front derailleur cutting/scratching my leg any ideas ?

jay197

Hi everyone,

I have a new GT road bike which I rode today for 15 miles or so, and when I came home I noticed that my front derailleur had been scratching the side of my leg on the pedal stroke.

Has this happened to anyone else?

And if so how can I stop this from happening?

Before you ask I am not bow legged nor do I have Arnold Schwarzenegger calf muscles :roll:

I am just wondering if perhaps this happened due to the cleats being at the wrong angle on my shoes or something?

Any advice would be very much appreciated,

Thanks in advance,

Jay.

farrina

Please tell me this is not a wind up .....

Bit baffled by this ... My first thought was that you must have calves the side of tree trunks, but you have already covered this aspect in your original post.

When you say scratching your leg did you not notice it happening at the time ? Are you diabetic ?

Is it the cable or the cage that is catching your leg ?

What happens when you pedal backwards when stationary (save you riding into stationary objects if we tried this going forwards)

If your cleats were significantly at the wrong angle me thinks that your knees would doth protest rapidly.

I assume that your gears are operating normally and the chain is not coming off when you shift onto the big ring ?

Regards

Alan

thistle_

Do you have a photo of the bike with the chain on the biggest chainring?

rolf_f

Have you checked to see where the end of the cable is in either ring? That can stick out quite a long way and certainly as far as your leg.

jay197

Thanks everyone I really appreciate the help.

I didn't notice it at the time as I was riding in the rain etc but when I got home I saw the blood and scratches

I will take a photo of it from both sideways and from the rear so you can see if there is something out of place etc.

The end of the cable is tucked away so it's definately not that.

I will try to find an empty road where I can look down and watch my leg and see how and where the derailleur is scratching it, assuming it is the derailleur ofc

will update tomorrow with a photo then,

Jay.

smidsy

Cable often sticks out quite a lot more when you drop onto the smaller front chainring - put it in that and re-check...and make sure the cable end has the end cap fitted/crimp nipple - nothing worse than bare metal strands nicking your leg

cougie

Got to be the cable scratching you. Cut it down to size and crimp it or put a blob of superglue to keep it together.

rolf_f

Vaguely surprised that the OP just didn't get straight back on the bike and look what was causing the scratching before posting the thread so we can have an interesting but totally theoretical discussion about it

PlymouthSam

It HAS to be the cable !!

musclechat

yes, i agree , i have same time , I didn't notice it at the time as I was riding in the rain etc but when I got home I saw the blood and scratches I will take a photo of it from both sideways and from the rear so you can see if there is something out of place etc.

jay197

well surprise surpise................. (whatever happened to Cilla Black btw? )

I went out for a ride today and found it was the lower adjuster screw on the derailleur that was scratching my leg :shock:

Due to me being "nice but dim", it seems when I am resting I put my right foot down to 6pm position on the crank and somehow in that position I managed to scratch the mess out of my leg yesterday ( dry blood still on the screw too, note to self, clean bike more often :oops: )

So not sure if I scratched it slipping in the cleats in the rain yesterday or when leaning into corners or what, but today I was consciously careful today and managed not to draw any blood today :roll:

When my foot is at 6pm position on the crank, that's when the screw scratches my leg so I guess I will put it down to poor technique on my first day I suppose.

live and learn ....

farrina

Well that was not an explanation I was expecting!

Glad you have sorted it as I think you had a few of us scratching our collective heads.

Regards

Alan

PlymouthSam

Well i also didnt expect that ! nice one for finding it.