Campagnolo mirage gears

noisemonkey

I have I have a btwin sport 3 with campag gears but I can't seem to work out the gearing system. I know this is probably a mega noob question and I've searched online to no avail. Could someone explain the levers/buttons to go up/down the gears as they are a lot different to the shimanos I've used before.

noisemonkey

I think I grasp how it works only to move one of the levers and the bike unexpectedly goes in to a higher or lower gear..

whyamihere

As you'll have noticed, the brake levers are fixed in the side to side direction, only controlling the brakes. There is a lever which goes sideways to control the gears behind it. For ease, I will refer to this as the lever. In addition, there is a paddle on the inside of the shifter, which I will refer to as the button.

Right hand:
This controls the rear gears. Pushing the lever moves you into a larger sprocket, a lower, easier gear. This corresponds to pushing the entire lever on a Shimano setup.
The button moves you into a smaller sprocket, and a higher, harder gear. This corresponds to the smaller lever on most Shimano setups, or the button on Shimano Sora.

Left hand:
This is the front gears. Pushing the lever moves from a smaller chainring to a larger chainring, moving you to a higher, harder gear.
The button moves you from a larger chainring to a smaller one, moving to a lower, easier gear.

If you struggle to remember, just think lever = larger, both at the front and the back, pushing the lever will move you onto a larger chainring or sprocket.

noisemonkey

interesting because on mine it feels like

right hand

button: to shift up to a harder gear
lever to go lower

left hand :

button to shift down
lever to go up...

:?

whyamihere

That's what I said...

Probably the best thing to do is to hold the back wheel in the air somehow (a willing assistant would be useful) and spin the cranks. Play with the shifters while turning the cranks, and you'll be able to actually see which way the cranks move, and feel the change in resistance at the same time. Once you know which way it all moves, it's just a case of getting used to it out on the road.

noisemonkey

Cheers for the tips

the_hundredth_idiot

I always remember which is which by thinking about the lever pushing the derailleur in that direction. So you push the left-shifter lever towards the right hand side of the bike, which pushes the front derailleur further to the right (so on to the bigger chain ring).

The right-shifter lever pushes towards the left hand side of the bike, which pushes the rear derailleur to the left (so on to the bigger sprockets on the cassette).