Road bike gears silly question

[Pat "5mph"]

Hi all!
Was teaching a ladies beginners group to use gears.
One came along on a fancy road bike. I have never ridden a road bike so could not answer her question "how do I know what gear I'm in if there aren't any numbers on the gear lever?"
On practicing hills, she was clicking down to the bigger back sprockets, then, on reaching her last, she carried on pushing the lever (not realizing it was her last gear available) the chain seemed to automatically reverse its course back to the smaller sprockets.
Of course she got stuck middle of the hill!
So, what was the correct answer to give?
Ta

 

[biggs682]

@Pat "5mph" you got to love those kind of questions .

how about on approaching hill why not get her to change down on the fr chain ring first then as hill gets steeper start changing rear gears ?
not much of an answer but we dont have many hills around here

 

[PhunkyPhil]

She should be able to feel the bike change gears and when you are on the largest sprocket you should notice if you try and change that it won't want to.

The fact the gears started changing in the opposite direction seems a little strange to me. Maybe she has a fault.

 

[BSRU]

You can look down and see which rear/front cog your on

 

[cyberknight]

Some of the shimano sti levers have a little window on top with a red bar that indicates gears, not numbered but it can help.

You can look down and see which rear/front cog your on

+1 it aint rocket science

 

[BSRU]

Some of the shimano sti levers have a little window on top with a red bar that indicates gears, not numbered but it can help.

My Tiagra levers do, although I never look at them.

 

[PpPete]

Can't help wondering if this person drives a car and has to look at the gear lever to see what gear they are in ?

Reversing direction if you keep pushing gear lever? - isn't this what SRAM does ?

 

[Beebo]

i had this problem when I changed from a hybrid to a road bike. You very quickly learn to live without it.
The only way of telling what gear you're in is by "feel", you just know roughly where you are on the cassette. I couldnt tell you excatly what gear I am in, but I know I roughly where I am, the only time I run out of gears is on a big hill when the shifter just wont go any further.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

It sounds like the double tap system of gears, where a one click change will move the chain outward onto a smaller ring. A double click will move the chain inward onto a bigger ring. However, when you get to the biggest ring - the easiest for uphill - there are no more double clicks available. So any reaching for a lower gear will only produce one click and the chain moves onto to the next harder gear. In other words, climbing just got harder...

The simplest way of dealing with this that I can think of is to think of the front dérailleur first. If you're on a hill, it's getting harder and you're near the biggest ring at the back, prepare for the next few stages by getting onto the smaller chain ring at the front. The smaller chain ring will give you access to all the ''easiest'' gears. After that, you simply have to keep an eye on it. If you think you're running out of gears, a glance down will tell you, and as you won't be travelling quickly at this point the road won't jump up and bite you while you're looking down.

Alternatively, there's always the ''click it and see'' option. If you can only get a single click and the chain moves to a harder gear, this means you were already in the lowest gear. As you curse, quickly release the shifter and repeat the change with a double click and you'll go back to the lowest gear, hopefully before you lose momentum....

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Pat "5mph" you got to love those kind of questions .

how about on approaching hill why not get her to change down on the fr chain ring first then as hill gets steeper start changing rear gears ?
not much of an answer but we dont have many hills around here

Cheers for that @biggs682 ... she was already on the smallest front ring, there was only 2 to choose from.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

You can look down and see which rear/front cog your on

Erm ... you probably cannot do this just yet if you are an absolute novice attending a class on how to pump up your tyres!
Dunno how lady beginners end up with those high end bikes, maybe they are spending too much time on internet cycling fora

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Beebo @deptfordmarmoset thank you very much for your answers, they are what I was looking for.
Next time something like this comes up I'll know how to explain.
As I said, I'm not familiar with road bikes, planning to borrow one soon, for research purposes
Was that the SRAM system then?

 

[GrasB]

It sounds like the double tap system of gears, where a one click change will move the chain outward onto a smaller ring. A double click will move the chain inward onto a bigger ring. However, when you get to the biggest ring - the easiest for uphill - there are no more double clicks available. So any reaching for a lower gear will only produce one click and the chain moves onto to the next harder gear. In other words, climbing just got harder.

My zero loss double tap leavers don't work like this. The first click releases a ratchet notch but holds the cable tight, as continue through the down change motion the ratchet is re-engaged for the largest sprocket. As long as you're just trying to change down one sprocket you simply go round & round in a circle of releasing & re-catching the ratchet notch.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

@Beebo @deptfordmarmoset thank you very much for your answers, they are what I was looking for.
Next time something like this comes up I'll know how to explain.
As I said, I'm not familiar with road bikes, planning to borrow one soon, for research purposes
Was that the SRAM system then?

There may be others that use the same system but it's how SRAM works.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

My zero loss double tap leavers don't work like this. The first click releases a ratchet notch but holds the cable tight, as continue through the down change motion the ratchet is re-engaged for the largest sprocket. As long as you're just trying to change down one sprocket you simply go round & round in a circle of releasing & re-catching the ratchet notch.

Eek!