People cycling with their knees

thescouselander

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

The thing I find crazy is the number of cyclists in the wrong gear (NO, not Lycra) They are either in bottom with their pedals going round like a demented hamster wheel or in top struggling with the pedals and wobbling like mad. Can they just not get the hang of gear changing or has the derailleur broken and they can't fix it ? Back in my days your bike was your pride and joy and everyone knew just how to maintain and repair it.

Yeah, I know what you mean although I do like to ride at a relatively high cadence myself - especially going up hill. I usually notice a lot of people in far too high a gear really struggling up hills. Then the same people really struggle as they try to pull away from the lights in top gear. If only they knew it would be far easier if they just moved the gear leaver.

Dave_C_2

no_more_cards_for_me wrote: »

If the saddle height is correct its quiet possible that the feet will not reach the ground. The rider then has to learn the correct way for mounting and dismouting a bicycle, i.e one foot on ground, one on pedal, push down on pedal and mount saddle.

Unfortunately most people don't mount bikes this way so the saddle is typically too low. In the past 6 months i've raised my saddle over 3 inches, making it more comfortable and increasing my average speed. I too had to learn how to mount a bike but it is pretty simple.

This is made worse with the trend for mountain bikes. On some mountain bikes the bottom bracket is significantly higher to give extra clearance on rough trails. Thus the pedals are higher and so the seat is higher. On my MTB I can't touch the ground when on the saddle.

I leave the last word to Sheldon Brown

Dave