Adjusting Your Brakes - RIDLEY Bicycle Use And Maintenance Booklet

Everything changes when you ride on loose surfaces or in wet
weather. Tire adhesion is reduced, so the wheels have less
cornering and braking traction and can lock up with less brake force.
Moisture or dirt on the brake shoes reduces their ability to grip. The
way to maintain control on loose or wet surfaces is to go more slowly
to begin with.

6.3.2. Adjusting your brakes

If either brake lever on your bike fails
the Mechanical Safety
(Section 4.3) you may be able to
restore brake lever travel by turning
the brake cable adjusting barrel (Fig.
17A & B) counterclockwise, then lock
the adjustment in by turning the
barrel's lock nut clockwise as far as it
will go. If the lever still fails the
Mechanical Safely Check, have your
dealer check the brakes.
6.4. Shifting
Your multi-speed bicycle will have a
derailleur drivetrain (see 2. below),
an internal gear hub drivetrain (see
3. below) or, in some special cases,
a combination of the two.
6.4.1. Why all those gears?
You will get the greatest fitness benefit, produce the greatest
sustained power and have the greatest endurance if you learn to spin
Check
the pedals at high revolutions per minute (called cadence) against
low resistance. You will get the least fitness benefit and have the
least endurance by pushing hard on the pedals against heavy
resistance. The purpose of having multiple gears on a bicycle is to let
you chose the gear that allows you to maintain your optimum
cadence under the widest range of riding conditions. Depending on
your fitness level and experience (the fitter you are, the higher the
cadence), optimum cadence is between 60 and 90 pedal revolutions
per minute.
6.4.2. Shifting a
derailleur drivetrain
If your bicycle has a derailleur
drivetrain, the gear-changing
mechanism will consist of:
• a rear sprocket cluster
called a free-wheel or
freewheel cassette
• a rear derailleur
• usually a front derailleur
• one or two shifters
• one or two control cables
• one, two or three front
sprockets called chainrings
• a drive chain
The number of possible gear
combinations ("speeds") is the
product of multiplying
number of sprockets at the rear of the drivetrain by the number of
sprockets at the front (6x2 =12,6x3= 18, 7x3 =21 and so on).
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the