Help me! Road Bike Part Grades for Dummies

[rij73]

Liza, I don't find it counter-intuitive either. When I shift, I picture what the chain is doing, and since I understand how the position of the chain affects the gear, I do fine. The problem is, I cannot explain it or talk about it at all.

[KnottedYet]

someone posted the best pedal mnemotic *ever* a while back, and I use it all the time now: Forward, onward; back off. (that's the direction of the pedal wrench)

[mimitabby]

Okay
here's the deal. on my bike which is campy-equipped, i have a long lever on the front of the handlebars which is also a brake. There is one of those on each side, and on the inside of that there's a little thumb lever.
now, when you want to move the chain of your Campy equipped bike to the left, you move the right button or right lever towards the direction you want your chain to go.

That's all there is to it!

The left hand operates the 3 big chain rings. When I want the chain to go up to the big ring to go really fast, I just shove that left lever over to the right; where it is; and it goes there.
The right hand does the same thing. When I want to push the chain up to the big ring in the back, to go up a hill, i just push that lever to the left.

I don't believe that's how the Shimano stuff worked.

[mimitabby]

bump - I was wondering if anyone was going to comment on my post after all that hard work figuring it out!

[mkidd]

I've been following this great thread--this is Bike Parts U!

But I've never seen/used anything but Shimano (or this weird dial thing for the gears on my mtn bike). I'll be really cool to check out people's bikes this season and to actiually know there are other systems out there to look for!

[elk]

Mimi
that sounds exactly (?) like my Shimano....only I wouldn't call the mini lever a thumb button...it's a mini lever that operates the same as the maxi...

so I guess I'm a little confused about the smaller button...I need a photo....

[rij73]

Yes, it took me a minute to think it through, but I believe Mimi's description of the Campy lever function equals the function of the brake lever on Shimano. Then, where Campy uses the thumb button, Shimano uses the second, inside lever. I can see now where a Campy user would get really confused on Shimano, since their inside lever does what our large lever does. I think I finally understand it all now! Phew!