kosmo886

So I just changed out my chainrings from a 48 tooth big ring to a 52. I have an 11-36 in the rear I believe. I never shifted out of the big chainring on the old setup, but on bigger hills I feel the need now. What is the most efficient way to do this? Obviously when you are already in a lighter cog on the back then shift to the small up front, the resistance is way to light. Read a few thoughts on shifting both front and back at same time, or shifting the rear to a few gears tougher before changing the front. Anyways, seem like a few schools of thought. What is the most efficient when going back and forth between chainrings.

woodcraft

Guessing that the small ring is 34t, it's going to be a big, clunky shift. If everything is adjusted well, shifting down one or two cogs at the same time will work.

Shifting to the small ring before the hill gets too steep may help,

genejockey 

I have sometimes dropped my chain when shifting both, so I generally drop 2-3 cogs first then shift to the small ring (seems to happen more when the chain needs cleaning/relubing). How many cogs depends on how much smaller the small ring is, to turn the same cadence. On 53/39, for me it's usually 2. 50/34, it's 3.

eflayer

is you can program it to do the jumps in the back automatically when you shift the front. or because Di2 shifts so fast manually i just do two quick taps on the rear shifter each time i know i'm going to shift down in the front. either works well. but alas that is Di2.

Litespud

I usually shift a couple of sprockets on the back before I shift chainrings - but immediately (like a half-second) before. My Campagnolo shifter allows me to multiple shift (5 higher, 3 lower) in one sweep, so a multiple shift is almost instantaneous. And you want to shift the front before things get too steep - the FD is shifting the “live” run of chain - the part that’s under tension (Unlike the RD, which is shifting the slack run of chain). If there’s too much load on the chain, the FD spring won’t be strong enough to shift the chain, so better to “set up” the small ring while you can still ease up momentarily while shifting (ie, before it gets too steep)