Gear index problem - who to go to in London?

cookiemonster

Right, I've a rockhopper which took an absolute beating during a 3 week Himalayan expedition a month or so ago. On coming back to the UK I had to replace the drivechain (both larger chainrings, cassette and chain), bottom bracket, the mech hanger and rear mech itself. (I also took the opportunity to upgrade the wheels to 717/hope pro2's and the brakes to XT - so given i'd already replaced the stem, bars, seatpost and saddle its lucky I like the frame... )

Anyway - even before I went I was having trouble getting the gears setup just right - actually its never been perfect since I go it, and on the trip they were all over the place - but given the conditions and hardship, that was fair enough.

Thing is, after replacing all the worn out stuff with new I still cant get slick shifting. I'm reasonably handy with a toolkit - I can set up the indexing on my roadbike so that shifting is slick, so I dont need a lesson in how to index gears. I'm at the point that I want someone with proper kit to have a look - first give it a go and see if i really am just a numpty, and if not, then look at the chainline, mech hanger point alignment, etc

Who can I go to in London? I'm in Marylebone, so the more central the better, but my experience of most bike shops when confronted with this kind of thing is to set things up so they're "kind of right", which is easy to do. I dont want "kind of right" I want my mtb shifting to be as good as my road shifting (given that the mech cage is about 4 foot long of course)

Any suggestions?

COVEC

It will be very difficult to get the shifting as slick as your roadie, even a good bike shop will struggle. The range used on a MTB is very wide and the shifts tend to be a bit more agricultural out of necessity. I reckon you will get the best results if you fettle it yourself.


COVEC

cookiemonster

Yeah - I realise it cant be to the same level. My real issue is that I think the chainline is out of whack, or the chain stay bent where the mech hanger fits on, not to the point that its noticeable by eye but makes indexing impossible. I just cant get it to a state where it'll shift properly all the way through the cassette when on the middle ring.

nicklouse

sticky cables.

short/long cables.

most bike shops will have a mech hanger checker which will show any thing out of alignment in the hanger area.

chain line measure it.

Stu 74

As nicklouse says, have you changed the cables? I have had loads of shifting problems in my time and nearly everytime either cleaning or changing the gear cables fixes it!

I can highly recommend Shimano XTR cables.

Stu

Kiwi Kranker

I am going to ask a blindingly obvious question here and I have already assumed you have done the right thing here but...

Have you stayed with the same brand derailleur that was on previously?

If you have switched from say a Sram to a Shimano you will need to change your shifters to the same brand as your derailleur.