Mental model: Shifting gears

I got my new bike a week ago (and all of a sudden spring is very, very far away). As mentioned in the previous post my old bike is actually very old. That means that shifting gears were done using two levers positioned on the down tube. My new bike (OK - so I took it for a small ride even though I shouldn't - considering the weather) has the shifting mechanism built into the handbrakes which is really cool. The right one shifts on the rear derailleur and the left one handles the front. Just like my old bike.

To get to the user experience point of view: There are two levers on each handbrake, one for shifting down and another for shifting up. You press them inwards to trigger the shift. I had no problems using the one for the rear derailleur; I shifted down and up like I never tried anything else. Piece of cake. But my left handbrake was obviously broken - I couldn't get it to shift up on the big chain ring. Until I tried the other lever (the one shifting to a higher gear on the left).

My "problem" is this: I correlated the shifting mechanism with the gears: Move this lever and you shift to a higher gear; move the other to shift to a lower gear. Basically they work just like the old ones - pull the left one for a lower gear, pull the right one for a higher one.

So why would I all of a sudden be confused by this? My guess is that with the old ones the mechanism was quite obvious - it just pulled the cable for the derailleur. And I knew that pulling the cable for the rear would get me a lower gear, whereas pulling the cable for the front would get me a higher gear. Now the mechanism is all wrapped up and hidden from view and I can't see how the cable is pulled. If this should get real "nerdy" I would say that this is usability heuristic #1: Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

I do believe, though, that they real key here is this: My mental model wasn't matched with how things worked. I'm pretty sure that I'll get the hang of it when spring comes and I can actually take the bike ot for some rides (instead of driving my wife crazy with frustration and the kids with laughter when riding it around in the living room).