The OCD Quest: Clunky/Hard shifting gears & cable tension

Plyphon

hiya.

Quest to dial in this 2nd hand bike continues following the success of the fork thread:

The gears needed a lot of adjustment before I could ride - the hanger was bent in transit and the indexing/screws were thrown out somehow.

Everything else appears straight and fine tho, just the hanger took a beating. (Done it's job I guess.)

As far as I can tell I have sorted the high and low limit screws - it doesn't over shift and I get both bottom and top gears fine. I'll look proper in daylight Saturday but I'm satisfied.

The issue:

I get every gear fine, 1 shift, one gear. However there is quite a lot of tension in the cable - so much so that by the time i'm going to shift into the largest cog/lowest gear it requires quite a bit of force to get it to click - and then shifting down a massive "CLICK" from the shifter goes off due to the tension being released - this cant be normal, right? Any less tension and the indexing goes - it won't shift up.

Also - while every shift seems immediate enough, they are all very clunky/hard - both up and down the sprokets. Chain comes down with a mighty "THUNK" that echos through the frame. This is while pedaling but not under any large load - just flat cruising. Again - this can't be normal, right? I'm going to guess the two might be related?

Would the B Height effect any of the above? It could probably be a bit tighter with the sprokets.

Any help appreciated.

Equipment:

SLX M662 Mech
SLX Shifter
SRAM PG990

When I first assembled the bike the gears were much much smoother but I had ghost shifting issues in some gears from the indexing being not quite right.

I also get quite a lot of rub on the front mech but one step at a time.

Cheers

BONUS: Can anyone with a SLX mech confirm to me that their cage angles slightly outward from the wheel parallel?

cooldad

Read up on indexing in 'Read this first' below.
Bonus - no.

nicklouse

Plyphon wrote:

BONUS: Can anyone with a SLX mech confirm to me that their cage angles slightly outward from the wheel parallel?

it should not.

70\ʹspenguin

Assuming you know how to index the gears, try the following:


Shift mech onto lowest sprocket and then undo the cable from the mech. Screw the index screw all the way in towards the shifter and then uncrew it two turns. Re-fit the cable back onto the mech and re-index. This should give you a little more wiggle room with cable tension

The Rookie

The loud noise implies something is stopping the derailleur moving, you're not cranking into the high stop are you? Also multiple 'shifts' without actually moving the chain onto the next cog means the derailleur is pushing against a chain thta is going nowhere.

Plyphon

nicklouse wrote:

Plyphon wrote:

BONUS: Can anyone with a SLX mech confirm to me that their cage angles slightly outward from the wheel parallel?

it should not.

If that's the case then I think this is bent also.

I will try to get some pictures to upload for someone to help me confirm this.

Plyphon

cooldad wrote:

Read up on indexing in 'Read this first' below.
Bonus - no.

I'm going to pick up a new rear cable and follow the whole Park Tools guide through point for point Saturday morning see what I can do.

Plyphon

here are two photos to show the cage angle i'm on about:





Sorry for fuzzy but it's incredibly hard to take a photo at quarter to 11 on a phone... :oops:

cooldad

Looks fubared to me.

The Rookie

One of
1/ Bent mech
2/ Bent Hanger
3/ Hanger bolt and/or QR not tight.

Rear cable needs replacing anyway - that's a mess!

Plyphon

Well;

The hanger is brand new.
The hanger bolt is nice and snug without being over tightened.
And the QR is nice and snug also.

Which leaves me through process of elimination phoning up ParcelForce to claim some compensation.

Lets see if they play ball...

Cheers

cooldad

Second hand bike - good luck. How do you know it wasn't like that already?

Plyphon

The seller sent me photos of the bike clearly assembled 3 days before shipping, as confirmed by the photos EXIF data contained in the image.

When I received the bike you could not assemble the rear wheel into the hanger - so unless the seller purposefully broke or somehow damaged the hanger/mech in those three days it is clear it happened in transit.

cooldad

So he dropped it on the way to the post office.

Plyphon

It was collected from his house.

cooldad

So he fell down the stairs.

snoopsmydogg

cooldad wrote:

So he fell down the stairs.

or dropped it into the box?

Plyphon

Or maybe,


Just maybe,


None of those things.

The Rookie

Was it shipped with the rear wheel on?

Plyphon

Nah.

cooldad

So resting on the mech? Maybe you should be talking to the sender not the carrier.

Plyphon

Nah, bike packed upside down. There was packaging protection around it to stop it from being the "rested on" part also before you point out a box can be turned upside down.

Maybe he should of taken it off, but there was enough protection so that in normal circumstances it would of been fine. As I said, this has taken a heafty thwack.

The Rookie

Are there marks on the box to suggest said hefty thwack?

Plyphon

There are holes in both sides, and marks on the top that would line up to where the rear of the frame would have been - so it does appear the box has been battered somehow.

I need to take photos of that actually to upload to them.

Plyphon

Update:

ParcelForce claims have just sent me an email saying I have a cheque on its way for £37.99 which covers the cost of the new mech. Unsure if I should push for the hanger also.

Time taken for claim: 5 days or so.

I also have a new mech waiting to be fixed Xmas Eve so hopefully that is the fix...