Help bike idiot hole!

aphextwins
aphextwins Posts: 7
edited April 2010 in MTB beginners
Hello good people of Bikeradar :)

I need some help regarding my bike.

I've just started again after 15-18 years out of the sadle and I'm really out of touch with whats good etc.

I bought a Diamondback :roll: from Halfords which after 2 weeks had a bent back wheel so I tool it back and got upgraded to a carrera vulcan. Got it today and the first thing I noticed was the chain is rubbing on the bit just above the cog and when I change gear from anything past 8th it makes a grinding noise that doesn't go away.

I'm gonna take it back but should I just ask for my money back (£260) and go else where or should I stick with it and just get it fixed?

Comments

  • underdog
    underdog Posts: 292
    Take it back and get the gears aligned correctly (or youtube it for how to do it yourself, quite easy and well worth knowing). I had the same problem with the GT I picked up from Halfords, took 10 mins to sort it out with the help of youtube :D

    It just needs an adjustment, it's not a fault as such, getting refund would mean you have to try and find a bike that's as good for the same money, which won't be easy.
  • aphextwins
    aphextwins Posts: 7
    Cheers Underdog, just had a quick look on Youtube and there's loads of help.

    Just need to get some Allen keys now...
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    Cables 'stretch' - this is why they have a free tune up.
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  • underdog
    underdog Posts: 292
    supersonic wrote:
    Cables 'stretch' - this is why they have a free tune up.

    Mine was like it on my first ride, the day I picked it up, it was definatley down to not being aligned correctly when built. To be fair the guy got the rest of the bike spot on, so no complaints from me.
  • asdfhjkl
    asdfhjkl Posts: 333
    aphextwins wrote:
    Got it today and the first thing I noticed was the chain is rubbing on the bit just above the cog and when I change gear from anything past 8th it makes a grinding noise that doesn't go away.

    Are you talking about the chainrings where your pedals are? It could be that your front mech is rubbing on a chainring due to being too low or aligned wrongly. Easily fixed if that's the case.
  • aphextwins
    aphextwins Posts: 7
    asdfhjkl wrote:
    aphextwins wrote:
    Got it today and the first thing I noticed was the chain is rubbing on the bit just above the cog and when I change gear from anything past 8th it makes a grinding noise that doesn't go away.

    Are you talking about the chainrings where your pedals are? It could be that your front mech is rubbing on a chainring due to being too low or aligned wrongly. Easily fixed if that's the case.

    The chain is rubbing on the Front Derailleur. But the gears sound awful when i change up from 8th. Sounds like it's not grabbing them properly.
  • llamafarmer
    llamafarmer Posts: 1,848
    aphextwins wrote:
    The chain is rubbing on the Front Derailleur. But the gears sound awful when i change up from 8th. Sounds like it's not grabbing them properly.

    Two seperate problems there by the sounds of it. Your front mech probably needs tuning to stop the chain dragging on it when you pedal and same for your rear mech to get it indexed properly.

    Are you keeping a fairly straight chainline with your gear selections? Eg don't ride around in small front ring and small back ring - you'll find the same gear somewhere else using the middle front ring and a middlish ring at the back.
    Giant Anthem X
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  • aphextwins
    aphextwins Posts: 7
    llamafarmer wrote:
    aphextwins wrote:
    The chain is rubbing on the Front Derailleur. But the gears sound awful when i change up from 8th. Sounds like it's not grabbing them properly.

    Two seperate problems there by the sounds of it. Your front mech probably needs tuning to stop the chain dragging on it when you pedal and same for your rear mech to get it indexed properly.

    Are you keeping a fairly straight chainline with your gear selections? Eg don't ride around in small front ring and small back ring - you'll find the same gear somewhere else using the middle front ring and a middlish ring at the back.

    Yeah I think so. I'm not jumping from low to high gears quickly. I noticed it when I just went through all the gears one by one and as soon as I went from 8th up to 9th it just makes a realy bad noise.

    I'm gonna take it back today as I've seen stuff on Youtube of how to fix it but I don't really fancy tampering with my bike so early on.
  • butcher of bakersfield
    butcher of bakersfield Posts: 1,233
    Halford's aren't exactly building a reputation of building well tuned bikes that run straight out of the box - My Fury was exactly the same. It's a shame really, when they're selling to people who don't know where to start with these things. The Vulcan is a good bike though and it'll run nicely once tuned up.

    And gears can be a pain to get right, and since that's their job in the first place you're quite right to take it back for them to do it.
  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    Forget Halfords and learn to do it yourself. Get a basic toolkit and fiddle, plenty of help online.
    You will have to do it sooner or later, unless you can afford to pay for maintenance.
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  • aphextwins
    aphextwins Posts: 7
    Just got back from Halfords and they said it was my fault. They said I can't go up through the gears???? Is this right? So I can't go from 1st all the way through to 21st one by one?

    llamafarmer mentioned that I can't use both small rings but how do I do that if I just want to move up one gear from 8th?

    Sorry for the stupid questions but I'm only 3 weeks into all this.
  • llamafarmer
    llamafarmer Posts: 1,848
    Try not to think of it like a car gear box, there isn't really an 8th gear as such. If you're on the smallest front ring, try not to use that in combination with the smallest few back rings because your chain is going to be running at a nasty angle between the two gears. You can probably find the same gear ratio using the middle front ring and one of the middle few back rings, which will let your chain run pretty straight.
    Giant Anthem X
    Cube Ltd Race
  • Slamdunkin
    Slamdunkin Posts: 355
    Read this guide....

    In the smallest front chainring you can use the 3 or 4 LARGEST rear cogs.
    In the middle front chainring you can use ALL the rear cogs.
    In the largest front chainring you can use the 3 or 4 SMALLEST rear cogs.



    http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12647117
  • aphextwins
    aphextwins Posts: 7
    Slamdunkin wrote:
    Read this guide....

    In the smallest front chainring you can use the 3 or 4 LARGEST rear cogs.
    In the middle front chainring you can use ALL the rear cogs.
    In the largest front chainring you can use the 3 or 4 SMALLEST rear cogs.



    http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12647117

    Brilliant!

    I think I get it now.

    Thanks for all your help!

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