Shiny new bike - first ride

So I got the new bike home and decided to take it for its first ride. I did a lot of dirt bike riding growing up in the country - but haven't ridden anything pedal powered for a good 15 years or more. But you know what they say about riding a bike... I am currently 99kg (a good 15kg overweight for my height) so this is going to be a bit of a learning journey as well as a physical challenge for me to say the least.

I have never owned or ridden anything pedal powered with gears - I have no idea where to set the seat hight or anything like that. I was supposed to get a bit of an intro at the bike shop but my wife ended up collecting the bike as I was busy with work - so I am just going to have to give it a shot and learn by trial and error.

So after inspecting the gear levers and the gear cogs and having a play - I figured out what does what. It seems on my right hand the 'trigger' shifts up a gear at the back wheel, and the 'thumb lever' shifts down (8 gears on the back cog). It seems the left hand controls shifting the front cog (3 gears), but the trigger shifts to a lower gear in this case and the thumb lever shifts up (opposite of the back cog). Simple mathematics tells me I have a total of 24 speeds at my disposal.

As you can tell - I do not know the correct terms for the parts of the bike, but I figure writing from this perspective may help other new riders. After studying all these parts and levers and cogs - I am already planning on some further research to understand all the parts of my bike and their function, so expect this in a future post.

So after memorising the gear levers I embark on a quick ride around the block. Nothing too adventurous is planned, just a maiden voyage to get a feel for the bike and make sure everything seems to be functioning on it. After about a 1km ride on relatively flat sealed surface, all in all it seems to be going pretty well. I changed the gears the wrong way a couple of times - but it was enjoyable. My balance and handling of the bike is fine, but it is evident that my fitness is pretty poor. Even after 1km I am feeling pretty saddle sore too!

I am very impressed with the bike - it is smooth to ride and feels very well constructed. Not really sure where this sport will take me at this stage - but I am hoping to get into some pretty rugged stuff and i feel that this bike will handle it well.