Poor deraileur

Beedee

Hi - just joined and wish to share my experience and ask for some advice.

I bought a Ridgeback K5 (about £340) about 5 years ago as a second bike and it is still in pritine condition. I always felt the gears were never quite right and eventually got round to looking at them more closely.

They would go up the cog no bother but would hesitate and miss coming back down (releasing). I took everything apart, cleaned spotlessly and lubricated, replaced cables and dedicated gear housing to no joy.

To cut the story short I suspect the rear deraileur (Shimano Acera RD-M340) is rubbish and have come across a few reviews confirming this. Although it looks pretty sturdy and neat one reviewer said Shimano should be ashamed of thenselves. It must be out of production by now but can still be bought from some places for as cheap as £8 - £20 which was a disappointing surprise..

The thing that peeves me is paying over £300 for a bike then messing about with it forever before finally coming to the disappointing conclusion one of the main parts on a reasonably priced new bike is rubbish.

Has anybody else had similar experience or used this deraileur? And can anybody recommend a decent low price deraileur to replace it for 8 * 3 gears?

nicklouse

sorry they set up fine.

normally any shifting problems comes down to routing and or cable conditions.

the symptoms you mention are pure friction in the cable.

Beedee

But having eliminated friction to a minimum I'm thinking the spring in the deraileur must be pretty weak from the outset. There's no way of replacing a spring is there as it's been encased with rivets?

Buckled_Rims

I used Shinamo Alivio for many years. Cheap and tough and also 3x8 compatible. It's 1 rung up in quality to the acera.

Beedee

Yes it was thanks. I've got a Shimano 8 speed shifter for this hybrid so would any Shimano 8 speed long deraileur be compatible?

I'm really looking for a response to my initial post where somebody says something like:

" Yes, before buying a mid price range bike it's recommended to do some research on what parts it's composed of"

I supposed I've answered my own queery there :shock:

amaferanga

Sorry to shatter your illusions, but £340 isn't really a 'mid-price' bike so you should expect some basic parts, though it should all work adequately.

Just get a new long cage derailleur and stop worrying about it.

Wappygixer

When you fitted new cables did you use quality cutters?Did you use gear outer?
Gear outer is pretty hard stuff and requires a good set of cutters to trim neatly.If the ends are no neat the cable inner just wont slide correctly.
Your other issue with a 5 year old bike may well be chain and cassette wear.If a chain is worn excessively then again it wont shift smoothly.
Get your LBS to measure the chain for you.

As the post above says £340 is pretty much an entry level MTB and if its lasted 5 years has given pretty good service if you have not hand to pay anything out on it.

Beedee

Hi amaferanga, thanks for input. When I say "mid-price" I suppose I'm talking about my economy and a low-price would be a £60 special from somewhere maybe called "Bikes are us". If I stop worrying about it it'll probably go back in the shed for another 18 month.

Hi Wappy, the replacement "gear" housing was cut to size by the LBS and made no significant differenceI to operation, also checked the chain length and everything before.

The bike has little mileage and minimum wear. I mainly used a Ridgeback MX35 (£250) which was absolutely spot on, but have sold that one now as at the time wasn't getting out much, and the buyer unfortunately chose that one out of the two.

I was suspecting this K5 was not new when I bought it (with discount) from a shop and may have had a little history and a change of spec. But, have just found a K5 owner and he confirms the acera deraileur is the norm and it appears he's had no problems which I'll now email back to confirm.

It's just a pain when you buy a new bike and it's not operating adequately and have to explore replacing parts. Yes I would of returned to the shop earlier but it's some distance away and later found out the owner hasn't a good reputation and would probably of been fobbed off.

Beedee

Hi again. This thread still comes up on a google search for a Ridgeback K5 so thought I'd better post a conclusion for anybody that could be interested.

So after 5 years of having trouble with the gears on this Ridgeback I finally found what the trouble was. It seems that somebody along the line somewhere had given plenty of bicep to the large allen bolt that attaches the deraileur to the bracket.

While I had the deraileur off the bike I attempted to loosen this bolt but it wouldn't ease and maybe thought I may damage something if I forced it. Much later, while connected back on the bike I thought I'd give it another try, and lo and behold it give. I slackened it a turn or two and was pleasantly surprised to find the gears behaving themselves.

I ride the bike more regularly now and the gears are working like a swiss watch.

Beedee

Just came across my thread again while browsing and thought I'd post an update. So the bike is getting on for ten years old now, although I'm only out on it about 4/5 times a month and not a hard rider. It is still working like a Swiss watch including the Acera derailleur. I live in a high rise flat so have limited facilities for maintenance, but try to keep the bike fairly serviced.

For a reasonably priced bike I certainly recommend a Ridgeback.