Originally Posted by
cranky old road
Yeah, I use the front chain rings for gross trend adjustments when cresting a hill or heading up a long hill and try to maintain an even cadence by running up and down the rear cassette.
Yes.
Many riders see the gears as something like "pressing a button". There's actually subtle things going on that one can learn by paying attention.
To get the most out of a triple (with a wide range cassette), one can double shift to get just the right gear. To be able to do that, one really needs to run a gear chart. (But that's not the "Shifting 101" class.)