Can somebody help a numpty please ?

Sunderland Supporter

Numpty being me :oops:

My bike when I want to move into a higher gear on the cassette is making chattering sounds and is real hesitant, what do I need to do to fix it ? I really need to learn this stuff :oops:

Muffintop

Sunderland Supporter wrote:

Numpty being me :oops:

My bike when I want to move into a higher gear on the cassette is making chattering sounds and is real hesitant, what do I need to do to fix it ? I really need to learn this stuff :oops:

Most likely your derailer's (the things that move the chain from ring to the next) might be a wee bit out of cync. There are adjustment screws on the actual derailers - google adjusting derailers (or deraileurs - french spelling) and you should find plenty info.

And you don't really need to learn these things, (though it is handy) you just need to find someone who's more interested in this stuff than you are to fix it.

Mx

keef66

Leave the screws alone! You just need to adjust the tension in the cable going to the rear derailleur.

There's a barrel adjuster where the cable housing meets the rear derailleur. Half a turn anticlockwise and see what kind of difference it makes. Fine tune until shifting is as accurate / silent as required.

greasedscotsman

Sounds like not enough tension on the cable. You can add more with the barrel adjuster on the back of the rear mech. Click the shifter into an upshift postion and then turn it anti clockwise (although could quite easily be clockwise...) until the chain jumps onto the sprocket. Hope that makes sense.

Or do as Muffintop says and google setting up gears. There is bound to be some sort of you tube video that tells you what to do.

jsands294

Its a pretty simple thing to learn and very handy to know. Look at the videos for adjusting the deraileurs and try it out for yourself. If you really don't feel confident with it, bring it to your LBS(local bike shop) and ask them to do it, but also show you so that you can adjust it yourself for future use.

keef66

I say leave the screws alone for good reason. They are the limit screws and determine the maximum travel of the derailleur, ie how far right and left it can go. If you were to unscrew the upper limit screw it could allow the rear mech to overshift beyond the biggest sprocket. The chain could end up jammed between the cassette and spokes, and / or the rear mech itself could hit the spokes. Both are quite unpleasant / potentially very dangerous.

Alinshearah

Is it not the keys in your pocket jangling? Wheese keeys are theese keeeys?

jsands294

keef66 wrote:

I say leave the screws alone for good reason. They are the limit screws and determine the maximum travel of the derailleur, ie how far right and left it can go. If you were to unscrew the upper limit screw it could allow the rear mech to overshift beyond the biggest sprocket. The chain could end up jammed between the cassette and spokes, and / or the rear mech itself could hit the spokes. Both are quite unpleasant / potentially very dangerous.

Which is what happened my mates bikes, his wheel jammed up and lost control, hitting me in the process and me taking all the damage :P

rpd_steve

Simply put the distance the mech moved (the index size, i.e. 8 speed, 9 speed, 10 speed) is detirmined by your shifter - you cant change that. The tension in the cable will move the entire range of movement one way or the other. If you have more issue changing into bigger sprokets apply more tension to the cable, if you have more issue going to smaller sprockets, loosen the tension. You can find more info on it here:

http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html

bompington

I'd blame it on those Tory ********** if I were you

Sunderland Supporter

not much love for those G*bsh*tes in your neck of the woods mate

MattC59

+1 for adjusting the cable tension. This can be done at either end, ie at the derailleur (correct spelling, it's a French word ) or at a cable stop near to the shifter. I'd start at the derailleur end. If the cable tension is really bad, then you can pull some cable through where it attaches to the derailleur.

DON'T fanny around with the adjustment screws. These aren't the cause of the clattering when you want shift. These limit the amount of travel, ie, they stop the derailleur from dragging the chain off either end of the cassette (bunch of sprockets at the back). If you mess about with these, yo ucould end up shifting hte chain into your spokes, and yo ureally don't want to to that !

Have a look here:
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/rear-derailler-adjustments-derailleur

Sunderland Supporter

The frustrating thing is that I could be in 50 / 19 and change down to 50 / 21 and its smooth and silent. I could execute a change up from 50 /19 to 50 / 17 and its chat-a chat-a chat-clatter-clatter :roll: Im puzzled as to why downshifts are fine and upshifts suck :roll: and ive tried tinkering with the barrel at the rear derailleur btw. Bike was fine until the bloody chain fell off this morning :x and the chain chatterring started since then.

woodywmb

Keef66 is spot on with his advice. Don't touch the screws. Use the barrel adjuster. Raise the back wheel off the ground or place the bike in a stand. Put the chain in the middle ring at the front or smaller ring if there are only two. Put the chain on the third smallest cog at the back. Turn the pedals and listen as you push the gear lever and let the derailleur transport the chain up and down the cogs. Stop when you hear the chain rubbing against one of the cogs. Turn the barrel adjuster in small movements clockwise and then anti-clockwise until the noise stops. Do this all the way up and down the cassette. In most set-ups the chain will move towards the biggest cog when turned anti-clockwise: the reverse applies when it's turned clockwise. Not all set-ups are like this (Shimano XT mtb kit for instance runs the opposite way). The secret is to listen and turn. You'll end up doing it blindfolded once you get the knack. The process only takes seconds and it's such a pleasure to have a bike running sweetly whenever you wish.

oldwelshman

They are usually easy to adjust, especially shimano.
Select smalles ring at fron, smallest sprocket on back.
This is start point and the gear cable should not be tight at this point. I usually turn adjuster barrel fully in at this point, then slacken cable (if doing from scratch) pull finger tight, then lock cable in place, then check gears. With shimano this is often all thats requird.
For fine adjustment, change up to top sproket and back to bottom and check for smooth shifts and no noise.
If nois in middle sprocket, just adjust barrel one way until it hops to next sprocket.
Then adjust opposite way until it goes onto original sproicket then jumps to next and count the number of turns on the barrrel to do this, usually about 10. If ten then do half the turns back ie 5 and you should be done.
Hope this makes sense

Dancing Bear

some great gear adjustment videos on the web/you tube

Duffer65

I found this one helpful...not great quality though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ

FoldingJoe

C'mon mate, sort it out. You're giving the mags ammunition against us Mackems.

tp2000

Have a gander at this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaI ... ata_player

It's the easiest vid I have seen to follow. The only thing I'd add to it is that once you find it works on the sprockets at the high end of the cassette, then shift up to the lower end of the cassette and play around with the barrel adjuster slightly there to make sure it works on single shifts there too.

wishitwasallflat

Sunderland Supporter wrote:

The frustrating thing is that I could be in 50 / 19 and change down to 50 / 21 and its smooth and silent. I could execute a change up from 50 /19 to 50 / 17 and its chat-a chat-a chat-clatter-clatter Im puzzled as to why downshifts are fine and upshifts suck and ive tried tinkering with the barrel at the rear derailleur btw. Bike was fine until the bloody chain fell off this morning and the chain chatterring started since then.

Doubt the chain falling of would be anything to do with it - but if the chain fell off then that could be caused by the limit screws being set wrongly. That is pretty easy to check as you want the screw set so it allows a shift into the last ring but not over shifting so it falls off. If you check that and retry setting the cable tension (as per the advice given) and its still the same then - as the problem is only on upshifts (moving to a smaller sprocket) which is achieved by the shifter letting out a little bit of cable, and the deraileur moving out away from the frame on it's spring, if the inner cable is not moving freely through the outer and along the whole route from shifter to deraileur that can be the cause.

mattshrops

The main thing people do wrong when adjusting is to turn the adjuster too far. Youll be surprised how little is needed to get it clicking up and down sweetly again. Alternatively £6 in your lbs(ask to watch if theyre doing it there and then)

Sunderland Supporter

FoldingJoe wrote:

C'mon mate, sort it out. You're giving the mags ammunition against us Mackems.

I havent the foggiest what you are talking about mate :?

Sunderland Supporter

Watched various online vids and front derailleur seems to be a right bleeder to work at. All this pull that cable and turn this knob shennanigans.................still havent a clue so its off to the LBS to let somebody who knows what they are doing put things right.Fiddled with rear barrel adjust and its still rattle city :roll: and all this since the bloody chain slipped off the other day.