OWNERS MANUAL
16
SHIFTING GEARS
Your bicycle has a combination of a derailleur drive train and a variable
power assist drive system.
The gear-changing mechanism on your Surface604 bicycle includes:
• Shifters on the handlebar
• Rear derailleur
• Rear freewheel sprocket cluster
• One chain ring
• Drivetrain
Surface604 bicycles come equipped with lever style shifters. A down-
shift is a shift to a “slower” gear, one which is easier to pedal. An up
shift is a shift to a “faster”, harder to pedal gear.
For example, you can select a gear which will make pedaling easier
on a hill (make a downshift) in one of two ways: shift the chain down
the gear “steps” to a smaller gear at the front, or up the gear “steps”
to a larger gear at the rear. So, at the rear gear cluster, what is called
a downshift actually looks like an up shift. The way to keep things
straight in your head is to remember that shifting the chain in towards
the center line of the bike is for accelerating and climbing and is called
downshifting. Moving the chain out or away from the bike's centerline
is for speed and is called up shifting.
CAUTION:
!
Never move the shifter while pedaling
backward, nor pedal backwards after having moved the shifter.
This could jam the chain and cause serious damage to the bicycle.
SHIFTING THE REAR DERAILLEUR
The rear derailleur is controlled by the right lever on the handlebar.
The function of the rear derailleur is to move the drive chain from one
gear sprocket to another. The smaller sprockets on the gear cluster
produce higher gear ratios. Pedaling in the higher gears requires great-
er pedaling eort, but takes you a greater distance with each revolution
of the pedal cranks. The larger sprockets produce lower gear ratios.
Using them requires less pedaling eort, but takes you a shorter dis-
tance with each pedal crank revolution. Moving the chain from a small-
er sprocket of the gear cluster to a larger sprocket results in what we
are calling a downshift. Moving the chain to a larger sprocket results
in an up shift. In order for the derailleur to move the chain from one
sprocket to another, the rider must be pedaling forward.
SHIFTING THE FRONT DERAILLEUR
Shifting the chain onto a smaller chain ring makes pedaling easier (a
downshift). Shifting to a larger chain ring makes pedaling harder (an
up shift).
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