Slipping gear & Buckled wheel

aldric

I posted this in the worshop section but it is a bit quiet, can't imagine I will get a reply there any time soon.... Any comments on the below?

I got my bike 2 weeks ago (Focus Mares Comp) and from day 1 when on the smaller of the front ring and about the 4th cog on the cassette if I put pressure on the pedals the gear slips. In fact its impossible to use it which is making things a big awkward.

Is it just a set-up issue? I have looked up indexing gears on you tube and it seems to say if the first is set up fine then they all should be.

I have also noticed that my back wheel doesn't seem to spin 100% true which means that at certain points one of the brake pads catches the rim and slows it down. I have adjusted the brakes (again) and it doesn't seem to be catching any more.

When I first got the bike I noticed the pad was rubbing and adjusted... I possibly didn't adjust it enough.

Anyway, I have only done about 100 miles on the bike and haven't really had any issues with major potholes or anything. I have had to drop down a small kerb on 3 occasions due to having to avoid a horrific roundabout.

Will dropping carefully down a small kerb buckle a wheel?

EKE_38BPM

Going down a small kerb shouldn't buckle a wheel (unless you are using a super flimsy 24 spoke racing wheel).

If the wheel is out of true after ~100 miles, I'd take it back to where you bought it and have a good moan until it is either trued to your satisfaction, or, even better, replaced with a new one.

Whilst you're there, get them to have a look at the gears. The cables stretch as they are used and this could result in the indexing being off and/or slippage.

If you don't want to go back to the shop you bought it from (or it was bought online), you'll have to get busy with a spoke key for the wheel.
The Park Tools website has lots of useful How To guides. Get to know them well, they are your friends. I've printed loads of them off, saves me faffing around on the laptop with greasy fingers.

aldric

Thanks Eke_38BPM,

I think they are rodi wheels? (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Focus ... 360045313/) but definately not race wheels, they should be fairly robus for a CX bike I would have hoped.

I didn't think the wheel should be like that from going down 3 kerbs and to be honest I think it came like it which would make sense why the pads were rubbing when I got it out the box.

The gear issue has always been there as well from the first ride so it should be cable stretch surely?

I bought it from Wiggle so doubt I have much comeback in relation to repairs etc... as I don't want to be without the bike for weeks.

Thanks for the link to that website I will check it out, especially the spoke key for the wheel, sounds interesting!

UndercoverElephant

Hmmm, every bike I've bought seems to come with a couple of rather loose spokes. First thing I do is give them a run over with a spoke key. Well tensioned wheels can take curbs, etc. Poor ones can go wrong pretty quickly.

Pluck the spokes like the strings on a guitar. On a good wheel, they should all sound the same pitch (except on the back, where the ones on the drive-side should all sound the same, but a different, higher, pitch to the ones on the non-drive-side)

Burleybob

Thanks for posting this as I had a near miss yesterday when my rear mech caught in my spokes. I thought it would be a simple matter of replacing the trashed derailleur but when I checked my rear wheel this morning it was out of true and I couldn't for the life of me work out why. Now it would appear that I need to check my spokes.

Spooky how the answers to questions seem to pop up on these forums before I ask them!

cjcp

I'd call Wiggle and ask them to explain.

Dropping down a kerb shouldn't affect the wheel. Cable stretch occurs after a number of weeks IME rather than during the first day.

jonginge

cjcp wrote:

I'd call Wiggle and ask them to explain.

Dropping down a kerb shouldn't affect the wheel. Cable stretch occurs after a number of weeks IME rather than during the first day.

+1

CX wheels should be relatively robust.
To me one of 2 scenarios is likely:
1) bike wasn't set up well to start with: gears weren't indexed, spokes loose etc
2) bike damaged in transit

Either way have a chat with wiggle. Their customer service is generally pretty good I believe

EKE_38BPM

Seeing as you bought it online, I would recommend you don't go to your LBS but give the Wiggle customer service people a chance to earn their wages.

As JonGinge and cjcp say, wheels should be able to take a few kerbs and cables shouldn't stretch so quickly, so that leaves transit damage or (more likely in my opinion) bad set up.




Alternatively, you could use this as a learning experience and learn how to true a wheel & index your gears. Always good to have new skills and the Park Tools website is a pretty good place to start learning.

aldric

Thanks for the input guys.

It seems that the bike wasn't set up right.. A friend at work who used to work in a bike shop looked at it for 5 minutes and told me what was wrong.

I fixed it in 2 minutes at work and no gears slipping at all.. It turns out the front derailer needed to be repositioned (moved out) as the chain was catching on it and the rear derailer had to be put up a bit as there was too much slack on the chain.

There was nothing wrong with the indexing.

I rode home last night and no issues whatsoever... it was a nice feeling