shine2000

i was just cleaning up my garage and saw my old bike i used along time that is a 7 speeder.i was wondering why is there 8 shifts/clicks on the front gears if there is just 3 gears?

HillRider

What drivetrain make and model?

CliffordK

Your front shifter is often designed so that you can do some fine tuning (trimming). So, as you shift the rear from small to large, if the front starts rubbing, give one more or less click.

It also allows easier compatibility between components.

Andrew R Stewart 

Agreed that lack of greater detail prevents a best answer. But CliffordK gives a possible one. Andy

HTupolev

The clicks on your front shifter aren't intended to correspond to individual gears. Twisting one way causes the derailleur to move outward, twisting the other way causes the derailleur to move inward. When shifting, you twist the shifter as much as necessary to cause the derailleur to push the chain into the next gear. Or if the chain is rubbing one side of the front derailleur, you can give the shifter a small twist to move the front derailleur so that the chain no longer touches it.
The fact that it has 8 clicks is just an artifact of how it was constructed. The idea would be the same if it had 20 clicks, or 100 clicks, or if it moved continuously with no clicks.

Modern shifters are usually "indexed", meaning that individual clicks correspond to individual gears. However, a few decades ago, nearly all derailleur drivetrains were non-indexed like your front shifting. This is called "friction shifting", and it was even used for rear shifting.