Quote Originally Posted by Antaresia View Post
I still have problems when I shift the front; shifting to a harder a gear sometimes causes total lost of traction, and I just have to frantically hit the shift up & down until something catches. I've learned to live with it by staying on the middle cog at all times, I don't' really to shift there anyway.
When you up-shift the front, keep pushing on the shifter until the chain has mostly completed the shift. Don't just give it a quick tap.

The derailleur needs to be in a certain position while you aren't shifting gears. That position isn't necessarily where it needs to be when shifting into that same gear. You need to overshift a teensy bit to get the chain up onto a bigger gear. Also, there are only a few positions of the gears where a shift is possible: Four, three, or maybe only just two positions! This means you have to turn the cranks quite a ways before a shift will start. Consequently, the derailleur needs to be in the "overshifted" position for a while. Thus the need to keep the shifter pressed.