Here's a copy of a message I sent to someone else privately earlier this year. Hope this helps too.. Kinda long though.


It's good that you ask. I'm amazed at the number of people I see walking off their bike on a small hill we have here in town and when I check their bike I see that they're not on their smallest gear yet. Most people totally ignore how to use the derailleur and are afraid to ask. I'm glad to tell people about this because I think it allows more of them to enjoy cycling and to keep riding instead of quitting after their first, frustrating hill.

There has been a couple of threads on the topic of gears out there many precious informations were published in them. I'll find them and forward them to you in a minute.

Anytime - especially on flats
Basically and especially if you don't thrust your knees too much, or simply if you want to keep them happy forever, you must make sure that you never have to push hard on the pedals. I know it feels weird and unnatural at first but you must always gear down to the point where you're almost bouncing on the saddle. If you can borrow someone's bike that has a cadence meter, that means 90 rpm (rotations per minute). I repeat: it doesn't feel natural... But it will become second nature faster than you think and keep you happy in the saddle for a much longer time. Ride behind a fast roadie for a minute or watch a stage of flats in the Tour de France and you'll know what I mean exactly. (Lance spins it at 110 rpm and sometimes more... you don't have to be THAT fancy. )

On a hill:
if you stay on the same gear, your RPMs will go down because gravity is working against you. The hill adds resistance, so the same effort from your muscles yields lesser results. So you have to downshift.

So if you can experiment (in reduced traffic so you'll be less stressed, for example), try this:

1) at the bottom of the hill go on the smallest gear you have, the one with the less resistance (smallest chainring in the front, largest cog in the back). You should normally feel like you're spinning in vain. Spinning 100 rpm will probably make you advance at about 5 mph!! If you're not spinning fast enough your movements will be kinda jerky -> go on to step 2.

2) After a few feet, shift up three gears (in the back - right hand) just so you'll be more comfortable and less jerky. Then go up on the hill. You'll be very slow but you're experimenting so that's ok.

3) as soon as you start feeling the slightest resistance: shift down, one gear at a time, towards your lowest gear (the one you started on).

4) No matter what you do, especially on a longer hill, your RPMs will go down anyway. You can work against gravity but only to a certain point. Don't sweat it, but try to always stay above 1 rotation per second.

5) At some point you'll want to shift down again but uh oh! no more gears to shift down to. That's life. Smile and use the mantras provided by your TE sisters! Also: you can stand up on the pedals to use your full weight. It's probably safer for your knees than trying to mash it while sitting down, but I'm not sure about that. Do what feels best for you.

5B) When you get more confident using your gears, you'll probably want to shift back up one or two cogs as you stand up but you can do that later.

6) The experiment is over and you are at the TOP! Next time you'll go on that hill you can probably start on a bigger gear so you have more gears to shift down to and don't get to stage 5. But for as long as necessary, start on your smaller chainring (in the front) at the bottom of the hill so you don't have to change chainring (which is kinda harder than shifting on the cogs in the back) while you're concentrating on taming that "*/$%"( hill.

When you buy your road bike you'll probably want to get a triple chainring so that leaves you more options. Some tend to think that triples are for sissies, but I don't care: just knowing that those smaller gears are there to help if needed makes me feel better, even if I don't use them. I HATE getting to the point where I can't click down anymore. Also: remember that the more teeth in the back, the easier it will be on climbs. So for example if you can turn to a 27-teeth cog in the back it will be easier than on a 23. I wish my cassette didn't stop at 23 but when I chose the bike I was not aware of all this. On the other hand, if you are sure you'll be riding flats for the rest of you life, you don't need the 27, but... you may eventually go further and further with the bike and hence need all those teeth.

Here's a pointer to a column I'm writing for a Quebec bike company web site. I didn't do the translation work but I think it's fairly simple: http://www.mielebicycles.com/2005/e...roniques_03.asp
Not very serious but it may help too.

That's a long message but it would take me more time to make it more succinct. I hope you understand what I mean. Do not hesistate to ask more questions.