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| Well, I have seen that Zurich's the place to start riding a bike, and that it may improve my general health and wellbeing. However I am a fat bast@rd, and don't want something too uncomfortable. By the same token I don't want something weird looking like some sort of manual Harley that's going to turn my escapades from something to gawk at into a national passtime with kids running after me throwing rocks. I want a bike that's going to get me about on flat, level ground so I can ride from town to the lake and around it in comfort. It doesn't have to be overly cheap although I don't want to be paying for things I don't really need - nor be the "all the gear and no idea" guy.
Please help! | |
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Yes, good start! Bike riding is the best and exercises all of your muscles. I love bikeriding. It's easy to get into and keep up with.
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LOL! I saw a guy riding one of those trcycle kind of bikes where it looks like he's laying down on his back and pedalling, he was riding it down a busy street with cars all around.
It looked so scary I would feel scared riding down a busy street like that in such a vulnerable position. I need to be sitting up where I can see what's coming my way in all directions. LOL! But he looked like he was enjoying it.
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| Sorry I had to post this one: | |
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LOL!!!
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| I'd look at what are called "hybrid" bikes. Basically they have flat handle bars making it more comfortable/controllable around town, lower gearing than a racing bike so easy to pedal around, and the wheels/tyres will be fatter to give more comfort and more grip.
You don't really need a proper mountain bike unless you are going off road, so for cycling around in and around town a hybrid is probably the best bet. Personally I would avoid the "cool" cruiser bikes - I think they look pretty dumb unless you are about 15 and trying to impress your mates until you are old enough to get a scooter... 
The stuff about sprockets and 22/32 tells you about the gears, so how easy or hard it is to pedal along. Basically the front and rear chain rings/sprockets will have a varying number of teeth. Most bikes have 2 or 3 chain rings at the front and between 7 and 10 at the back, so if you want to see what the lightest overall gear is, you want to look at how many teeth the smallest of the front chain rings has and how many teeth the biggest of the rear sprockets has*. At the front (the first number or 22 in the above example) the lower the number the easier it will be. At the back (the 32 in the example) the higher the number the easier it will be.
Somewhere around CHF1,000 should get you something reasonable, and as has been mentioned before it may be worth upgrading the saddle straight away for something more comfortable.
* If you really want to get technical, divide one by the other to work out the gearing ratio. So 22 / 32 = 0.69 or another example 34 / 28 = 1.21. The smaller the ratio, the easier it will be. | |
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I would like a bike where the pedals are harder and stiffer, the kind where I can really build up some speed, what size number should I look for? My bike is cool but the pedals are too soft and I can't get up a good speed.
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| Some good advice on this thread.
Further to this: Does anyone know of a flat, relatively unpopulated area near Zurich where a chap might teach himself to ride a bike again after a break of 33 years? | |
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ROFL!!!! You will never lose the ability to ride a bike! Until last year I had not ridden a bike since I was a kid but as soon as I got on it, it all came back! You will do fine.
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