Switching Gears Made Easy

I finally learned the best way to switch gears on my guni.

Up till yesterday, I had found it fairly simple to shift up into high gear on the new hub. Because it has 12 internal gears, it takes no more than a twelfth of a rotation before the gear kicks in (the first-generation hub, with six gears, took upto twice as far before the gear shifted). Shifting into high gear means shifting when the wheel is rotating fairly slowly; I've always found it much easier. In recent weeks, I could upshift about 95% of the time.

Downshifting, on the other hand, has always given me difficulties -- that is, up until yesterday. Initially the hard part was that on the original hub, shifting of any sort was considerably harder (and not just 'twice' as difficult) because the free-wheeling often resulted in the cranks being in a poor position. The other problem was that I started using pedals with pins.

Pinned pedals are fairly crucial for geared unicycles. They make up for the fact that the wheel takes so long to get around, leaving the rider more vulnerable to UPDs. The problem is that pinned pedals also make it really hard to swivel your foot at just the right moment in order to knock the button with your ankle.

So the revelation for me was that I could hit the button with my ankle bone rather than with the inside rear part of my sneaker. What I learned to do yesterday was to lean my foot inwards and to let the button smear my ankle as it passes. This turns out to be necessary only for downshifting because I can easily upshift the 'old' way. Also, I tried smearing into an upshift and fount that it was painful to my left ankle.

After the accidental discovery, I was able to shift on alternate half-turns and to downshift successfully about 90% or more with only one UPD.

Next, I worked on shifting at various speeds. Earlier, using my GPS watch, I had found that I could upshift at about 7-8 mph. Yesterday I was able to upshift at about that speed or just under, and I was also able to downshift at up to 6 mph, a huge change from earlier riding, where I almost had to stop in order to do so.

To me, this was huge. I can now look forward to shifting with ease in order to suit the conditions. It also means that I can shift rather than looking for something to hold onto or having to ride in a small, jerky circle in high gear.

I look forward to riding home tomorrow to test out my shifting.