How much should a LBS charge to index my gears?

concorde

Q in the title.

Thanks

Andy B

£10 - £20.

betneds1976

If you use them regularly they may do it for nowt.

concorde

I don't, recently moved here :-/ I might go in say that I've recently moved here, buy some things that I need anyway and then drop indexing my gears in. See if they do it as a good will gesture to keep my custom

Cheers

betneds1976

You never know, they may well do, good luck.

unixnerd

Why not try it yourself? If you make a hash of it just pay them to do it, you're no worse off :-)

airbusboy

1st: go on youtube... type in 'how to index gears' or a similar search title
2nd: watch video (make notes??)
3rd: make a brew
4: go to your shed and attempt doing it yourself ( watch video again if you run into difficulty)
5: if it works you've saved yourself the hassle of going down the shop plus you've learnt a new skill.
or, if you can't do it, pop down the shop and get them to sort your mess out

Easy.

Enjoy

diamondbacker

Mine were done for £12 a few days ago after being unable to get it quite right myself.

supersonic

I'd agree with Andy, 10-20 quid for a basic set up. Maybe more if needs cables sorting and hangers straightening. One problem often leads to the discovery of another lol.

concorde

Ok cheers guys. I might try it and WHEN it ends up in a mess, take it over the LBS to sort. Will look like a tit going in there then mind with the mess I've made lol

hoochylala

supersonic wrote:

I'd agree with Andy, 10-20 quid for a basic set up. Maybe more if needs cables sorting and hangers straightening. One problem often leads to the discovery of another lol.

Yup - had mine done last minute before a trip to scotland, ended up requiring some new inner and outers - quoted £12 for indexing walked out paying £20 all in.

stuisnew

if you're new to the shop you can always try doing yourself and if you fail blame it on someone else

"ahem, i've just bought this bike off someone second hand the muppet made a right hash of it can you sort it out!"

concorde

I've looked up vids on youtube and it looks straight forward. It says the two limiter screws jsut stop it going off either end of the gears. Ok I get that. Then it shows using the barrel screw? to adjust it. Mine doesn't have one, so I'm guessing I would just make the cable tighter or looser. It then shows that after the first gear is inxdexed (smallest one) they all work. Now I don't think this will work for me. Mine moves from smallest to next smallest no prob and the same then up to 4th smallest where it won't go to 3rd it'll jump to 2nd. So I'm thinking there's something else that needs sorting?!

antfly

You might need to loosen the cable a bit or you might need to adjust the limit screws. It's trial and error really.

cooldad

You will have an adjuster on the shifter.

concorde

Still confused see as the videos I have seen say the limit screws have absolutely nothing to do with the indexing part of the gears! They are only there to stop it at the both extremes. Anything in between they have no effect on. Makes sense as it's only a screw to stop the dérailleur moving at each extreme aint it.

concorde

Still confused see as the videos I have seen say the limit screws have absolutely nothing to do with the indexing part of the gears! They are only there to stop it at the both extremes. Anything in between they have no effect on. Makes sense as it's only a screw to stop the dérailleur moving at each extreme aint it.

concorde

Still confused see as the videos I have seen say the limit screws have absolutely nothing to do with the indexing part of the gears! They are only there to stop it at the both extremes. Anything in between they have no effect on. Makes sense as it's only a screw to stop the dérailleur moving at each extreme aint it.

TuckerUK

3D videos eh?

antfly

If the limit screws aren't right you won't get the indexing right. Sometimes you need to loosen them a bit. Or it could be worn cassete, dirty old cables, hanger bent...

cooldad

antfly wrote:

If the limit screws aren't right you won't get the indexing right. Sometimes you need to loosen them a bit. Or it could be worn cassete, dirty old cables, hanger bent...

No it isn't. Once the limit screws are set (which don't make any difference to the indexing) and the cable is tensioned, the adjustment is by the barrel adjuster. The amount of cable pull is determined by the shifters, where the pull starts from by the adjuster.

antfly

It says so in my bike maintenance book, I don't just make this crap up you know. You have to set them right in the first place, with the cable loose.

concorde

cooldad wrote:

antfly wrote:

If the limit screws aren't right you won't get the indexing right. Sometimes you need to loosen them a bit. Or it could be worn cassete, dirty old cables, hanger bent...

No it isn't. Once the limit screws are set (which don't make any difference to the indexing) and the cable is tensioned, the adjustment is by the barrel adjuster. The amount of cable pull is determined by the shifters, where the pull starts from by the adjuster.

That's what I thought but what if there is no barrel adjuster?

cooldad

antfly wrote:

It says so in my bike maintenance book, I don't just make this crap up you know. You have to set them right in the first place, with the cable loose.

Sorry to contradict your book, but think about it. Ignore the limit screws for a minute.
The limit for the highest gear (smallest cog) in set by the cable. When the tension is right, the dérailleur can't move further than the highest gear. Each click will then move exactly one cog. The limit for the lowest gear is set by the last click on the shifter.
The limit screws are a safety net, if the cable snaps, or the indexing is slightly out (or things jump around, as they do on bumpy bits) they stop the chain jumping off the smallest or largest cog (and into the spokes - nasty) respectively.
Obviously they are there for a reason, and need to be set correctly, but they have nothing to do with indexing.
The barrel adjuster is simply there because it is very difficult to get the cable tension exactly right, so you get it close (jockey wheels in line with highest gear) then fine tune with the barrel adjuster. Obviously the high limit screw helps, as once set correctly the dérailleur will be more or less in the correct position.

Concorde wrote:

cooldad wrote:

antfly wrote:

If the limit screws aren't right you won't get the indexing right. Sometimes you need to loosen them a bit. Or it could be worn cassete, dirty old cables, hanger bent...

No it isn't. Once the limit screws are set (which don't make any difference to the indexing) and the cable is tensioned, the adjustment is by the barrel adjuster. The amount of cable pull is determined by the shifters, where the pull starts from by the adjuster.

That's what I thought but what if there is no barrel adjuster?

There will be a barrel adjuster, as I said if there isn't one on the mech (annoying Shimano Shadow series) there is one on the shifter.

moggy82

Actually Cooldad,

Shifters are designed to work with the limit screws, both top and bottom gears have a larger amount of pull (on the cable) than the other gears. This ensures the bike correctly goes into both the upper and lower gears correctly. Take your shifter apart and have a look if you dont believe me.

This can also be seen if you put your bike in fastest (smallest cog) unwind the H limint screw all the way and see how much the mech moves in relation to the other gears.

and the low gear has extra to allow you to persuade the chain onto the top cog.

Chris

cooldad

moggy82 wrote:

Actually Cooldad,

Shifters are designed to work with the limit screws, both top and bottom gears have a larger amount of pull (on the cable) than the other gears. This ensures the bike correctly goes into both the upper and lower gears correctly. Take your shifter apart and have a look if you dont believe me.

This can also be seen if you put your bike in fastest (smallest cog) unwind the H limint screw all the way and see how much the mech moves in relation to the other gears.

and the low gear has extra to allow you to persuade the chain onto the top cog.

Chris

I agree with your point on the lowest gear, but the highest gear is still limited by the cable tension.
The point I was trying to make is that indexing is totally controlled by the shifter, with the tension adjusted correctly

cooldad

But going back to the original question - not something you should need an LBS for.

supersonic

The highest gear needs the H stop in place as it sets the reference point for the starting tension. You move the mech, and you change the cable tension.

However, once you have set the gears, theoretically you could remove the H screw.

altern_8

myself and bro set up his gears from scratch using this>>>

set up gears

worked first time.

evo3ben

I usually have a go myself and if i cant get it right i take it to the LBS. Setting the rear i find is fairly straight forward but setting the front deraileur is a pain in the ass.
I was running single cog up front for a while and took my front deraileur, shifter and cable off the bike completely. I have since changed back to a double with bash up front and had to re-fit front deraileur. Could i get it right? no lol. I found that setting the correct height was a pain being as most instructions set height by the large front cog which i dont have and the chain kept rubbing on the deraileur :x
Took to lbs, two days later and £5 lighter i got the bike back. Went to Cannock for the day and the front deraileur is no better than when i set it up!! wont be using them again. Will be giving it another go myself this week.

Anonymous

For a subject where there is only one real method, there sure as hell seems to be a lot of "opinion" on how to index gears :roll: