I've recently started commuting with a bicycle (Giant hybrid bicycle). I've been trying to learn a little about bicycling to make my commute easier and my time on the bicycle more enjoyable. Please forgive me for using the wrong terminology.
I've read that I should keep my pedalling speed mostly consistent and use my bicycles gears to adjust my speed. The problem I'm having is understanding the 'how'.
My bicycle has 3 gears on the front of the chain and 8 gears on the back.
Low gear == easy to pedal High gear == harder to pedal
What I've found is that the gears don't follow a very logical (to me anyway) progression and because of that - I don't know how I should be shifting. Currently, I've been keeping my front gear in the middle and using the back shifter to change between gears 3-7 or so. I'm only use about four gears on my '21 speed' bicycle!
I'm also pretty sure the salesman said it was a 21 speed bicycle - but by my count there are 24 combinations. I know (now) that I'm not supposed to have the front gear in the lowest position and the back gear in the highest (and vice-versa) but that seems to leave 22 gears.
How should I be shifting? Should I really use all 21 or 22 gears? I haven't done the math but it really feels like there is a big amount of overlap between the gears. I hope this ascii art will make sense to someone. This is just how it 'feels' to me.
----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----
------------1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----
--------------------1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----
Does that make sense? Is it right?
It feels like there is overlap between the three front gears and that to shift the most 'smoothly' I'd need to constantly change both gears. But this seems really complicated to me.
I've ridden bicycles with only three gears and I found myself thinking 'More would be nice' - but now I'm overwhelmed. I'm also questioning if anyone really benefits from so many gears?!