of rides and you will need new ones, and you can always replace the crank chains and gear components for real cheap.


I found a frame of a Trek thrown away when I was moving out of an apartment a few years back. I spent about $50 bucks and replaced all the parts and basically had a brand new bike.

Your Wal-Mart bike is fine, as is my trash bicycle.

 

That's why you have to find a neighborhood kid or a lower-rent bike shop.

The gear changing mechanism is run by a cable, operating against spring tension. Once the cable is adjusted properly, the shifters click at the right spot to adjust the gear changer to shift the chain to the proper gear.

If the cable is out of adjustment, it will be difficult to shift properly, no matter how much fiddling you do.

There's also the possibility that the cable is completely loose, so the derailleur isn't moving at all.

 

If the cable is out of adjustment, you're going to need help adjusting that. I had that problem along with a flat (stupid home construction crew couldn't clean up the street?). Great bike shop fixed both for $15 ... probably didn't take them 10 minutes, so a superb win-win.

Kept that in mind, and they were good sources for a cycling story I did about a year later.

 

Where the hell is Idaho when you need him?

Here's what I can add: If you get a flat on the front tire, it might be worth it to change the tube yourself. If you get a flat on the rear tire, pay someone to do it. Better yet, go ahead and buy those airless inner tubes and have someone put them in.

 

Okay, as mentioned, I actually bought two identical bikes for the money.

I broke out the other one just a few minutes ago, and it works like a dream. So there is something wrong with the bike (boo) but it wasn't just me being way too dense to follow simple instructions on how to shift gears (hooray).

I'll try to learn to fix the other one myself, see how far I get.