I usually try to click when my left pedal hit the bottom of the stroke then i roll thru and have ful power on the drive side stroke.

I don't shift at a specific point in the stroke as much as I just soft pedal for one revolution or until I hear and feel the chain settle in.

I hear at 12 & 6 is the best time to shift because thats when the least amount of tension is on the chain.

Getting that down perfect is another story.

My cadence is 200 so it's hard to tell exactly

I always shift right before the bottom of a pedal stroke when the chain is being unloaded. It ensures a fast shift on my 105 bike and is the only way to shift my $200 beater.

I don't think about it unless I'm out of the saddle climbing, then it's just as I'm about to pass through the "dead spot" at 6/12 o'clock.

This.

But if we're talking about modern group sets then based on a previous thread I made, there's no reason to worry at ANY point in the shift cuz you can slam gears like there's no tomorrow cuz the group sets today are meant to take it.

FWIW, I typically just try to not shift under max downstroke. Whether the groupset can handle it or not, I just can't stand the sound of gears slamming. FD, RD, or mis-shift, I just can't stand any of it.

I don't think about it. The SRAM X9 group shifts so nicely it doesn't care. Loaded, unloaded it shifts almost instantly. I soft pedal when shifting down to the granny though or it takes forever to shift.

As others said, soft pedal. Let up on the pressure while maintaining a good rate of cadence.

When mashing (standing particularly), I do avoid shifting on a downstroke, so they're probably near vertical then. At other times, I have little or no sense of where the pedals are at any given moment - they're just spinning around, and I shift whenever. That sense of circle-ness may make for smoothness generally, but the trouble is I often find myself "behind the curve" - late in getting the outside foot down on a curve or getting into a good position on a coasting descent, and I'm terrible at setting up for bunny hops.

So your feet are invisible. And the chain is glowing red.

Right before I dial it up to 400 watts.

Actually, I do try to avoid shifting while putting out a lot of power, so while standing on a climb or in the middle of a sprint isn't the best time, you can back off a little while shifting. However, if I really need to shift I just do it since the drive train can handle it.

Best answer ever.

Rear derailleur: When making an effort I shift at the beginning of the power stroke, so 1 o'clock or so for the right pedal (I'm right legged so it's usually on the downstroke of the right leg).

Otherwise I shift it whenever I feel like, without changing power delivery to the pedal. Totally unnecessary to unweight the pedals, at least with any derailleur drivetrain that has indexed/click shifting. The ramps on the cogs and the hardened chain pins handle the shifts fine.

Front derailleur: top/bottom of the pedal stroke, and I unweight the pedals. I do this automatically as I can shift even on a trainer going pretty slowly at high resistance. With electronic shifting it's not necessary to do this but I don't have electronic shifting.

200 rpm. It's totally possible even if people might joke about it. Not really practical, of course.

So you've seen me out on the road then?

Yeah. At 90 rpm one or the other pedal passes through the bottom of rotation every 1/3 second, and the time between the crank being oriented vertically and horizontally is only 1/6th second ( 0.16 second). You might hit the paddle at the right time but it has to click the DR move and the chain ride onto the next gear, all of which doesn't happen instantaneous and takes some varying amount of rotation of the gear to occur. So it's pretty tough to time shifting to coincide with that with any degree of precision.

Wow!

16 responses, and not one from a nit-wit SS/FG rider(yet).

I thought this thread was started as a joke. That's why I said 200 rpm. When you're pedalling at 90, how can you predict where your pedal is from shift lag?

This.

shifts on the cassette happen when the chain gets caught on the ramp, and that has no connection to where you are in the pedal stroke. I try not to mash on the pedals until the shift has occurred when going into an easier gear, but that's all.

Are any needed? The nit-wit gear users seem to have it covered.

No, but you've never let that stop you before.

This. I might soft pedal a touch on a steep climb, or for a front shift, but if I'm going flat out in the drops and shifting between the 14, 15, 16 I'm not paying any attention to my foot position at time of shift.

Don't really think about it. Shift when I need to.