How/when should I shift gears?
 

I was riding my new bike and when I was going up a hill on a high gear, and I shifted down toward the top of the hill to make pedaling easier and the chain made a really loud sound and was jerky shift. Should I not shift down in the middle of a hill? I am not sure how or when to shift. Also at the highest or lowest gears, the chain makes a sound, I look down and it clips the front derailer box (dunno the actual name), is this of concern? Could someone give me some advice or good articles to read about shifting?

Thanks!

You shoulda got a fixie.

Shift when you go above your desired heart rate or power output.

I wouldn't shift the front derailleur under heavy pedaling force, but the rear should be okay. It's not so much that you are shifting at the wrong time or in the wrong way, but rather that your derailleurs badly need adjustment. The chain should catch each gear cleanly each time you shift, and there should be no noise after the shift.

Check out "cross-chaining" it comes up here all the time, just avoid the big-big or small-small combinations to solve the chain rub problem. As the your noisy shifting, try easing off the power a bit as you shift - you should be able to shift mid climb without issue. Really, it'll come with experience. NBD.

Thanks for the responses!

So I should shift to a easier gear going up a hill and harder gear as the hill levels out? What about going down an hill? Should I pedal even (if the speed is pretty high)?

Thanks!

Shifting going up a hill is tricky. You should be prepared and shift slightly before you need to shift. The problem with shifting is that on many setups, shifting under full load will damage things faster than otherwise. So typically when I shift I synchronize my body with the shift and lessen the power I'm applying to the pedals until the new gear catches, at which point I reapply full power. The reason this is tricky going uphill is because you're typically providing full power just to keep your momentum up, and if you lessen your power for any significant amount of time, you'll slow down too much.

So when going uphill I always shift down before I feel like I absolutely need to. I am told that higher end derailleurs do not suffer from this, however, but I've never been lucky enough to test them out... :D

Shift when you can't keep your cadence high.
Shift when your cadence is too high.

When shifting uphill, ease off the pedals a bit to let the gear catch.

Man up, get Di2, and shift at the Speed of Fred Thought (about 16.2 mph).

That's up to you.

Gearing selection has nothing to do with too high or too low power output :facepalm:

Always pedal, while going either up or down, just keep pedaling. If you think you're going fast, go faster.

FWIW, shifting under torque is a good way to kill your drivetrain. Try letting off the pedals just a bit when you shift, for a split second.

really?

If you're mashing up a hill maxing out your energy and you drop down a couple of gears, you'll be using less energy to spin up that same hill.

There it is.


Otherwise you will be shifting up and down trying to feel your way through to find the proper gear. Dont worry OP, it comes with time.

You are over thinking this WAAAAY too much! My kid has it all figured out...if it gets too hard to pedal, shift...if it gets too easy, shift. It's as simple as that. But someone here will find a way to over complicate this and start putting in heart rate, cadence, angle of the hill, speed of approach, energy expenditure, calories burned, ass pain, the phase of the moon, the tides, etc., and one will find a way to put in an equation and wow you with their wealth of knowledge.

As a beginner, you really need to just go out there and figure out a way that will work for you. Ride and HTFU!

OP - You're going through normal, "how do I do this?" stuff. Don't get upset with yourself - it just takes a little time and experience.

First, if you're going up a hill and you know it's going to involve downshifting, make sure you're in the right chainring (front sprocket) before you begin climbing. Shifting the front is clunkier than the back, since you're moving the chain 14-16 teeth as opposed to 1-4 teeth in the back. Most of us have a specific cadence (how many rpms you're pedaling) range that we like to stay in, usually 80-95. (This is something you'll figure out fairly soon...another thing that comes with experience.) We shift to keep our cadence in that range.

If the chain is rubbing the front derailleur, it's usually because you're cross-chaining. Most shifters will permit you to "trim" the front derailleur. For a Shimano system, you do this by moving the shift lever for the chainring you're not in over just enough to stop the rubbing, but not enough to cause a shift. In the extremes - small/small and big/big combinations - you may not eliminate all the noise. You'll mess it up a few times before you figure it out, it's just part of the learning curve. I don't know how it works for SRAM and Campagnolo shifters.

Enjoy - this stuff gets easier pretty quickly. :)

Also, +1 to all of this

which was going to be my response as well.... if you gotta ask that question, this is the appropriate response.

All the truly great wisdom of BF can be distilled quite nicely in these 3 words.

Everyone else is saying the same thing and it's correct. The loud sound and jerky shift are a sign that you were probably pushing hard on the pedals--try to ease up just a hair before you shift. This will take some time to coordinate and get used to. The sound in the highest and lowest gears is probably from running cross-chain (check the video posted above). Avoid those gears if you can.

This is a stupid response--the OP's asking a question because he or she doesn't know something and would like to know something. Why shouldn't they try to learn?

Student: "How do I use this graphing calculator to figure out sine & cosine?"
Bitter Teacher: "You shoulda stuck with third grade math, ya doof."
Student: "?"

Doesn't HTFU count as 4 words?

That's a tough one. I feel like an acronym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism) counts as a single word. For example if I said "AARP is screwed" how many words would you consider that to be?

Probably best to try to use trim before avoiding those gears altogether

Thanks for the responses! Sorry I really have no idea on these things, being completely new to the sport.

So trimming is basically slightly shifting the front gears but not too far so that it actually shifts?

I rode 20 today and was trying out different gears going up and down hills, should I shift down/easier (does down mean easier?) before approaching the hill and shift up as I go up? I seem to find that doesnt kill the gear system.