front derailleur?...dumb question.

There are always two levers on every shifter. For front gears and rear gears, for mountain bikes, and road bikes.

The lever that feels like you have to push harder, is the lever that goes against the derailleur's spring. The lever (usually smaller) that "releases" is the one that just lets the cable go, and then the derailleur's spring actually does the work.

On all derailleurs (except some shimano mountain bike rear derailleurs), the derailleur (front and rear), shifts by its own power to smaller gears. Smaller means smaller cogs.

Now, look at your bikes gears. See how in the back the gears get smaller, the farther they get from the frame? But in the front they get larger the farther from the frame? Well this is the reason for why the shift levers don't work in the same way.

On the front gear shifter, the smaller release lever, actually shifts you into an easier gear. While on the rear shifter, the smaller release lever shifts you down into a harder-to-pedal gear. But notice how both small release levers shift to smaller cogs. It is just the cogs are arranged in different ways, front and rear.

Hope this helps. Can get a bit confusing at first.

Oh, and it isn't a dumb question. Many people try to remember how to shift, by remembering what lever does what. But if you remember the logic behind it, it becomes second nature.

Good luck, and happy riding.

STI levers consist of 2 levers to shift - lets take the left STI which controls your front derailleur: the brake lever which is longer has more leverage and is used to shift to the BIG ring of your crank by pushing it inside sideways. The shorter lever inside the brake lever is pushed (inside sideways) to shift to the SMALL ring of your crank.

The right STI levers control the rear derailleur: push the brake lever inside and it shifts to the next BIG cog so on and so forth. Push the inner lever and it shifts down to the next SMALL cog.

Crankset:
BIG ring = fast speed (for flats or slower cadence);
SMALL ring = slow speed (for hills or faster cadence)

Rear Cogset:
SMALL rings = fast speed (for flats or slower cadence)
BIG rings = slow speed (for hills or faster cadence)