PANCHO HERRERA: This is Pancho Herrera and here are some tips on how to shift when mountain biking. All right, here is an example of a 27 speed mountain bike. That is a lot of gears but they are actually pretty easy to digest. Your left hand controls the three ranges in the front, or the three chain rings, and your right hand controls the nine speeds in the back. You use them together and you want to use them in such a way to keep a comfortable, easy pedaling cadence. For rolling terrain or relatively flat terrain, let's try the middle ring. That is the center position on your shifter there and it is going to be the middle range. Think of it, if you are driving a jeep, it is the middle range on the gear box there. From that middle position on the front, you have full access to all nine gears in the back. If you want to make an easier pedaling cadence, you want to climb a small hill, push your thumb button on your right hand, and you will see the derailleur will move up, move the chain up into the biggest cog, that is a lower gear. You can always mix and match that rear shifter or right hand shifter to get a good comfortable pedaling cadence. Rolling over of the top of the hill and descending back down in the higher gears, that would be the small gear here, that is your fastest speed, hardest pedaling cadence. As your speed increases on a bigger downhill, that is when we employ the big chain ring in the front. Push the thumb button on the left hand, brings us up into that big gear, and now again, we have full control of the rear to fine tune that pedaling cadence, make sure it is comfortable for you. You are not mashing your knees, but you're not spinning out. That is the range you are comfortably looking for. For most people that is between, let's say 90 and a hundred rpms. If you are going downhill fast, it might be a little bit lower, let's say 70 rpms, or pedaling cadence. Now, finally you have a low range and that is for the steepest of climbs. You want to use that when the bike gets pointed uphill. Now, it is a good idea to make these shifting changes before they are needed. In other words, anticipate your gear shift changing. One thing that a multispeed mountain bike like this doesn't like is the condition called the cross gear. Let us try to avoid that whenever possible. Picture, if you look from the top of the bike, you don't want that chain in a crossing condition, in other words, the inside gear at the back and the outside gear at the front like that. Here is another important guideline when you are shifting; you need to be pedaling one of the curves. Of course, nothing will happen if you push buttons while the chain isn't moving. So, you are pedaling as you shift, but let's ease the burden on that drive terrain by lightening our loads, while we are shifting. So, in other words, if you see a big hill coming, you know you are going to need that low gear, pedal gently as you make your shift, but keep pedaling.
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