eli5 What do the nobs(friction/Speed) on mountain bike handles do?
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The knobs on mountain bike handles are called shifters. Typically, there is one shifter on the left handlebar and one shifter on the right handlebar. Each shifter is connected with a long thin metal cable to a derailleur. There is one derailleur by the front set of gears (near the pedals) and the other derailleur is by the back set of gears (near the center of the rear wheel).
When you click the shifters it lengthens or shortens the metal cable. Since they are connected, this changes the position of the derailleurs. The bike chain is threaded through the derailleurs and this will change the position of the chain to be on different gears. By switching up which gears the chain is on, this makes the bike easier or harder to pedal. If you are going uphill and it is too hard to pedal, you can shift the gears to make it easier. If you are going downhill and it is too easy to pedal (you are pedaling very fast but you are not getting any speed) you can shift the gears to make it harder.
Honestly not sure of what the friction knob does, but the speed one is your gearing; lower gearings take less force to turn but have a lower max speed, higher gearings take more force but have a higher max speed
Could be a setting for the gear levers. Friction setting just sticks in the position you push it to. If your chain rattles against the cage in a particular gear, you just push the lever a touch further to better align it. For “speed” it might be an indexed system, so your lever will clunk into pre determined spacing. If they’re off, all gears will rattle or jump, but if indexed correctly, it’s much quicker to jump through gearing.
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