Basically with friction shifting you are controlling the movement of the front deraillure(sp). You lift the shifter up the chain moves to the bigger ring. Move it down, the chain moves to the smaller rings. It takes a few tries to get the feel of how far to move. There is lots of chain rattling going on, but that doesn't really hurt a thing. It's not that hard. You have an infinite number of possibilities for chain placement, which is a good thing. Just play with it tonight on the trainer and it will make more sense. The operative word here is play, have fun, take your time to learn and you'll love those nice big gears when you hit the road. bikerHen