Bad Downshifting

DCR00

Afternoon all

Fitted XT Dual action shifters and an XT Shadow rear mech last weekend. Set everything up ok, and test ride was sweet, but on the first long ride this morning, there was some bad downshifting going on. Upshift is spot on and what you would expect from XT gear, but downshift, especially in the middle of the cassette wasn’t great. The rear mech is def moving on the downshift, but its not moving the whole way, and im not getting a good shift.

Im thinking this is down to sticking cables ? and if i lube them this should solve the problem ?

Im running a Shimano HG-50 cassette just now (shortly to be replaced by an XT cassette).

Would this effect downshift ? i would have though upshift, but not down ?

Cheers

DCR

nicklouse

if it is moving in the direction pulled by the spring then it is either poor routing or dirt causing too much friction in the set up.

DCR00

routing is the same as it was with the old mech, so its prob dirt

Anonymous

could also be new outer cables being a bit squished at the ends causing friction.

DCR00

just used the existing Jagwire outers

shifters didnt come with outers...

Anonymous

Ah, ok, more likely of being dirt then. Just checking something else though, if you were running a non-shadow shimano mech before, you did remember to cut the last bit of the outer shorter, right?

Koiler

i had a similar problem when i swapped to an slx rear mech,

fitted everything but it wouldnt shift properly, after head scratching for a while, i figured out that the entry point for the cable into the mech was slightly different and i had to shorten the outer a bit so the cable went straight into the mech rather than having a bit of a 'loop' if you get what i mean?

DCR00

ah no i didnt do that
am using the same length of outer as before
will try that (as well as a solid clean)

thanks guys !

Anonymous

That might well solve it then, the cable goes straight in. If you have the same length as before you'll probably end up with a massive kink in it, causing the problem.

DCR00

does the fact its a hardtail have anything to do with it ? the design looks like it likes a cable coming from above, which you would expect with a full sus, but not a hardtail....

Anonymous

nah, it should be fine.

daveaasmith

Sounds like it's definitely cable outer - makes a world of difference to downshifts - cheap fix as well as it's only a couple of quid a metre from your LBS.

Dave.

DCR00

whilst riding home in that downpour last night, the rear mech got worse...

however, after a short stop at the Ranger Station and some re-tightening of the cable, its working fine now. I guess the cables needed to stretch out. Will still be sorting the outer tho.