Help! I don't know how to use the gears on my bike!!

[Jackass]

Hi,

So, I am a very inexperienced cyclist, so have only very recently got into cycling. My problem is that I'm pretty sure I'm using the gears completely wrong on the bike.

I pretty much improvise as I go and thought I'd just figure it out, but having been overtaken by a granny peddling half as fast as me on one occasion whilst I felt like I was doing an Everest climb and on another occassion being blown out of the water by a fat kid in his school uniform eating a bureeto whilst he cycled past me, I figure, it must be the gears......right?

I had the bike recently tuned, so there is no fault with gears or anything and I'm late 20's reasonably fit man, even though I haven't exercised in quite a while (hence the cycling everywhere now) but I get seriously leg burn on flat surfaces, that just can't be right, could it? I mean a "normal" fit person should be able to cycle around the city without much pain, when it's reasonably flat surfaces?

It's a 21 speed bike, so I found a happy medium and try and keep it around the 2 number on the left handle and 3 or 4 on the right handle at all times, as that was kind of my settling point, but when I change gear sometimes if feels like the bike just took off from the ground like that scene in ET and I'm flying past the moon peddling at a rate of 90, with little or no traction or go forward to the bike...other times if feels like I'm running a mill to churn a few tonnes butter, so can someone PLEASE talk me through, very very simply, how am I supposed to use the gears and in what context (e.g. when starting off, when have momentum up on flat surface, when going uphill and downhill etc.) it would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

bambergbike

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

Darkglasses

^^^That's a very good article, but it might be slightly advanced for what you want.

Have a look at this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNnKvVzzGw0

Your right hand side is the "back" gears, left hand side is "front". Cadence refers to how fast you are pedalling. He's got a very exotic looking bike, but the principle is exactly the same.

rab!dmonkey

First off, make sure that your saddle is at the right height. This will allow you to make the use of more muscles in your legs and reduce stress on your knees. You want your saddle high enough so that there is only a slight bend in your leg when it gets to the bottom of the stroke. The simplest way to find the right height is to put your heel on the pedal and set the saddle height so that your leg is fully extended at the bottom of the stroke. Pedalling with the ball of your foot over the pedal spindle, you will have the right bend in your leg.

The idea behind the gears is to change the ratio of pedal movement to wheel movement so that you always pedal at the same rate. If you are cycling in a fitness context - aerobic exercise - you should aim for between 70 rpm and 100 rpm. If you're just pootling around town, you can pedal more slowly, but the force you deliver at the pedals should be realtively light.

Most of the time you will use the middle chainring (front gears) and shift with the rear to make minor adjustments. If you reach a steep hill and you can switch down to the smaller chainring, just be careful not to cross-chain. This is when you use the smallest chainring at the front (easiest) and the smallest cog at the rear (hardest) or the largest chainring at the front (hardest) and the largest cog at the rear (easiest). The attached image shows what you should be aiming for.

Kildafornia

Make sure you are not pushing too hard a gear. Ideal 'cadence' is around 90 pedals per minute. I know when I started I was bursting my knees in the wrong gear. Keep your cadence high and you will always be in the correct gear (cross chaining notwithstanding)

The other basic to get right is your saddle height. A simple rule is to make sure you can straighten your leg with your heel touching the pedal. Read this for better info:
http://m.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/technique-how-to-get-your-seat-height-right-14608/

Finally, sometimes you just need to start easy, warm up and find your rhythm. the pain will come soon enough, dont go looking for it!

Canis Lupus

It's not only gearing. It also depends on your bike, its weight, geometry and the tyres/size of the wheels as well as your weight and fitness.

I currently commute on a touring bike (Thorn Sherpa). It's got chunky tyres, small wheels, weighs a f**k tonn and whilst comfortable it....just....will....not.....go.....fast... I'm a terrible commuter racer and I've had to just give up and tick along watching the grannies go by.

So if you're on the wrong type of bike you're basically pissing against the wind speedwise. If your bike is reasonable then as the posts above, push an easier gear. The idea is to use your cardio to keep you moving as if you push a hard gear your legs just wear out (and it's bad for your knees). It feels well weird pushing a lighter gear fast but you get used to it after a while. Helps greatly to have clipless pedals as well.

Raam

I've heard of a guy in our club who uses either 53x13 or 39x13. Nothing else. No one likes cycling near him.

jinkypolly

Here's a slightly more simplistic article that might be what you're looking for.

http://bicycleuniverse.info/eqp/gears.html

So in very simple terms keeping the left hand gear in 2 should cover general flattish cycling around. The lower the number in both left and right gears the easier it is to turn or spin the pedals but you will sacrifice power and speed to the wheels.

1-1 will be the easiest gear to turn and would only really be used on a steep hill.
3-7 will be the hardest to turn and would be used when you are going fast/downhill.

Remember that you don't have 21 unique gears, there will be some kind of crossover of similar gears so 1-6 may be the same as 2-1 and 2-6 could be the same as 3-1. So just remember that if you're moving up gears they might not be perfectly sequential.

So you're right in keeping it around 2-4 for general use but moving up and down the gears on the right should not create big changes in how the pedalling feels, that should only happen if you use the left hand gears.

So say you're pedalling along fine and happy in 2-4 you see a steep hill coming up so change to 1 on the left, so you are now in 1-4 but your legs are going round too fast so go in to 1-5 then 1-6. Now you are fine and happy again, legs not spinning fast but feeling some resistance in the pedals. The hill gets steeper again and the pedals feel harder to turn so you move down on the right to 1-5 then 1-4. Ok so at the top of the hill it's getting flatter so you move to 1-5, 1-6, 1-7 (1-6,1-7 not recommended due to chain crossover but mentioned to illustrate the point) but your legs are spinning again so move the left gear to 2 but wait a minute 2-7 way to hard so get that right gear down, so you settle on 2-3 and then 2-4 and once again your happy. Ok now your going slightly downhill but wait a minute you can go faster than that get that left gear into 3, 3-4 and we're flying, 3-5, 3-6 bootin' now. Oh oh red lights ahead, you'll be stopping so slow down and get your gearing ready for when you need to move of, try 2-3 and you should be all set.

I hope I haven't over complicated things.
Two things to remember that helped me when I got back into cycling;

1) Don't think of gear use the way it is used in driving a car, when driving we use gears, engine revs(cadence) and fuel(energy) to generally maintain a constant speed. When cycling however speed is your variable, speed is what you're going to sacrifice when going up that hill. Your going to use your gears to find a point where you're not spending to much energy trying to maintain a high speed. Come to terms with the fact hills mean slowing down and gear accordingly.

2) Don't try and cycle to other peoples standards. There are better cyclists out there and there are poorer cyclists out there, you have to cycle to your own abilities. You'll get schoolboys and grannies flying past you, so what. You have to cycle at a level and gearing that you are comfortable with, but don't worry you'll start to improve, you'll get fitter and your legs stronger and you'll probably notice your comfortable gears will change. You'll be waiting for the lights to turn green sitting in 3-3 fine and happy.

DirkVoodoo

jinkypolly wrote: »

1) Don't think of gear use the way it is used in driving a car, when driving we use gears, engine revs(cadence) and fuel(energy) to generally maintain a constant speed. When cycling however speed is your variable, speed is what you're going to sacrifice when going up that hill. Your going to use your gears to find a point where you're not spending to much energy trying to maintain a high speed. Come to terms with the fact hills mean slowing down and gear accordingly.

Actually, it's nearly exactly the same. Both allow you to vary the speed you are travelling at while keeping the engine speed in its most efficient range. For a cyclist, this means moving your legs at about 80 to 90 rpm. Higher or lower is a personal preference really.

If you focus on that, rather than something as abstract as "gear numbers" you will be fine. You don't need to look down, which is nice, just go by feel:

Legs spinning too slow? Pick an easier gear

Legs spinning too fast? Pick a harder gear

jinkypolly

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Actually, it's nearly exactly the same. Both allow you to vary the speed you are travelling at while keeping the engine speed in its most efficient range. For a cyclist, this means moving your legs at about 80 to 90 rpm. Higher or lower is a personal preference really.

If you focus on that, rather than something as abstract as "gear numbers" you will be fine. You don't need to look down, which is nice, just go by feel:

Legs spinning too slow? Pick an easier gear

Legs spinning too fast? Pick a harder gear

But that's not what you do when driving, you don't let the speed fall when going uphill, you push the accelerator down to maintain speed.

[Jackass]

Cheers lads. It wasn't as bad today, took some of the tips on board and whilst still not perfect, it definitely made life a bit easier. There's one road I dread in the mornings (nutgrove avenue) as it has an uphill slope of about 10°. It's my Everest.

I'm pretty sure that part of my problem is that my bike is a piece of crap (big chunky frame mountain bike with heavy off road tires) in terms of city cycling, and I need to readjust the seat I'm pretty sure.

I think I also was cross chaining and sometimes when I change gear it has trouble adjusting on the bike into the correct gear. This might be to do with wild changes from one extreme to the other, as I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing (and often wonder if that's obvious to the innocent bystander) but hopefully this info will set me in good stead. If not, I'll be back.

Thanks again for all the info.

jinkypolly

Get rid of those heavy off road tires if you're only using the bike on the road. It will make an absolutely massive difference.