GIANT ROAD E+2

[vanmoofy]

ok so i did my first big ride today on the giant road e+2. Utterly smooth bike.

However, i can feel the difference between ECO and POWERFUL mode - however, saying this, I still dont feel power mode is that powerful to say the truth.

(how wold i go about de-restricting this or increasing this?

Secondly the gearing/gear changing - am i right in thinking the right is gearing up and left is gearing down? (when i was riding earlier, i was tapping the right and it did feel it was tightening up at each tap)

(I am a complete beginner and ive seen youtube videos on gearing on a road e bike, and it is utterly confusing for me)

 

[TheEqualiser]

Not really sure what you mean by right and left. Assuming you have drop bars and combined brifters (brake lever/gear shifters) on your Road E+, then the right hand levers will change the rear derailleur and the left hand ones will change the front.
Each set of shifters will have two levers - a larger one to tighten the cable and a smaller one to loosen it. The slightly confusing thing if you are a complete beginner is that tightening the cable means that the chain moves to the bigger rings but that means on the rear (right lever) that pedalling gets easier and the gear gets lower, but on the front (left lever) that pedalling gets harder and the gear gets higher. For most general riding you are not going to be changing the front derailleur a lot so you should try and get used to the rear first.
The larger lever tightens the cable and moves your chain to the bigger rings which makes pedalling easier, so you should start off in these gears. As you gain speed (and you start to pedal faster) you can click the smaller (right/rear) lever to loosen the cable and move the chain to the smaller rings - pedalling will become harder but your speed will have increased.
Ideally you should aim to pedal at a steady cadence (I aim for about 90-100rpm but many people will be more comfortable at lower speeds) and then change gear to suit the speed you are travelling at. It can take some getting used to but a little chart with appropriate speeds for each gear can help.
You should definitely get used to the gears before you look at de-restriction and that also depends where you are based but your options will come down to where the speed sensor is fitted on your bike - if you have a spoke mounted magnet vs. if you have a rotor mounted one.

 

[vanmoofy]

excellent response!!

Exactly that. When I was cycling and I would gain a bit of speed, I would use the front right lever to change gears which would tighten, allowing me to peddle 'more' and 'aggressively'

when i was going up a heel, i used the front left lever, and it seemed to loosen up, allowing an easier up hill cycle -

(I hope ive been doing the above correctly... I dont want to wear out my bike already in under a week

(i live in east london and an occasional/infrequent cyclist)

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Do a little google searching on “Cross Chaining”. Basically it means never run with the chain on the small cog by the pedals and the small one on the back wheel at the same time, or the large ones front and rear either at the same time. It’s a little complicated but important. If you have the chain across both large cogs, it stretches the derailleur tight and can cause issues, and if they’re both on the small rings, the whole chain is loose and can flop around until you hear a big bang when it comes off and gets stuck next to the frame at the pedals. I enjoyed this scenario last summer when i wasn’t paying attention... the story is on the site here under the Yamaha thread.

Think of the left shifter as sort of the High/Low range control and the right shifter as your actual gears and it gets easier. The small ring in the front is low range for when you’re going up hills, mostly. Going faster across flats and “normal” cruising, you’re better off with the chain on the large ring in front.

It all comes quick enough, and you’ll love it once the light comes on in your head.

 

[vanmoofy]

so i have just discovered something here (haha)

the gear shifters have a flap underneath them -

the gear shifter ITSELF, you can actually push towards left (right lever) and push towards right (left lever)... I didnt really realise you could do this and whilst I was cycling today, I was wondering why my chain wasnt moving along the cogs until I pushed in the lever fully and then I tapped the flap in which tightened the chain.

I think now I have got the swing of it (I hope).... still learning these mechanics

 

[Deacon Blues]

Five years ago, when I switched over from running to cycling (arthritis in the knees ending my running) I decided to replace my old (1990), heavy commuter bike for a carbon road bike. I took one for a test ride and after riding for a couple of blocks I realized I had no idea how to shift gears on a drop bar bike.
I had to ride back to the bike shop and get the owner to show my how the shifters worked.

 

[vanmoofy]

Five years ago, when I switched over from running to cycling (arthritis in the knees ending my running) I decided to replace my old (1990), heavy commuter bike for a carbon road bike. I took one for a test ride and after riding for a couple of blocks I realized I had no idea how to shift gears on a drop bar bike.
I had to ride back to the bike shop and get the owner to show my how the shifters worked.

gone are the days where you can just select gear 1-2-3-4-5 instead of all these intricacies

 

[Ready]

gone are the days where you can just select gear 1-2-3-4-5 instead of all these intricacies

There are still systems like that-on lower end bikes.