|
TRAVEL GEARS and ACCESSORIES
Basics of shifting gear
techniques and examples
Now you know what the Gear
Shifting Components are, it is time to learn the Very Basics
of the Mountain Bike Techniques of Shifting Gears.
- The right-hand lever operates the rear gear (moving the chain
across the sprockets)
- The left-hand lever operates the front mechanism, which shifts
the chain from one chain-wheel to another.
- When the chain is on the big chain-wheel you will be in a bigger
gear - usually used for riding along the flat or downhill.
- The smaller (inner) chain-wheels are used for uphill work,
riding with luggage, or into a strong headwind, or perhaps around
town when you need a low gear to cope with lots of stopping and
starting at traffic lights or junctions.
- With the chain on the smallest rear wheel sprocket, you will be
in a big gear, travelling further for each revolution of the
pedals.
- The biggest sprocket provides your lowest gear for hill climbing
or starting off from junctions.
- Unlike a three-speed hub gear, a derailleur mechanism needs you
to keep pedaling to get the chain to shift from one sprocket (or
chain-wheel) to the next.
- Depending on the size (number of teeth) of the chain-wheels and
the sprockets there will be some overlap of gear sizes between the
different chain-wheels.
- Whether you ride on the roads or on trails your gear changing
has to be instinctive to avoid any problems with traffic or
technical terrain. Therefore it is very necessary to understand
how the different Gear
Shifting Components act together
Gear Shifting Examples
Now you know the Gear
Shifting Components and the Very
Basics of Gear Shifting, it is time to give you some examples
of Gear Ratios and other Gear Shifting Examples.
The Heaviest Gear Ratio
This is the big ring (48 teeth) combined with the
smallest sprocket (11 teeth). This actually means that for every 1
revolution of your leg, it will make the rear wheel rotate 4.36
times (48 ÷ 11 = 4.36). This will achieve relatively high speed
which is good for downhill.
The Lightest Gear Ratio
This is the small chain-ring (20 teeth) combined with the
biggest sprocket (36 teeth). This will give you a revolutionary
ratio of 0.55 to one revolution of pedal. This ratio is used in
climbing really steep mountains or hills.
Shifting gears
Shift the gears 1-3 noches at a time rather from smallest
to biggest in one motion. However, systems like the Rapid-Fire
system only allows up to 3 noches up per shift so that would be
guide enough.
Don't use the big plate with the biggest
sprocket and the small plate with the smallest sprocket. This will
cause the chain to have a "cross-over" effect which will
either cause strain on the chain and or make it too loose
respectively.
When using the middle plate, the complete range
of the sprockets can be used.
Lastly, anticipate the terrain and shift in advance.
This will help in having continuous momentum. Example, when
approaching a climb, you can start shifting to a lower gear. You
wouldn't want to get caught with a heavy gear at the start of a
climb. This will make you loose momentum and may cause you to be
left behind thus forcing you to apply more effort than needed in
the first place
|
|
|
|
Biking in
Vietnam
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
