Beginner's gear question

[Catrin]

This came up in the context of my wrench adjusting my shifter cables and derailleurs. I have had a lot of problems with things getting out of adjustment because of my lack of understanding of "trimming" when the chain rubs the FD. THere has also been some problems with the chain falling off in the front (rarely, but typically when going up a steep hill).

As far as climbing in general, to me that is more of a fitness issue than anything.

The crankset is 48-36-26t. The wrench showed me that in certain gears the chain has a problem hitting the right part of the chain-ring and will tend to rub the actual chain-ring rather than hitting the teeth. Is this the right way to put it? This seems to happen mainly in gears that I shouldn't be using, or duplicate gears. I just have to come up with some way of internalizing all of this so I can start to remember which gear combinations work, and which ones causes these chain-rub problems, and which gear combinations are duplicates and which ones are better to use. Note that I am not referring to the chain rubbing the RD, but the ring itself.

I do understand cross-chaining and why it is a bad idea. I do not do this - so I have at least learned that much. Things have improved since learning how/what/when to trim and also making sure my back gears are somewhere in the middle before shifting the front.

IndySteel has pointed out that I've a wide range of gears and that sometimes it would be better to shift the front to avoid a big leap from one gear to another. I hope that I accuratly reported what she said - it makes sense to me. It is just that looking at numbers on a chart isn't helping me much...

Am I over-thinking all of this?

[indysteel]

That's close, but not quite what I was saying. Because you have a triple, you have a fair amount of overlap between your chainrings. Finding the next easiest or hardest gear among all the gears available to you may require a shift between chainrings, not just between cogs. If you look at a gear ratio chart using your bike's specifications, it's really use to see this. You need not memorize the chart; just be generally aware of it. As for what Scott at Nebo said, I'm not sure I understand what he was getting out. Beyond cross chaining, I would suggest trying not to overthink it. Hopefully with his recent adjustments, you won't lose your chain anymore.

[JennK13]

Yes, I'm also at a loss for what he means other than cross chaining. If everything's adjusted right, you should be able to go through all the gears other than the cross chained ones.....