So just picked up a new bike (coming off a triple to a double) and I'm a bit bewildered by the wide gaps when shifting on the front ring. I try not to cross chain so on the 11-speed I shift the front while in 5th or 6th on the rear and when going to the big ring, I go from spinning to mashing and vice-versa the other way. Is this something I'll get used to or should I be going down on the back while up on the front as I tried a few times today, etc? What do you guys do?

You're effectively cutting out your entire mid-range. Don't be too worried about cross training. I try not to go to use my 50/25 and 34/12 combos (my bike lets me know that's bad by whining) but anything else is fair game.

The rule of 3 is a good starting place, though once you get used to it, breaking it once in awhile is really no big deal.

The rule of 3 is this - don't use big chainring with 3 biggest gears. And don't use small chainring with 3 smallest gears. As you are going up or down in the rear, use this to help guide you to know when to change chainrings.

55/Rad

Learn how to double shift.

Every time you shift the front, shift the back the opposite way. You do this by using the same lever on both sides (brake lever left and right, or small lever left and right) simultaneously. If your crank is a standard, shift one or two gears in back. If a compact, shift 2 or 3 gears in the back.

You'll need to shift up/down in the back if you're maxed either way. Suppose you have a 12-25 cassette:

if you are in say the 50/23 and need another gear, you can push it to 50/25 and have some front rub on the derailleur (maybe), or shift to the little ring 34/23. You'll go from a medium cadence to WOW SO MUCH SPIN. What you can do is a quick gear shift down to the 17t in the rear, then drop to the small ring, and be in the same ratio as the 50/25 with more gears to spare as the effort becomes harder, in a much smoother transition.


The opposite happens when you're maxing out the small ring. Going from 34/13 to 50/13 will have you hitting a wall of doom. upshift to say the 19t in the rear, then shift to the 50t ring, and it's smooth as silk.

Shift before you think you need it.

this is solid advice... and pretty much what Shimano actually recommends right? I think that on their site or something they advise against using the big chainring in the two smallest cogs and the using the small chainring in the two biggest rear cogs...

Really great advice here.

Thanks guys! Will give this a go tomorrow.

I had been doing this out of necessary, but I did not know wheher this was good practice. Actually I shift the front first then the rear a split second later. It seems to work for me, but I always worry that this is not good for the drivetrain.

I don't knw about compact or standard; I just shift as many up or down as needed to get the riht feel.

As long as you avoid extending pedalling in big/big or small/small you should be fine. Depending on the chain stay length, some bikes are more tolerant than others. On my bike, I can cross-chain all over the place, but generally only do it short segments. If the drivetrain is making excess noise avoid that gear combination.

Yup, double shift

Was just thinking this might be hard to do on my vintage bike with DT shifters.Then again, there aren't that many gears on it to begin with

Yes, Shimano endorses the Rule Of Two...but, while it's generally sage advice on any drivetrain, it should be noted that compact cranks seem far more forgiving of extreme cross-chaining than standard doubles or triples.

That doesn't mean there aren't other good reasons not to wind up in an extreme cross-chained situation, just that one of the old warhorses -- that cross-chaining compromises the efficiency/performance of the drivetrain -- isn't an issue on most 34/50 setups.

Just a little practice. With DT, you can shift the front chainring first, then immediately shift the rear, so that it's 1 motion

Double shifted all day today when changing the front. Thanks everyone!

At the bottom of hills I used to move my right shifter forward with my fingers while pushing the left forward with my thumb. It became second nature after a while. It's a bit trickier going the other way, but that usually only happens cresting a hill, so it's not such a problem.