Spent 2 years shifting wrong on my mountain bike until a stranger pointed it out

I was riding this trail near Boulder last month and this older guy on a hardtail catches up to me at a rest stop. He asks why I'm grinding my gears so bad and I told him that's just how it sounds when you climb. He laughs and says I've been using the front derailleur backwards the whole time. Turns out I was cross-chaining like crazy and wearing down the cassette for no reason. I thought the little lever on the left was for going up hills and the big one on the right was for speed. He showed me the proper combo on the spot and my bike actually felt 10 pounds lighter. Has anyone else had some random trail stranger fix a dumb mistake you made for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

michael69320d ago

I see what you're saying about the guy being helpful, but I'm not sure that's a mistake most people make for two years. If you're riding a mountain bike with a standard drivetrain, the left shifter moves the chain between the two front rings. That's pretty basic stuff you'd normally figure out in the first few rides. I've had trail strangers offer advice before and sometimes they're spot on, but other times they're just projecting their own preferences. Maybe you just needed a fresh look at your shifting habits, not a complete overhaul of what you thought you knew.

nina_sullivan6120d ago

Projecting their own preferences" - yeah, that's the thing @michael693. People love to act like their way is the only way, but trails are different, bikes are different, and maybe that guy just wanted to feel important for a minute. Honestly, it's probably not worth overthinking whether someone else's shifting mistake was a big deal or not.

taylor.phoenix20d ago

Wait, didn't I read somewhere that some drivetrains actually have the front shifter on the right side? I swear I saw a post on a bike forum the other day about a guy with an older model where the cables were swapped. So yeah, normally the left shifter does the front rings, but not always if someone messed with it. Most people would figure that out in a few rides for sure, but two years is a long time to be stuck thinking left goes to the small ring when maybe the bike was set up weird from the factory. That fresh look you mentioned probably helped him reset his brain more than the actual tip about shifting.