Originally Posted by
obed7
gear selection and shifting at the proper time will come with experience. Just keep riding.
Pretty much this. It becames second nature eventually.
From experience, you'll know what gears you need to be in for different situations and you'll subconsciously shift there as you ride. Also, the longer you ride, the different gears you'll need for different situations. Meaning, you might not need that granny gear for that hill in a month.
If I'm going down a decent hill, I will shift into higher gears until I can feel a moderate amount of pedal pressure under my feet. Then once there, I sometimes I coast, sometimes I pedal. Just depends on the situation. Then as I go through the bottom and start to pedal up the next hill, I will typically go, pedal pedal, shift if need to, pedal pedal pedal, shift if need to, etc. Until I get to a comfortable climbing gear.