Recently bought this Panasonic Tourist to fix up and use as a daily rider. I could use some help learning how to shift gears – I can't seem to come up with the right search term to find a video anywhere.
I haven't had a bike since childhood, so I feel like a total noob. Dog tax included.
by withthedogs
8 Comments
“Friction shifters.”
Those shift the gears. Pull one side down until the chain moves to the gear you want. Push up to do the same…. And so on. Those are one of the types of shifters that were around when I was a kid.
You push it and it shifts the gear. It’s one of those things that’s easier to just go and try rather than watching a video.
Up down
Left is front derailleur, right is rear. Brings back memories of when you knew you had a cool bike if the shifters moved from there to the down tube.
The lever on the left moves the chain between the big gears in the front—if you put the chain on the biggest front gear you’ll be able to push harder and go faster, if you put it in the little gear you won’t go as fast but it will be easier to make it up hills.
The lever on the right shifts between the 5 gears in the back for smaller adjustments in how hard/fast or easy/slow you want to go. These function opposite to the gears in the front—the bigger gear is easier, the smaller gear is harder.
The shifters/levers themselves are what people in this thread are referring to as “friction shifters”, as opposed to “indexed shifters” – indexed shifters have distinct ‘clicks’ as you shift into each gear. The advantage of those is you know you’re in gear when you push the lever. The disadvantage is they require adjustment if cables stretch or they get out of whack.
Friction shifters have no ‘click’ between gears. The advantage is you don’t have to adjust them to work as intended. The disadvantage is you have to learn to adjust them as you go—if the gear is rattling, you give the lever a nudge to center the chain on the cog cleanly.
And now that I typed all that, it looks like maybe your shifters have those little black knobs that would allow you to turn indexing on or off. If that’s the case, if they’re turned on the gears should click into place, and if for some reason the indexing is not adjusted properly you can turn the little black knob to make it a friction shifter and micro adjust them on the fly until you or a mechanic can tune them up.
Just slowly push it up/down until you hear the chain shift gears, then keep pushing for the next. You don’t want to do it too quickly or it might jump multiple gears at once and overstress the cable/derailleur. You’ll hear the chain start to grind on the gears once you get closer and closer to the shift point
You’ll eventually get a feel for how much you need to push to switch one gear at a time, but it does take some practice
This is completely off topic, but I thought someone should mention. Panasonic makes even to this day some of the highest quality classic lugged steel frame bikes. Even at the lower end of the spectrum like this one, they are much better quality than your average department store bike. That bike you have there, looks to be in very good condition and probably has decent components. Upgrade that with alloy wheels, modern tires and brakes and it’ll be an even greater joy to ride.