I need help figuring out bike gears!!!?

Question

I get confused of this all the time! I got 7 gears on my bike...Low numbers when going up a hill, right...? And high numbers on a flat grond right? And plus i have another gear thingy on the other side but it only has 3 gears..? And spaces between them..Ya know? I don't even know wat those gears do..HELP, PLZ!

Answer 1

You've got 7 gears in back, which are shifted by the shifter on the right side. The chainrings in front are shifted using the left-hand shifter, and represent 3 ranges: underdrive, normal, and overdrive. For normal riding, it's OK to just use the middle ring.

Start off in a low gear, and try to maintain a cadence of 75-100 rpm at the pedals. Change gears as your speed changes, to maintain your cadence. Underdrive and overdrive are for those rare occasions when the normal 7 gears are not low enough or high enough.

Answer 2

Ok, the three gears on the left change the gears you see next to the pedals in the front; 1 is for going up hills, 2 is for flats, 3 is for downhills.  The gear selector on the right controls the back 7 gears.  The lower the number, the easier the gear.  

So, let's say you are going up a monster hill; you want to be on first gear in the front, and in the lowest gears in the back, like 1-3.  When on level ground, try the middle (or second) on the front, and 3-5 in the back.  When going down a big hill and you want major speed, go for third in the front and 5-7 in the back.

Answer 3

I will offer my advise on this subject.  

A human being riding a bicycle only has so much power and the ability to spin the pedals.  But when you ride a bicycle you face situations when you need to travel either very slow or very fast.  Hence a bicycle is equipped with gears.

Your bike is equipped with three chain rings in front and seven cogs at the rear wheel.

Grab a piece of paper, pen or pencil, and a calculator and set your bike in front of you.

First, count the number of teeth of each front chain ring.

Let's use a common 30t, 40t, and 52t.

The rear cogs count out to perhaps 13t, 15t, 17t, 20t, 24t, 28t, 32t.

Divide the front chain ring by the rear cog and not it in column form.

Thus 30/13=2.31  40/13=3.08  52/13=4

Thus 30/32=.94  40/32=1.25  52/32=1.63

What do these number mean?  Gear rations.  The number of times the rear revolves for every revolution in front.

The highest gear that will enable you to achieve the highest speed is 52/13.  Every time you turn the pedals one revolution, the rear wheel spins four times.

The lowest gear that enables you to achieve the lowest speed is 30/32.  Every time you turn the pedals one revolution, the rear wheel only spins .94 revolutions.  

So once you work out the gear combinations you will see the patterns and what they mean to you the rider.  

Lower the number = easiest to ride in, but the slowest

Higher the number = hardest to ride in, but the fastest

A word of caution. Avoid riding in the big/big (52/32) and little/little (30/32) combinations.  Hard on the chain due the angles between the front to rear.  Shift the bike into these combinations and sight along the chain.  See how much the chain "bends"?  Not good for a chain over a period of time.

Remember, to go faster you shift gears.  When you ride for a period of time you will learn to maintain a steady pedaling cadence.  Turning over your pedals between 80 to 90 rpm's is very efficient.  Riding in a high gear at low rpm's is hard on your muscles and knees.  Especially for a recreational rider.  That is where either toe clips or the better and safer clipless pedals and shoes really come in handy.

I hope this helps your understanding on gearing.  Knowing your gear combinations will make you a more efficient cyclists.  

Good Luck

Answer 4

First off, the gears on the left go 1,2, and 3. So 1 would be extreme uphill, three would be extreme downhill, and 2 should be used about 98% of the time basically for everything else. On the right, you should use 1,2, and 3 for uphill. Also 4 and 5 for flat or slight uphill, and 6 and 7 for a downhill. If you are spinning to fast, you should go to a higher right gear. If you are already in say 2 left 7 right, go to the 3 and shift up on the right. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Bicycling should be fun. Gears are to make cycling more fun, and not for adding stress to your life.

Take your bike to a nice big parking lot where there are no cars, like a school parking lot during the weekend. You want a nice level surface and a place where it is safe to look at the chain as you pedal and shift.

Use the front gears: while you are pedaling shift the chain to one of the center gears in the back. Next shift the chain back and forth through the front gears. As you make each shift you can feel the pedaling get easier or harder. Look at you chain to see where it is (when it is safe).

Use the back gears: choose one of the front gears and now try shifting through all of the back gears, each one. You will feel the pedaling get easy with large sized gears and harder with smaller gears. Again look down to see what gear the chain is on.

When you ride your bike the purpose of gears is for you to have a comfortable pedaling pace. When things get hard, move to any easier gear, and when things seem too easy move to a harder gear. It is really just about that simple.

Good Luck with it.