Multispeed bicycle gears allow you to glide up hills pedaling quickly and easily or roar down the other side. Unlike a car with an automatic transmission, you'll need to manually change the gears, sometimes the front and rear one after the other. Your bike likely comes with 18 or 21 gears, of which 13 are actually usable, explains Alex Ramon of BicycleTutor.com. Gear changing requires acquiring a gentle touch and a sense of which gear matches your cycling conditions.
Step 1
Mount your bike and pedal ahead on a level area. Place the left shifter on the middle or No. 2 chainring of its three gears, by pressing a thumb shifter with your thumb or a downtube shifter with your thumb and index finger. Keep the left shifter on gear No. 2 for reasonably level riding, and think of gears No. 1 and No. 3 as available for extreme circumstances, Ramon advises.
Step 2
Ride in a comfortable cadence, or pedaling speed, based on the greatest amount of power you can sustain efficiently, online bike mechanic Sheldon Brown recommends. Adjust your cadence to the slope of the road, wind direction and strength and your level of conditioning.
Step 3
Place the right shifter also on the middle gear, No. 4 if you have a seven-gear rear sprocket.
Step 4
Shift the right shifter gradually up to larger sprockets, No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1, as the road becomes steeper. Press your thumb against the lever until an indicator pin clicks to the desired number; the gear is indexed to an optimal change in shifter cable tension. Change gears in advance of inclines to avoid shifting under pressure, which can damage your drive train. Anticipate by easing off your cadence and pedaling lightly as you shift.
Step 5
Shift the left shifter to the smallest chainring, No. 1, if you hit a tough hill and your left No. 2 and right No. 1 combination aren't easy enough, Ramon recommends. Shift the right shifter between No. 1 and No. 3 for a finer adjustment. Shift the front shifter back to No. 2, the middle chainring, before using gears No. 4 to 7 on the rear sprockets.
Step 6
Shift the left shifter to No. 3 if you crest a hill and head down the other side, and shift the right shifters to gears No. 4 and up. Use the low numbered gears on the left with the low numbers on the right, and the high numbered ones with the high ones, advise the mechanics on the Intown Bicycle website.
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