Should gears shift easilly and smoothly on road bike?

chipandpin

Hi, as the title says, should the gears shift smoothly and easily on a road bike? I picked up my new bike this week that has SRAM apex compact groupset and i find the shifting completely different (and more difficult) than my hybrid bike (which has rapid fire shifters). I just wondered if this was normal or wether I need to take my bike in for tweaking? I have only riden it once for about an hour and found the shifter needed quite a strong push to get into the outer chainring, and on a few occasions the gear slipped on the back. (apologies if i have got some of the terminology wrong - I am new to all this!!)

Cheers

secretsam

Funnily enough, I have the same problem - Shimano, in my case (Sora)

Any advice would be ace!

danowat

Should be smooth and swift, at least it is on all my bikes.

unixnerd

I have Sora on my tourer and it's done well over 5k miles in all weathers. Still shifts perfectly every time. If you're having problems your gears aren't adjusted correctly or your cables are contaminated with dirt.

keef66

my road bike (105 groupset) requires the same amount of effort to change up to the big ring as my mtb did (XT groupset). Going in the opposite direction from large to small chainring seems to generate a bit of a clunk which is initially a bit disconcerting.

Changing up / down the cassette seems an even lighter action on the roadie.

desweller

My 105 STIs have never been quite as slick as the 7-speed triggers shifters on my hybrid, to the extent that the hybrid always pleasantly surprises me when I use it after a long layoff.

AndyOgy

I tend to find that gear changes are often a bit clunky on a budget to mid-range bike when they are brand new. But this soon settles down, for a while, and then the cables bed in and require re-adjusting.

Make sure that you have a good lube on the chain (Finish Line Wet Lube being my favourite) and try not to do any gear changes 'under load' to begin with.

Bar Shaker

Yep, your gears should 'snick' into the gear you have selected. They should not rattle around, thinking about where they should be next.

If they don't, it may be an indexing problem..