LOL.
I’ve ridden my road bike like 2000 miles this summer so far and NEVER KNEW about shifter trim until last night. Instead I just grind away when cross chained.
Shouldn’t there be a beginners or dummies guide to operation a road bike? I mean seriously we ride tri bikes…and know nothing about bikes in general 
That little “half click” never bugged you or do you just go really hard when you downshift?!
I guess it’s pretty easy to miss if you’re a lever masher.
Also, what are you using your small ring for?
I’ve been using it forever. Never knew it was officially called “shifter trim”. 
I remember my very first road bike many years ago with Shimano STI. It was a Lemond. I remember wondering WTF was that small shifter lever click on the first couple of rides until I figured it out.
Don’t worry it’s definitely not only you. I work at a bike shop and it’s one of the most common things I end up showing people who come in complaining about shifting. Me, “and if you click it once it trims over and gets rid of the clicking”, Them, “O, that makes a lot of sense.” Problem solved right away and they no longer need a tune (assuming this was the issue). One of the first things I show first time riders, it also comes on some nicer hybrids.
Please tell me there’s no shifter trim on tt bikes LOL
On a somewhat unrelated note. Does electric shifing automatically trim?
When I got my first road bike, I thought the shifting was broken. I felt pretty stupid when the guy at the bike shop explained it. Also, one of my favorite parts of Di2 is the auto adjusting.
I learned about it from the manual that came with the shifters.
DON’T cross chain. It wears your chain and gears out faster.
If we could figure out the correct gear, without cross chaining, with a 5 speed cogset, then folks shouldn’t have a problem with 10 or 11.
On tri bike I use friction only on the rear. I remember reading about guys saying once you get used to friction you’ll hate indexed shift. I said yeah right. Modern technology will trump the old friction by a mile. WRONG. I hate index shifting now. I love trimming front and rear so no noise. I wish there was friction STI style shifting. Sounds stupid because the I in STI is index. Do they make a friction brifter or STI?
If we follow the bike maintenance tips from the article on the front page, it shouldnt matter since we should be changing our chain and cassette every other ride anyway.
Please tell me there’s no shifter trim on tt bikes LOL
On a somewhat unrelated note. Does electric shifing automatically trim?
Don’t laugh yet. There’s shifter trim on tt bikes. Pre yaw SRAM R2C.
Friction shifting is fine when you are cruising on flats and rollers.
But…when you are in the hills, I want to reach down and click a few gears up or down and not have to fiddle with the shifter. Eventually you will blow a shift with the friction shifters on a hill. I’d rather put up with the occasional noise, which shouldn’t be much if you adjust your gears properly and keep things clean and lubed.
Friction shifting is fine when you are cruising on flats and rollers.
But…when you are in the hills, I want to reach down and click a few gears up or down and not have to fiddle with the shifter. Eventually you will blow a shift with the friction shifters on a hill. I’d rather put up with the occasional noise, which shouldn’t be much if you adjust your gears properly and keep things clean and lubed.
This. When I’m >< that close to O2 debt, and just two more switchbacks from the top, and trying to hang on, last thing I want to deal with is fiddle with the shifting.
If your climbing like that your likely in the smaller chain ring and only 1 shift of the rear cog is nothing. But I see your point. In climbing your on the base and not the aeros and don’t want to shift.
We are talking about shifter trim. That’s road bikes. Tri bike on a big climb is a different beast entirely.