Gear Technique
It's not only the adjustment of your gears that helps them to change properly, but also your technique for changing gears that affects the way they change. Also like a loaded truck, a loaded touring bicycle should have the gears changed down to a lower one before stopping. Why? Read on.
The best way to get smooth gear changes, apart from adjusting them, is to not apply a load to the pedals when changing gears. What this means, and to give an example, is that when you stand up on the pedals and climb a hill, you are applying a load to the pedals. If you are cruising down a hill, and just turning the pedals to keep your legs warm, this type of pedalling is classed as no load on the pedals. It is in this no load state that you need to change gears.
Keep the pedals spinning at a reasonable speed whilst changing gears, and try not to apply a load. Some modern gear systems are designed to change gear whilst under load, but this does not always work as wear and tear take their toll on your gear system.
While spinning the pedals, ease off on the pressure, and then use your shifter to change to the new gear. Once you feel the chain mesh onto the next gear, it is safe to apply pressure again. This not only applies to changing up and down the rear gear cluster but also on the front chain rings.
Using this technique, when approaching a climb on a loaded tourer, change down to the lower gear slightly before you need it. This keeps your pedal speed (cadence) up, and you don't lose too much momentum. If you leave it too late you will then have pressure on the chain, and it may not change so easily.
Now to the question about why, like a loaded truck you should change down to lower gears before stopping on a loaded touring bicycle. A truck does it because it uses the engine to slow down. In our case, it's not to slow down, but to make sure that you are in the right gear to be able to start riding again. You need to drop down to the lowest gear that you think you will need to start riding from a stop again.
As mentioned above, the best technique to change gears is not to apply pressure to the pedals when changing gears. If you are trying to start riding from a dead stop, and you haven't changed down before stopping, you have two choices. One is to lift the loaded bike's rear wheel off of the ground and try pedalling to get the right gear selected, or to try and change gear whilst riding.
Because of the weight of the loaded tourer, this not only puts incredible pressure on the gear system but in some cases can snap the chain. So if you forget to change down before stopping, straddle the bike, put one foot in a pedal, reach behind with one hand and lift the bike up using the back of the cross bar so that the rear wheel is off of the ground, and turn the pedals and change down into an appropriate gear.
Try and get into the habit of changing down gears whilst you are still pedalling, before stopping. This will save you the need to change gears before riding again, or at worse, it will save you from snapping a chain, especially if trying to start to ride up a hill from a complete stop on a loaded touring bike.
The other thing worth mentioning, is that with some of the new trigger shifters, they give you the impression that you can make high speed gear changes. This is not the case, and this applies to other types of shifters as well. Apply gentle pressure to the gear lever, and slowly move it. Same applies to the trigger lever. Slowly pull it and release it. This way you will find that your gears change a lot easier, and your chain will last a lot longer.
Other gear changes can be related to a stretched chain or worn gear components, but that is a subject of another article in the future.
