New Bike Shift?

It's more to do with "cadence" (pedal rpm) than anything else. Always pedal in a gear that's easy to use with moderate pressure at a rate or "cadence" of at least 70 - 90 rpm. Possibly higher cadence when accelerating or climbing hills.

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

1st gear up front is for hill climbing or super slow conditions. Use ONLY gears 1 through 3, maybe 4 on the rear.

2nd gear up front for general riding conditions & rolling hills. Use any of the rear 7 gears.

3rd gear up front for fast and/or downhill conditions. Use ONLY gears 5 through 7 on the rear.

This prevents "cross chaining" the bike - placing too much lateral (side-to-side) stress on the chain, gears & derailleurs.

It's so EASY!!! As pedaling becomes easier - upshift into a higher gear. As pedaling becomes more difficult, downshift into a lower (easier) gear. Read the article linked from Sheldon Brown. Heck...read the whole thing! http://sheldonbrown.com/beginners.html

I live where there's very steep hills. Here is the method I found works best. 1(1-3) uphill; 2(3-5) level ground, comfort riding; 3(5-7) down hill, level ground sprinting. So the only time you'll shift the front gears is when you're in gears 3 or 5 in the rear. This style of shifting is easy to learn. It eliminates gear redundancy, cross chaining and chain droop. This gives you 9 easy to learn independent gears instead of 21 redundant confusing gears.

Get a bicycle computer with a cadence meter on it. Then be in a gear where you can comfortably maintain a crank rpm of 70-90.

The left controls the range the right fine tunes it.

Normal riding Left 2 any gear on the right.

Hills Left 1 1-3 right

Going fast Left 3 4-7 right

You want a gear that is easy to spin at 70-90 rpm at ALL times.

You want to keep the chain running as straight as possible.