Having taught Charlie to pedal, “squeeze brakes!”, recognize a stop sign, bike up hill, walk the bike, and go “left” and also “right,” Jim leaned over and turned Charlie’s gear shift to 4.
When Charlie started to ride his new bike, he was (Jim realized) sometimes playing with the gears, moving the little handle around the dial: No wonder Charlie was not so sure at first about riding the new bike. Learning to use the gears is—as Jim proclaimed when he and Charlie came home after bike ride #2—the “final frontier.” Who knows what hills and mountains await?