I first learned to ride a bicycle on a dirt and gravel road. It was the 1960’s, and we lived a few blocks from the beach in Cape Canaveral, FL. Although I was pretty sure that Tony Nelson and Jeannie lived just a few blocks away from us, I never could find their house, lol. The truly funny thing about my little jest is that my father was actually working for GE under contract to NASA on the Gemini and Apollo projects - hence why we were living there.

For those of you who have never fallen off of a bicycle on a dirt and gravel road, there is nothing quite as painful as having said dirt and gravel scrubbed out of your knees, shins, thighs, elbows, and hands.

Luckily for me, we moved after a few years to Merritt Island, FL - a few miles from Cape Canaveral - where I got to learn all about falling off of said bicycle onto concrete and asphalt. Not much better, but at least less scrubbing after the fact!

Even with the memories of those youthful incidents in mind, my worst ever bicycle incident came while I was in high school. While riding down a series of long hills with a few friends late one night, I slammed into the back of a parked car. My bicycle being the only one equipped with lights, I was riding in front. It was an extremely dark, moonless night, and the streets we were riding on were without street lights as it was what one would refer to as exurb - not rural, but too far from the city for the suburban neighborhoods to have either sidewalks or street lights.

The lights on my bike were generator lights, which unbeknownst to me, would overpower the light bulbs if ridden at a high enough speed. A speed which I suddenly exceeded flying down the long series of hills. When the lights went out, one of my friends shouted to me, I turned to look at him in the sudden darkness, and slammed into the back of an unseen car which had been parked along the side of the otherwise empty street.

Suddenly, I am stretched out across the roof of the car, my bicycle laying on top of me, sliding across and down the windshield toward the front of the car. It was not a pretty site, nor was it quiet. As my friends managed to avoid the car, slow down and turn around to come back to me, a few lights began coming on in the closest houses. My friends grabbed me and my bike and hustled me away down the street and around the nearest corner. I was sore and bruised all across my torso and neck, my neck was strained as it had been stretched out across the roof of the car when I hit, and the front forks of my bicycle were bent backward so that the wheel was hitting the frame of the bike - not to mention the no longer round shape of the front wheel.

We carried my bicycle a few blocks to a friends house, where I was able to get a ride home. I was sore for a week, the front wheel and front fork on the bike had to be replaced, and when I went by the car the next day, there was a decidedly vertical dent in both the bumper and trunk of the car. Not to mention the scratches across the entire car from back to front where my body and bicycle had slid forward.

We never did find out who owned the car, and never told anyone else about the crash. For several years it was the joke everyone laughed about whenever we got together, but this is the first I have even thought about it in decades.

I guess the moral of the story is that you can blame the bicycle, but ultimately it is operator error.

There will likely need to be a chain tensioner somewhere, since the axle probably doesn't move back and forth like they used to for adjustment.
Yeah, I'll add to what "Miss Weeble" says above, unless you are really bike mech savvy, ask for some competent assistance as it isn't a dead simple swap. Maybe look to trade for a purpose built bike? I don't know what usage and style is your ideal, Gwen. You can still get bikes with hub gears and chainguards.
Loads of tech stuff Hubs - Sheldon Brown
Heal up soon.