Give a Shift About Shifting!
Shifting gears on your bike doesn’t have to be complicated, follow these pro tips to make your ride easier.
In this blog, I’ll demystify everything there is to know about how to shift gears while riding your bike and how to do it most effectively. Learn how to be confident in shifting gears then get out on your bike & practice!
Why Shift?
The first thing you might be wondering is why bother with shifting at all? The main benefit is that it makes you more efficient! Your goal when riding your bike should be to maintain a constant cadence regardless of terrain or weather conditions. Your cadence is simply the amount of revolutions your legs make per minute while cycling. Shifting changes how easy or difficult it is to pedal so that you can keep your cadence consistent no matter what your ride throws at you – when you’re pedaling uphill you can make it easier by downshifting but if you have a tailwind you might want to upshift so that you’re not spinning out.
Keep Reading to learn the nitty gritty of shifting on your bike!
Shifting 101
Most shifters work by pulling a cable that pulls a part known as the derailleur. The derailleur then guides your chain into different gear combinations. This is the basic mechanics of how your drivetrain works to move your bike forward, but each shifter type has its own quirks.
This is the drivetrain. It’s all controlled by the shifters on your handlebars!
Trigger:
These are some of the most popular shifters out there – odds are if you ride a bike with flat handlebars, then your bike has trigger shifters. They’re common for a good reason though: they’re really good! While they might not be the most responsive or durable, they are perfect for the everyday commuter, the casual rider & most cyclists in-between.
For your rear gears, one lever will be pushed with your thumb and put you into gear that makes it easier to pedal, while the other lever is pulled by your index finger to make it harder to pedal. The reverse is true when shifting the front set of gears (if you have a front set). It sounds kinda complicated when I write it out like this, but it becomes second nature very quickly! If you’ve never shifted with trigger shifters before, just try pushing and pulling levers next time you’re out riding to see how it feels. It will be very intuitive once you start messing around with it, so don’t be afraid to try!
Grip
If you’ve ever ridden a Divvy Bike, then you’ve encountered grip shifters. They’re called that because, as you might suspect, they are built in-line with the grips. These are super easy to use because all you have to do is rotate your wrist up & down your bike to up & downshift. Just make sure that your hands don’t rest on the actual shifters while riding so that you don’t actually shift gears by accident.
Integrated
If you don’t know what you’re looking for, integrated shifters might just look like regular brake levers, but if you look closer, you’ll see the additional levers built into the brakes. So that begs the question: how do you shift with these shifters instead of engaging the brakes?
To shift with integrated levers, just remember that the big paddle = big ring. On the front, your big chainring makes it more difficult to pedal while the big gear on the back makes it easier. Instead of pulling/pushing these levers like you might on a bike with trigger shifters, these paddles need to be tapped towards the inside of your handlebars to engage.
Downtube
While not found very often on modern bikes, downtube shifters were basically the standard for a large chunk of cycling’s history. This means that you will very likely still encounter this style of shifter if you’re riding a used or vintage bike, so it’s worth knowing how to use them!
Like the name suggests, these shifters are most often found on the downtube of a bike, but they might also be up by your bike’s stem, or even at the end of the handlebars. All you have to do to shift is move the lever back & forth to shift. The big downside of this kind of shifting is that you have to take one hand off the handlebar to change gears, which is always going to take longer and can be tricky for those just starting out.
When to Shift
The main thing to keep in mind while shifting is that you should be pedaling when you do it. Keeping your cranks moving while you shift will help the chain slide into the proper gear. Shifting without movement of the pedals puts undue strain on the chain. The inverse is true as well: pedaling too hard when shifting puts a lot of stress on the chain from that effort.
With that in mind, let’s dive into a couple of key times shifting will be useful:
Anticipate Changing Elevation
The more you ride, the more you begin to read the terrain before you get to it and anticipate the effort required. Keeping in mind the goal is to keep a consistent cadence, what gear will you need to select to accomplish that? Try and be in that gear slightly ahead of needing it.
Pay close attention to wind speeds
Chicago, famously, does not have hills. What we do have an abundance of, however, is wind. We are the Windy City after all. So while we may not be climbing mountains that necessitate shifting all the time, a nasty headwind can slow you down almost as much. In these instances, save your energy by shifting into an easy gear. The only thing worse than a headwind is working harder than you have to.
Stopping & Starting
Basic physics tells us that it’s way easier to keep an object moving than to get it started, but you don’t need to be a physicist to know that if you drop into an easy gear while pulling up to a stop light, it will be much easier to get started again once it changes to green. This may not make a huge difference if you’re just riding a couple blocks to the grocery store, but if you’re going out for a longer ride these things add up. Save your legs by being an easy gear when you start rolling.