Road Bike Gear Shift

To shift one of the rear gears and how you ll shift most often use your right shifter.

Road bike gear shift. Geared bikes have a front derailleur which allows you to shift between the large and small chainrings sometimes with a middle option on a triple. On road bikes or any bike with drop handlebars your shifters are the same levers you use to apply your brakes. To operate the shifters you push the lever sideways until you hear a click. For most mountain and hybrid style bikes with flat bars you shift the gears by using set paddles that you operate with your thumb.

Keep watching to learn which gears work with which terrain and how and when to change them to keep. The gears on your bike are there to make your life easier you can shift down when the hills ramp up and crank them higher for speedier riding when you get a flat stretch of road. To shift onto a different chainring gear up front use your left shifter. If you shift to a higher gear it will become harder to pedal.

The gear changing mechanism on a bicycle has changed quite a bit over the past 30 years or so but these days all of your shifting is typically done from the same levers that control your braking. You have to pedal in order to shift. This is a comprehensive guide on how to change gear on a road bike or any other drop bar bike including step by step instructions on how to use shimano sram and campagnolo shifters. So don t worry it s okay to shift it as much as you want while learning even if the gear changes aren t easy and smooth yet.

The highest gears on a road bike are often only used on long downhills or for short high speed sprints. With the bike held off the ground and the chain now on the largest cog at the back test the front derailleur by moving the chain between the smallest and next chainring using the gear lever. A bike with 30 or more gears is not an indication of a machine designed to break the land speed record any more than a bike with only a single gear assuming similar ratios.