Felt QX-S85 gear shifters (Shimano Deore SL-M590)
 

Hi there.

I’ve just ordered a new bike that I’m very excited about. (it’s a Felt QX-S85). It has Shimano Deore SL-M590 9 Speed Rapid Fire gear changers. Now this may be self explanatory once I’ve ridden it, but I’m guessing (when viewed from the rider’s position) the left of the display on the shifters is a low gear, and right of the gear display is a high gear?! (Right hand changer in this pic http://www.farnhamcycles.co.uk/prodimages/lg_slm590.jpg)

Then I’m assuming the top lever is to change up, and then the lower lever to change down?

As I said, I’m sure these things are obvious once I’m going, but until then I’m just trying to work things out. It’s been 10 years plus since I’ve ridden a road bike so I’m hoping it all comes back as easily as the saying implies it will!

Thanks,
Ed

The left shifter should be for shifting the front derailleur and the right should be for shifting the rear derailleur. Yes the top lever should make it shift up and bottom lever should make it shift down.

I bought a QX85 last summer after 20 years without riding a bike. It came back to me very easily :-) Great bike, you´ll love it!

Regarding the gears, I had never used shifters like this before but after changing up/down the wrong way a few times (LOL) I soon got used to which way was correct for which way I actually wanted to change.

ENJOY!

The thing about these type of shifters is that it's the opposite on each side. What they have in common is that the larger lever shifts to a larger sprocket, while the smaller shifts to a smaller sprocket. For the left shifter, that means the larger lever shifts up to a higher gear range. However for the right shifter (rear), you use the larger lever to shift to a lower gear (also larger sprocket).

I've had my bike for several years now with these types of shifters and I still do it backwards from time to time.