December Challenge; changing gear

Cold weather is not good for dodgy lungs, so during the winter I often ride indoors. On a bike with derailleur gears. By pulling on a lever I can change the gear and therefore the resistance that I have to overcome, in order to huff and puff enough to convince myself that it’s ‘doing me good’.

Derailleur is a French word, derived from the de-railing of a train from its tracks, which is the way in which this system works; the chain is de-railed from one sprocket to another. The long dangly bit, technically referred to as long dangly bit, keeps the chain under constant tension. Otherwise it would just fall off when the gears were changed.

Although invented in the late 19th C, the first Tour de France was raced sans derailleur gears, a single speed being deemed more than sufficient to get over a mountain pass.