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How to Shift A Bike.
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All you experienced riders should probably surf on over to one of our other pages here, this article is for new riders or folks new to multi-speed bikes.
Shifting a multi speed bike, especially a "10 speed" (which these days are far more likely to be 21 speeds) becomes so natural in short order that it's hard to remember back when it was new and challenging. Often the mystique of the derailleur gets in the way of learning this simple task. (Derailleur is a snobby French word that means simply "Derailer", as in knocking something off the rails, in this case a chain. We use the plain old English spelling to keep it simple.)
First time out, gears can be intimidating. Especially if mechanical gizmos do not weigh heavily in your background. And Bike gears are gizmos in every sense of the word.
I'm going to talk about gears as "hard" or "easy" instead of "big" or "small".
This is because "Big Gears" means different things, depending on where the gear is. A Big Gear in in back (at the rear wheel) is an easier gear. A Big Gear in front (at the pedals) is a harder gear.
If you drifted off to sleep in the 6th grade when the science teacher discussed mechanical advantage, this will seem inconsistent to you. Fear not, we will make is simple by using "easy" and "hard".
A hard gear is difficult to pedal, but you go farther and faster with every turn of the crank.
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More:
An easy gear is, well, easier to pedal, but you go slow, and each turn of the cranks only moves the bike a little ways.
The big mistake for those new to multi-gear bikes is using too hard a gear. It's bad for the knees.
If your knees are sore after an hours ride, you have selected too hard a gear.
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