Ask the Gear Guy

Mountain bike gears are wrong

Q. My mountain bike is totally off gear. I put it on gear number 4 and it is on number 6. What do I do?
– Rollin’ Ryan, Reno, Nev.

A. Does it shift through all the gears? If it does, then don’t worry about the numbers aligning. A real mountain biker doesn’t have time to pay attention to the numbers. It’s all about the “feel” in his legs.

In other words, let the strain on your legs guide your shifting, not what you think is the right gear number. You should shift to maintain a cadence of around 80-100 revolutions per minute (count the number of times your right knee goes up).

If the bike doesn’t shift easily thru all the gears, that’s another story. Click here to see our online derailleur adjustment.

If the adjustment barrel doesn’t work, take your bike to a bike shop soon.

Read 4 comments about “Mountain bike gears are wrong”

1. 1 - expert biker 101 says:
   June 27th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   i just manually fix my bike gears because it’s easier than having to look at the wrong ear cause that could cause some bad damage on the trail.

2. 2 - bear says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm

   try lubeing it might help the gear run better

3. 3 - qman says:
   July 6th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

   My sister`s mountain bike can`t use certain gears. How do I fix it?

4. 4 - beany says:
   August 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

   I just used my hands to keep the chain on the right gear

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