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What do people do?
It's all fine when I want a bit higher/lower, just shift one or two in the appropriate direction. But when you're doing a fast bit and you see ahead it abruptly changes into a slow uphill, it's difficult to get in the right gear beforehand. So you end up losing momentum with a too-low gear, or struggling/stalling in a too-high one while you try to shift down. 12 is so many gears that neither do I know which gear I want exactly, nor which gear I'm in at the moment.
I guess ideally you'd be keeping in a gear where you can apply power at your current speed, even if you're going down something plenty steep enough. I'm glad I'm on Shimano and not SRAM, so there isn't a huge gap down into 1st gear to accidentally shift over.
I see Shimano do a M6100 shifter with an indicator window, but I doubt something that small with 12 tiny increments would be of use on a rough trail and out of your line of sight. I wouldn't give up my XT double-upshift for it anyway. I think I saw you can get the gear displayed on your Garmin/etc if you have AXS shifting, but don't want any of that.
This has been bugging me more recently, as my new car (which I prefer to use in manual shift mode) has essentially the same problem, although it does have a tiny indicator down in the clutter of the dash dials.
You're overthinking it. How did you cope with 3x9 gears? My main issue with 1x12 is dropping the seat instead of shifting gears.
A quick look under your arm at the cassette will indicate as well as the wee window.
thisYou’re overthinking it
I just tend to get in with it…
In a high gear and see a steep bit to go up? Pop a brace of triple shifts in. Usually gets me close enough to fine tune it a single shift either way.
I learned by getting it wrong and losing all momentum. Lots.
As above I think the reality of this problem is that it isn't really a problem.
As long as you have the spread of gears needed for the terrain you are likely to be riding at a pace you want to ride at, just shift when you need to.
Having said that, one of the things I miss about the few rides I had with AXS was the ability to see gears on my Garmin. That bit does work very well.
I must admit it does feel nice to be able to see my AXS gears on my Garmin (and get a beep when shifting into 1st or 12th) on one bike, and see the pinion gripshift ring on the other bike, no more having to do the old look down hoping you've got another gear left dance.
As for the OP's issue, fast downhills with sudden uphills is never nice on a derailleur bike, you basically have to try and judge how many shifts to make once you hit the bottom of the climb, with the crunching of gears and wrong gear that often comes with it.
3x9 was easy. Drop it down a ring at the front then use the rear shift to fine tune.
Just keep riding and stop overthinking - you'll quickly adapt to the gears and just do it, but it won't happen immediately.
I suspect this has been asked/considered by everyone who has moved to more gears over the years...from 5 to 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 to 10 to 11 to 12...and it'll no doubt keep getting asked as more improvements (or 'improvements') are introduced.
It's essential the same as it was with 5/6/7/8/9/10/11 speed innit?
i.e does pedalling feel hard? Downshift until it feels about right or you run out of clicks, does it feel a bit too easy? Upshift till it feels about right or you run out of clicks...
I seldom look to see what actual gear I'm in especially on a 1x bike, my eyeballs are no better at estimating effort than my legs.
I’m no real fan of 1x or 12 speed
But the reality is that in 1x12 is that I hardly ever look down. Perhaps in a steep climb to see if I’ve got one left.
Or the optimistic push of the lever hoping it'll go one more. 😂
Perhaps in a steep climb to see if I’ve got one left.
more of a problem on my double ring road or gravel bikes, keeping track where you are so you know whether to keep moving up the cassette or dropping the front ring
My manliness wants me to use the big ring as much as possible, reality is that I need to box the ego and use the smaller ring far more as off road in particular 1x11 with a 36T front and 11-32 rear works fine.
My very novice Mrs has the same problem. It doesn’t help that her bike is a 3x whatever.
On my 1x11 I rarely have an issue, I can tell by the feel roughly what gear I’m in or which one I might need to be in.
Or the optimistic push of the lever hoping it’ll go one more.
On some hills I end up doing this repeatedly. "Maybe I didn't quite push the lever right when I last checked, your never know..."
My very novice Mrs has the same problem. It doesn’t help that her bike is a 3x whatever.On my 1×11 I rarely have an issue, I can tell by the feel roughly what gear I’m in or which one I might need to be in.
That pretty much demonstrates the fact that experience and time spent sorts that issue out - so the more you ride the current gearing, the quicker/sooner you will be aware of it and used to which gear would be most useful.
I've only got 10 on my geared bikes. I rarely know which one I'm in but it's obvious if I need to go up or down, which is really all I need to know.
I can't see that being any different with 12.
Although oddly enough in the van I can tell which I'm in, for example if I'm in 4th and want to go up one I rear for where fourth is to move to fifth, I never reach for where the lever would be if it were in fifth and try for sixth. But the shift lever is always in the same place on the bike so this would be a non issue anyway