eli5 why are bike gears opposite on the left and right?

868 viewsEngineeringOther

Like, on a mountainbike you have two levers, one for the index finger and one for the thumb. why does on the right side the index give a “harder” gear and on the left the index finger lever give a “easier” gear? couldn’t they both give high and low gear in the same direction?

In: Engineering

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the front gear needs to shift to a blade with more teeth while the back gear needs to shift to a blade with less teeth to achieve the same effect.

You are viewing 1 out of 7 answers, click here to view all answers.