New bike - Campagnolo Mirage 30sp - chain slipping

Peak Times

Hi,

I am a first time road bike owner and have never dealt with the types of gears that are on my bike. During a 33k ride today and after tilting the drops upwards slightly for a more comfortable riding position I am finding that when in the middle and inner ring that the chain seems to slip on the rear cassette.

It doesn't seem to be slipping between gears (though i cant be sure all the time) it just seems that the chain is slipping over the teeth. (I hope this makes sense).

I have a Campagnolo race triple 30 sp set up and wondered if there is a simple adjustment that I can make to overcome this issue.

Many thanks,

Mike

CrookedCucumber

Peak Times wrote:

It doesn't seem to be slipping between gears (though i cant be sure all the time) it just seems that the chain is slipping over the teeth. (I hope this makes sense).

Maybe the cable to the rear derailleur has stretched very slightly -- my experience is that this can happy quite rapidly on a new bike. You've probably got a tension micro-adjuster either on the derailleur itself or around the shift lever somewhere (sorry, not familiar with your bike).

Or it could be a stiff chain link, I guess.

Bronzie

Sounds more like a stiff link to me - see if the chain skips at the same point each time it comes around the cassette - you may be able to see one of the links doesn't bend around the jockey wheels on the rear mech. If it is this, you'll need a chain tool to fix it.

CrookedCucumber

Yes, you can usually see a stiff link going around. If the cable has become slack, the drive will almost certainly be slightly noisy in at least some gears, so you can tell by pedalling with the rear wheel off the ground (in a quite place).

Peak Times

Thanks all,

I have checked and cast find a stiff link and have checked the indexing of the gears and made a couple of minor adjustments but what I have found is that it looks like (i am no expert) that the chain seems to ride on the edge of the cassettes gear for a maybe 3 inches of travel (max) before running smoothly again.

My solution - take it to a man that hopefully can as I wouldn't know where to start.

McBain_v1

Hmmm - here was me thinking Campag gear systems never went wrong :!:
Sounds as though some adjustment is still needed. From your description is sounds as though the chain is attempting to move up / down a sprocket for a brief fraction of a second before settling back down. I'd plump for cable tension problems.

Have you checked out Sheldon Brown's website :?: There is some cracking tips on gear tuning there.

Bronzie

If it's the same point on the chain that's jumping, it's probably a twisted or bent link. Sounds like a new chain would cure it but get the LBS to examine as it's difficult to diagnose on the tinterweb.