About A Mountain Bike…?

I recently got a mountain bike and it has gears on it, I think the gears are set from 10-15. I have never had a mountain bike before, so I'm not sure how to work the gears because no-one taught me. So when I was riding it up a small hill it was very hard and when I was riding it on the road it was making a loud clicking noise and the pedals were stopping a bit and I thought there was something wrong with the bike. Can someone teach me how to use the gears?

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5 Comments »

edward w said:

when sitting on the seat the shifter on your left is for the front derailleur and those are numbered 1-3 . On the right they are numbered from either 1-5 or any other combo up to 1-9 depending on your bike. The right side controls the rear derailleur on the right side of the rear wheel. You want to start out in 2 on the left and 3 or 4 on the right, this combo is good for flat land ridding . 1 on left and 1 on right would be for climbing and as you go up into the 3/5 or 3/9 gears then you are going faster on flat land….your 10-15 does not make any sense to me as there is no combonation that i know of that uses this. You either have gripshifter (twist) or trigger (rapidfire) shifters and the combonations that I have suggested will work for either one. Find the gear combo that is right for you and go with it. Remember to shift before you get going up that hill or you run the risk of ripping that rear derailleur hanger right off the bike and you dont want to do that!

# 12 February 2010 at 2:03 am

merrill c said:

there is a shifter on mountain bikes you need to shift to the lowest gear for climbing hills and the highest gear for going down hills and any where in between for level depending on how much effort you want to put into riding if you have the muscles in your legs you shift one gear at time don’t quick shift

# 12 February 2010 at 2:38 am

Bob A said:

Try this.http://bicycletutor.com/gear-shifting/

# 12 February 2010 at 6:15 am

pmt853 said:

I don’t know what the “set from 10-15″ bit means, but basically you want to be in low gears when going up hill, and high gears coming down. There will be 2 or 3 cogs by your pedals, the bigger the cog your chain is on, the higher the gear. For the cogs on the rear axle (the cassette) it’s the other way round; big cogs mean lower gears. So when going up a steep hill you want your chain on a small cog at the front and a large one at the back. You will either change gear by twisting the handlebar grips or by moving levers on the handlebars. Just get someone to hold the bike off the ground for you and practise moving the levers or twisting the handlebars. This will show you how to change gear up or down. Then try the same thing on the flat where it’s easy, then try on the hills. The clicking noise may be because the gears need adjusting, but this can often be sorted short-term just by changing up or down a gear.
If you are really stuck, get a mate who knows about bikes to show you, or you local bike shop should be willing to do so.
Keep at it, you’ll get the hang of it.

# 12 February 2010 at 10:30 am

le flatulent said:

You have two Shifters on your handlebars. One on the right and one on the left.
The Right Shifter controls the gears at the rear wheel. The thing that looks like a pine cone…That’s the Rear Cassette. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kostaspagia…
The Left Shifter controls the gears in the middle where your cranks are. The round things with the teeth are called Chainrings.http://www.flickr.com/photos/stronglight…
Some bikes have 1, 2 or 3 Chainrings at the middle. The one in the picture has 2. So the shifter in your handlebars controls which Chainring you’ll be using (1 or 2 or 3). If you hear noise coming from here, move the shifter lever a little bit. Try both directions to see which one makes it better. A bigger Chainring (like 3) will make it harder to pedal, but you will go faster. This is good for flat terrain.
Now in the rear you have the Cassette (the pine cone thing). The Right Shifter controls which cog/sprocket you will be using in the Cassette. You may see numbers on your Shifter like 1 2 3 4 5 etc… A higher number means the same as it does for the Chainrings…you go faster but it’s harder to pedal.
Make sure you’re always pedaling when you shift. And don’t put a lot of effort on the pedals when you’re shifting either…this means no shifting uphill.
Try the following combinations. 1 on the Left, and 1 on the Right.
Then try 2 on the left and 1 on the right. You can mess around with these a little bit. It’s a good idea to pedal fast but not have a lot of effort in your pedals. So when you’re coming to a stop, shift to a lower gear so it’s easier to start up again.

# 12 February 2010 at 1:15 pm