03/23/2022
Spring has arrived and your bike is calling you! If you are new to the wild and wonderful world of cycling and are having trouble navigating through the gears on your bike, here's some clues. The right-hand shifter operates your rear gears, called a cassette, and you'll use this most often. The left-hand shifter adjusts the chain on the chainrings attached to your pedal crank. In each of these, the lower the gear, the slower the bike goes and the better it can climb. The higher gears are for flatter ground and downhills.
The front and rear gears are aligned so when the chain is closest to the bike frame, the slower it goes; but the further to the right the chain travels, the faster it goes. One rule of thumb to follow is to adjust the front chainring (left shifter) to gear 1 for climbing steep hills, gear 2 to flats and most of your riding, and gear 3 for pedaling down hills. The rear cassette should be adjusted to a comfortable pedaling cadence. Downshift the right-hand shifter if pedaling is too hard, upshift when pedaling too fast.
Using the gears efficiently will allow you to pedal your bike over any type of geography. Remember to downshift when rolling toward a stop, and downshift as you ride into a hill.
The diagram shows the shifting arrangement for a flatbar bike with index shifters. The fast-slow gear shifters on the left side are always opposite to the right. One precaution is to try not to use the gears at opposite ends of the gears, for example Gear 1 in front and gear 8 in the back. This is called cross-chaining and will stress the chain.
Enjoy the better weather and happy riding!
