Just to reassure you, I think you are on the right track...

The gear combinations 3-1 or 1-7 will not be really efficient because of chain angle, but all your gears should be usable. If not, there is probably some adjustment needed.

Also, shifting more than one gear at a time like 2-3 to 2-5 is not a problem...

Basically there is no easy way to tell you which gears follow specifically behind others in a general way, it depends on your bike...

However, I completed a 61+ mile ride two weeks ago, and I can tell you that I got onto my largest chainwheel for only a couple of minutes of the 5 hour ride, and my small ring only during some climbs.

BTW -chainwheel is the term for the front.

Anyway, for us recreational riders, I think about 80% of our riding should be in the middle chain ring, and moving to the small one for climbing the big hills... and the large one for going down hills really fast...

To get the specifics of the gearing, count (or read) the number of teeth on each gear, and use a gear calculator like the one here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/

I like using "gear inches" because it is what I know... Basically a large number means a hard gear and a small number is an easy gear (like you would want for climbing a hill)

You will find that the gear ranges for the middle ring overlap the gear ranges for the small and large rings...

If you print out the gear chart that Sheldon's calculator creates and put it on your bike, you will have the ability to select the perfect gear... If you are riding in a particular gear and it is too hard to push, and the next gear down makes your legs flail around because it is geared too low, the chart can help you find a gear that is in between. The in between gear can usually be found by shifting the front and also shifting the rear one or two clicks. This double shifting will become somewhat natural with time.


One technique I use when I start the climb at the bottom of a hill that I know I will need a low gear on, I will shift to my small chainring and shift up two or three gears on my rear... This will keep me close to the gear I was using, but give me the ability to only need to shift the back during the climb. The back will almost always shift easier, so when climbing we get smoother shifts this way...

I hope you get comfortable with the shifting, and keep having fun!