Tip: check your gear cables

andyeb

Had my rear gear cable go on the way to work this morning, leaving me stranded in top gear - 10 miles from home and 20 miles hilly miles from work. Not amused.

Anyway, thought I'd mention it on here in the hopes it might save someone else some hassle. It's worth checking the condition of all cables (especially inside shifters, where mine failed), because they aren't things you can typically repair at the road side.

On the bright side, I've managed to replace it myself - the most involved bike maintenance job I've done so far. Learned a lot and collected a few new tools. Here's hoping the repair doesn't let me down in the middle of no where!

bails87

You can use the limit screws to fix the mech in a middle gear, to give you a more useful range....

andyeb

bails87 wrote:

You can use the limit screws to fix the mech in a middle gear, to give you a more useful range....

Had someone else suggest this (via Facebook, once I got home). Do most rear mechs limit screws really give you that much adjustment to play with? Didn't think to try it while I was out there in the cold this morning.

t5nel

Another get you home measure is to take the cable from the shifter entirely, tension it up and capture it behind a convenient nut - bottle cage mounts are a good candidate.

Obv. will only work if you have some length to play with but has the advantage that you don't mess so much with your mech settings.

bails87

andyeb wrote:

bails87 wrote:

You can use the limit screws to fix the mech in a middle gear, to give you a more useful range....

Had someone else suggest this (via Facebook, once I got home). Do most rear mechs limit screws really give you that much adjustment to play with? Didn't think to try it while I was out there in the cold this morning.

I don't know, never had to try it on the back. Had my front mech cable go on the MTB once, so used the limit screw to fix it on the middle ring.

The tip in the post above is good though, hadn't thought of that.

rolf_f

bails87 wrote:

andyeb wrote:

bails87 wrote:

You can use the limit screws to fix the mech in a middle gear, to give you a more useful range....

Had someone else suggest this (via Facebook, once I got home). Do most rear mechs limit screws really give you that much adjustment to play with? Didn't think to try it while I was out there in the cold this morning.

I don't know, never had to try it on the back. Had my front mech cable go on the MTB once, so used the limit screw to fix it on the middle ring.

Nope - not even close. This happened to me the other week. Cable got clogged up with cow poo and the mudguards meant even riding through puddles didn't wash the crap off (probably on the run under the BB). I kept nearly getting shifts so started pulling at the cable under the down tube which eventually broke the cable inside the shifter. That meant instead of being stuck on the big cassette cog, I was now stuck on the small one with 35 miles of Yorkshire still to go.

Luckily I was riding my girly 13-29 mech but all I could do with the limit screw was push it into the 14 tooth - so that's what I rode home - mostly crossed chain (eeeeek! :shock: - note, the world did not end!).

Because I'm super hard, it wasn't actually that difficult on 34-14 so no resorting to hideous frame scratching practices re bottle cage bolts. I'd rather MTFU!

t4tomo

Rolf F wrote:

[Nope - not even close. This happened to me the other week. Cable got clogged up with cow poo and the mudguards meant even riding through puddles didn't wash the crap off (probably on the run under the BB). I kept nearly getting shifts so started pulling at the cable under the down tube which eventually broke the cable inside the shifter. That meant instead of being stuck on the big cassette cog, I was now stuck on the small one with 35 miles of Yorkshire still to go.

Luckily I was riding my girly 13-29 mech but all I could do with the limit screw was push it into the 14 tooth - so that's what I rode home - mostly crossed chain (eeeeek! :shock: - note, the world did not end!).

Because I'm super hard, it wasn't actually that difficult on 34-14 so no resorting to hideous frame scratching practices re bottle cage bolts. I'd rather MTFU!

Good job you weren't from Lancashire, you'd have had to sit by the side of the road crying until your Mum came to pick you up.