Shifting for Uphill Mountain Biking

Video Transcript

As you approach a steep hill and you are in more of a more downhill oriented gear, probably the first thing you are going to want to do is to shift to a easier gear in front. On my particular shifter, I've got this lever. This is the front shifter. This lever is a harder gear and this one is an easier gear. So while I am peddling along, I let up on my peddling torque a little bit, hit that gear, drops this deraileur down as you can see there and then shifts into that easier gear. So I went from being a hard gear to a pretty easy gear which even right now should give me enough low enough gearing that I should be able to zoom right up this hill. The same thing in the rear. If I'm down in a harder cog, down here something that makes me go a little bit faster, I want to hit this lever right here which moves the chain up to a easier gear. The thing to remember basically when you are shifting a bike with this type of shifter is that the lower thing adds more tension to the cable. So the front is a harder gear. That's a big chain ring and in the back is a bigger cog which is an easier gear. So I've done some shifting, going to see if I am in gear. You always want to shift when you are moving. When you are playing around like this hitting the shifter at stand still sometimes aren't in the right gear. So pick up my bike and it looks like everything is in right gear so off the hill I go.

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