Any Gear Specialists Able To Offer Step By Step Guidance?

Soni

Hi, i have a Trek 1.5 2009 9 Speed Triple.

I would be grateful if somebody could talk me through (in laymen terms) how to set up the gears correctly on the above bike. I’ve read and watched many vids but they don’t seem to cover a triple, i.e., the extra clicks you have between the front chainrings…

I ride between 20 35 miles every morning, very hilly terrain, and thoroughly enjoy.

However, i'm constantly getting problems which the majority of the time are gear related.

I've had the rear mech (Tiagra) upgraded to 105, this worked fine for a while, however has now started playing up.

I don't have the finances this month to visit a bike shop to have the gears set up professionally, and also can't be without the bike for days on end, so would ideally like to learn how to maintain my bike myself.

This is my most recent problem:-

A few days ago i started experiencing a squeeking (like birds chirping) when i changed the rear gears whilst on the largest chainring on the front.

Then, shortly afterwards, the chain derailed, got caught up, i managed to pedal through it and get the chain back on, but then it kept changing automatically up and down the rear mech, when i inspected, i found a severely twisted link in the chain, so i purchased a new SRAM 9sp chain yesterday from Evans.

Fitted the chain last night, removed 3 links, and the chain fits perfectly, I checked some vids on YouTube and know for sure that the chain is correctly fitted.

I didn’t renew the cassette, as both the old chain and the existing cassette were renewed together only about 4-5 weeks ago.

Once the chain was fitted, I noticed that the rear mech wasn’t reaching the smallest chain ring on the rear even with the barrel adjusted released fully, so I slackened the gear cable off at the allen key bolt, re-tighted, and then adjusted/tightened the barrel adjusted slightly to get it moving up the rear chainrings.

However, the chain was rubbing on the side of the front derailier, and the only way I could prevent this (as the intermediate clicks didn’t solve it and even tightening/loosening the cable didn’t help) was to adjust the limit screws, which helped on that chain ring, but then was causing problems to the other chain rings.

So, basically, this is now my present problem:-

1. Middle Chainring not changing down to small on the front, hanging between the two…

2. Middle chainring changing up to large, but gears are rubbing all over the place on the back and front, and the chain derailed again this morning.

Any help would be much appreciated, as I would LOVE to get this sorted this weekend so I can do some much loved riding!

Wooliferkins

Thiscovers the rear This covers the front mech. Get the rear done first then the front.

Soni

Thanks for the advise mate, followed it all through, and also looked at the ParkTools website, spent a good few hours on the bike today, however it was worth it, as it now all makes sense to me, the setting up of the gears etc., so i feel confident tackling it next time now.

All seems to be running fine now on the stand, tommorrow will tell on the road.....

Soni

Hi guys, went out for a 40 miler yesterday and the bike was a pleasure to ride, the creeking from the pedals had stopped after removing and regreasing, and the gears were changing perfectly!

However, one question, i have a tripple chainset, and i understand that you'll get front deraliler rub when the chain angle is too steep, however although the gears are all changing perfectly i have a very 'slight' front derailer rub when on the middle on the front and on the smallest at the back??? This shouldn't be happening should it?

Is there any way of rectifying this? I followed the step by step set-up instructions on the Park Tool website to the letter and repeated it several times but it still rubs very slightly...