Classic & Vintage - Schwinn Cont....need help shifting gears...

hey all...i'm new to the forum and pretty new to biking as well so please forgive my ignorance....i just picked up an old yellow continental today from a garage sale and gave it a quick spin....it has the old tube shifters and am wondering how to use them?!

i believe it's a ten speed...so does that mean that 1-3 are on the left and 4-10 are on the right?

are the speeds chosen by the position of the shifter...(ie Up is high gear...Down is low gear?)

i know these seem really basic but i haven't owned a bike in about 10 years and want to use it for short commutes so any shifting help would be much appreciated!!!

x

The left shifter allows you to choose between the front chainrings, and the right shifter lets you pick gears from the back cogs. Some combination of the gears results in speeds 1 through 10, but they are not in order. On the left shifter, back is high and front is low, and on the right shifter back is low and front is high. (Smaller in the back = higher gear, smaller in the front = lower gear). Think of it as a five-speed transmission (right lever) with a high-low range selector (left lever). Get to a hill? Put it in low range (left lever forward). Wind at your back? Pull that left lever backward. Then, use the right lever to fine tune your efforts.

Or, if you're a racer, pull the left lever back in March, and don't put it forward until October.

Good luck, and have fun!

thanks for the reply...it makes a little more sense now but thanks for giving me a starting point to play with

If you want to be precise about the gearing, you can calculate the gear ratios by counting the teeth on the front rings and the teeth on the freewheel (at the rear hub). You can calculate the relative gears by dividing the number of teeth on the front ring by the number of teeth on each of the cogs of the freewheel. I don't know what you have, but if you had 52 and 40 on the front, and 14, 17, 21, 24 & 28 on the rear, your gear ratios would be:
52/14 = 3.714
52/17 = 3.059
52/21 = 2.476
52/24 = 2.167
52/28 = 1.857
40/14 = 2.857
40/17 = 2.353
40/21 = 1.905
40/24 = 1.667
40/28 = 1.429

If you want to be precise about the gearing, you can calculate the gear ratios by counting the teeth on the front rings and the teeth on the freewheel (at the rear hub). You can calculate the relative gears by dividing the number of teeth on the front ring by the number of teeth on each of the cogs of the freewheel. I don't know what you have, but if you had 52 and 40 on the front, and 14, 17, 21, 24 & 28 on the rear, your gear ratios would be:
52/14 = 3.714
52/17 = 3.059
52/21 = 2.476
52/24 = 2.167
52/28 = 1.857
40/14 = 2.857
40/17 = 2.353
40/21 = 1.905
40/24 = 1.667
40/28 = 1.429

One more thing to add to Zorro's table - the number on the right of the equals sign is the number of times your back wheel will go around for each revolution of your pedals...

A couple other things to add.

Find someplace where there's low traffic, wide open and flat. Ride slowly, and practice shifting until you're used to it. Spend more time shifting the right lever, since that's where you'll probably be making the majority of your shifts. If you find you aren't getting to all the gears, or that the chain comes off, it means you will have to adjust the derailleur.

Calculating the gear ratios is a handy thing to know how to do, and is very helpful in figuring out what to put on your bike (so you have an appropriate range of choices and no duplication), but unless you are an experienced racer, I doubt you'll be focused on the actual ratios while you're riding. With experience, you'll get a feel for what's right for the occasion and shift to get into it.

thanks for all the replies...i've been finding that the shifters are real touchy...simply pulling on them won't change the gears perfectly...i sort of have to finess them into place....

the gear intervals also seem to be really big...i guess that's the nature of a ten speed...

i bought it primarily to find out what a road bike is like without having to spend big bucks on one...it's actually rather nice...i find i like the drop bars and the ability for diff hand placements...

i think that's what i'll work on this week is getting the feel of the right shifter and literally finding the gears with the right amount of pressure

i have to say, riding the schwinn makes my cheap mountain bike feel like a feather :)

Something else that can be helpful just to get to get your head around the operating principal is this:
Flip the bike upside down (if you don't have a work stand), pedal it with one hand, work the shifters with the other, and watch what the derailleurs actually do in response.

hey all...i'm new to the forum and pretty new to biking as well so please forgive my ignorance....i just picked up an old yellow continental today from a garage sale and gave it a quick spin....it has the old tube shifters and am wondering how to use them?!


I have an online article on this: http://sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

Sheldon "Keep Pedaling Forward" Brown
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he |
| will not bite you. |
| This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. |
| --Mark Twain |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

thanks for the help...checked out the link sheldon..

also picked up an old book called "How to Repair, Maintain and Ride your Ten Speed Bicycle"... :) how perfect is that

really neat vintagey photos

anyway...i tried to adjust a few things but didn't feel too confident about what i was doing so i sent it to the bikeshop to put in new cables, tubes and tires...

i have the hang of shifting but the ride is really hard...don't know if that's inherent to these heavy frames or if it was the tires (they're worn and not holding air well)....

it is pretty neat to use the unmarked tube shifters and feeling if the gears are derailling correctly...

x

thanks for the help...checked out the link sheldon..

also picked up an old book called "How to Repair, Maintain and Ride your Ten Speed Bicycle"... :) how perfect is that

really neat vintagey photos

anyway...i tried to adjust a few things but didn't feel too confident about what i was doing so i sent it to the bikeshop to put in new cables, tubes and tires...

i have the hang of shifting but the ride is really hard...don't know if that's inherent to these heavy frames or if it was the tires (they're worn and not holding air well)....

it is pretty neat to use the unmarked tube shifters and feeling if the gears are derailling correctly...

x
Welcome to the world of vintage biking, Friction shifters like yours are a great way to feel connected to your ride.
I found the same thing when I started (about 6 mos ago) I can tell you that it's very easy to do repairs and adjustments to the vintage derailers (trial and error). they are very forgiving and the manufactures then were building bikes with the consumer in mind (not the shops) making stuff very durable.
You have found a great place to come for advise.