When riding uphill or into a headwind, it’s best to use the small or middle front chainring and bigger rear cogs. Once you feel more comfortable, you can start playing with different bike gears in different situations. A glance to the front will confirm what chainring you’re in, and a quick glance to the rear will at least give you a sense of whether you’re in a low or high gear. If you’re not sure what gear you’re in, you can (carefully) look down. This will allow you to get the hang of shifting before you shift into harder gears. When you’re just getting comfortable on a bike, use only the rear cogs and the small or middle front chainring. When you shift, keep pedaling but ease up on the pedals, especially on hills-if you’re pushing hard or if you stop pedaling completely, the chain may skip or fall off. Don’t wait until you can feel the incline kick in before you shift shift gears in anticipation of the incline. When in doubt, shift before the terrain changes, especially on hills. Use a harder gear on flats or if the wind is blowing from behind (a tailwind). You want to shift to an easier gear on climbs or when you’re riding into the wind. The best way to get a hang of what your bike gears feel like is to take your bike to a safe place away from traffic, like an empty parking lot, and shift through all the gears in the front and rear to understand how they feel while riding.Ĭyclists spend most of their time shifting the rear gears to find their cadence sweet spot. Moving it between the chainrings in the front results in a more noticeable change- pedaling feels easier in a smaller chainring and harder in a bigger one. Moving the chain from the smallest rear cog to the largest eases your pedaling effort incrementally. Most geared bikes have one, two, or three chainrings in the front (the rings attached to the pedal crank arm) and anywhere from seven to 12 gears-or cogs-in the back (the cassette attached to the rear wheel). Different brands of shifters all function slightly differently, but all shifters are pretty intuitive.Ĭonsult your bike shop at the time of purchase on how yours work or simply jump on your bike, make sure to pedal, and push your shifters to get a sense of how they function. If you get flustered on the fly, remember this mnemonic device: “right equals rear.”įor bikes that only have one chainring in the front (also known as “1x” or “one-by”), you will only have a right-handed shifter, unless you built your bike for the rear to be shifted on the left side. Typically, the left-hand shifter changes the front bike gears, and the one on the right controls gears in back.
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