silly question re gear changes on hills

wersal gummage

OK so this is a silly question - and somewhat academic as i'm not exactly racing or anything, but just something i've been wondering lately....

I've 18 gears on the bike, 2 front sprockets with 9 cogs on the rear.

So i'm on the flat and i'm in maybe 15th gear. I'm starting to get into a gentle climb so i click down, few mins later click down again etc etc - i'm down to 10th gear and on an incline - i click down onto the lower sprocket which puts me into 1st gear - then i have to lash back up to maybe 7th or 8th gear....

as i said - this makes no real difference to me, but just wondering - in a situation where every second matters - what is the correct way to adjust the gears here ?? personally i'd like to have a smoother method, not for the sake of saving a few seconds, but just for the sake of being a bit smoother!

Thanks!

Limestone1

You shouldn't be using what I think you are calling 7th, 8th and 10th gears. You should avoid 'crossing' the chain i.e. using big ring on the front and big ring on the back. This increases wear on the chain and sprockets. You should only use 10 to 12 of the 18 possible combinations. If you google chain crossing there is plenty of articles explaining why this is a bad thing e.g http://www.active.com/mountainbiking/Articles/_Cross_chaining___a_real_don_t_for_a_properly_functioning_bike.htm

wersal gummage

thanks.

yeah i know about chain crossing alright and i do tend to avoid doing it. however i often find when i'm going up hills that i do use 8th 9th gear etc. might only be a few mins in it till the hill steepens and i've to drop down lower.

so you're saying that as i hit a hill i should go from 11th or 12th gear straight down to 6th??? that seems a bit mad.

apart from avoiding chain crossing, what are the correct tactics then on gearing for hills ?? i just find when i change down front sprockets that it takes me a minute or two to get back to the rythm i was at.

thebouldwhacker

Ok so.... I have a few minutes to pass so I'm going to confuse things:pac:

While you do have 18 gears you should think of them as 9 in the back and 2 in front, therefore 1-9 become the 9 low gears and 10-18 become the high 9 gears.

Taking my relabeling as given (forgive me here but I'm gonna spell it out one step at the time) and you are spinning away full speed in high 9 and its getting a bit harder to pedal you need to gear down so you slip it into high 8. All good.
Then a head wind kicks in so you need to drop by 3 gears now your in high 5.
You look up and the gradient of the hill is about to increase so you need to drop another two gears....... this is when you need to look over at your left hand which has been watching your right hand take all the glory so far and waiting back stage exactly for this moment to shine.... Now you gear down with your left (moving the chain from the big cog into the small one moving from high to low) at the same time (or as soon as is possible) you should gear up with your right. This will move you from high 5 into low 5. Such a change will normally result in you spinning your legs at a very uncomfortable speed so moving the gears up in the back (moving from low 6 to low 8) will ensure that your pedaling speed (cadence) remains smooth. When in the low gears you can proceed to drop all the way to 1 low but when gearing back up as you reach the top of the hill as soon as you hit low 7 or 8 you should be shifting up with your left hand into the high gears and depending on which gear you are in gearing down at the back to ensure you cadence remains smooth.

However it really is all down to practice. As mentioned by Limestone one should never be in low 9 or high 1 as the chain will wear and grind simply because of the angle of the chain. Different group sets (the type and model of gearing) are more forgiving than others though.
Hope this helps..

girvtheswerve

So is it a matter of shifting gears with left and right hand at the same time? This is something that I find happening from time to time and its a real pain in the a$$

thebouldwhacker

Pretty much. Not sure if hitting both at the exact same time is bad for the chain (I dont think it is)but if you shift from high to low without correcting the position of the rear cog you will either spin uncontrollably or get stuck in a really high gear and have to grind out a few turns until you gear down. These options are a real pain in the ass...

abcdggs

I've found that i drop my chain when i shift front and rear and the same time on a pretty regular basis. Is it just my gammy setup or am i right in this being the case?

DirkVoodoo

Aside from cross chaining, you shouldn't be worrying about "I'm going uphill, I should get be in gear number 3".

Try and just worry about matching your gearing to your cadence, that is the best way to keep everything smooth. I learnt this watching a friend, good cyclist, out on a spin one day. I would often be fretting over which gear to be in, ending up spinning to high or mashing too big a gear. Very inefficient!

Watching him he was very quick at keeping his cadence consistent. he didn't worry about the numbers, just moving to whatever gear let him keep his legs spinning at the same speed, despite his road speed changing.

You can see people struggle with gears a good bit, they hit a rise in the road and don't shift down, the legs start mashing, pace drops dramatically and before they fall sideways they shift all the way down and end up spinning like mad.

thebouldwhacker

Sounds like you could do with checking the alignment, that said a bit of care while shifting may resolve the skip or shift one give half a pedal before shifting the other.... but sounds like its more to do with the alignment.