How To Change Gear On A Road Bike

Change gears gradually and gently.

How to change gear on a road bike. For most mountain and hybrid style bikes with flat bars you shift the gears by using set paddles that you operate with your thumb. 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.

Ex professional cyclist simon richardson explains how to change your gear cables on a shimano equipped bike so you get silky smooth gear shifting. Derailleurs are the usual gear setup on road bikes but. They are the mechanical wonders that will allow you to accelerate to wind whistling speed along flat smooth roads or power your way up a steep rocky climb without bursting a lung. 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.

Clicking down from your biggest cog to your littlest cog in 5 seconds flat will result in a lot of clunking and an increased risk of dropping your chain. The best way to get a hang of what your gears feel like is to take your bike to a safe place away from traffic like an empty parking lot and shift through all the gears in the front and rear to. Aim to change gears one at a time slowly clicking up or down and pedalling between changes. Whether you ride a mountain bike a road bike or a commuter bike in fact pretty much any bike you ll have gears.

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. 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.