Bicycles have gears to help you ride more efficiently when going uphill, downhill, and on the flat road. Without easy gears, you need to pedal with a lot of energy.

But how do gears work? Well, in this blog – “How to Shift the Bicycle Gear“, we’re going to show you.

How many bicycle gears do you have?

It’s a simple multiply calculation, the number of the front chainring multiplied by the number of rear cassettes.

For example, a double chainring paired with an 11-speed cassette is a 22-speed gears set-up, and so on.

The Types of Gears

Bicycle shifters are located at the handlebars. The most common way to perform shifting is by gripping, triggering, and thumb pressing on the shifter.

For the Flight Deck Shifter, you need to push the shifter inward towards the bicycle stem to perform gear shifting.

For most bicycle brands, the right shifter adjusts the rear derailleur; the left shifter adjusts the front chainring.

How to Shift Gears on Bike

We aim to get comfortable cycling on a bike with efficient gears. When you head uphill, you shift to lower gear on the cassette.

Try to shift early and don’t wait until you can feel the pedalling resistance is strong.

When you shift, keep pedalling, especially on hills—if you’re pushing hard or if you stop pedalling completely, the chain may skip or fall off. Don’t wait!

When riding downhill, you need to lower the speed by using the brake. Prevent immediate stop from fast speed.

If you are riding too slow on flat roads, you can shift to high gear. It can save your energy from pedalling hard.

Once you feel more comfortable, you can start playing with different bike gears and see how it feels to ride in different gears in different situations.

Things not to do

We need to prevent cross-chaining when shifting the gear.

Once we give the chain too much pressure when cycling, it will easily cause the chain to slide off from the chainring (dropped chain), chain bent or damage the chain.

What to do if you drop your chain?

Slow down and pull over to the safety side:

Push the rear derailleur arm forward
Take the chain and put it back on the front chainring
Release the rear derailleur arm to tighten the chain
Lift the rear tire and hand pedal twice to ensure that the whole chain back in place

Find the nearest bicycle shop if you can’t solve the problem. The following are some common issues and solutions.

Common Issues	Solution
Chain dropping when shift gear (Cross-chaining happen)	Manually adjust back onto chainring and cassette
Front chain dropping	Adjusting front derailleur’s limit screws
Rear chain dropping	Adjusting rear derailleur’s limit screws
If the chain is still dropping	The crankset may incorrect position, look for a technician to fix it
Chain bent/twisted	Replace with a new chain
Chain stack in the chainring/cassette	Find a bike technician to pull it out with a special tool. (Replace with a new chain if necessary)
Chain frayed/rusty	Bring to the bike shop for replacement
If cycling not smoothly	Lubing & cleaning the chain
Maintain the bicycle performance	Half/full cleaning services (cassette, chain and chainrings) for the bike once a year