Noisy gears

mrbubbaman

I've got a Boardman Road Race from Halford's and I've only had it since end of December. I've noticed on rides that when I'm on the big cog at the front and the smallest at the rear, I get noise from the chain as if it is catching on something. Is this normal? Is obviously not a top end bike, but I thought it would be quieter.
Are you supposed to even use those cogs together?
I'm just panicked that there may be an issue with my new expensive (to me) bike

On the odd occasion today, when using that gear, the bike changed down and then back up again when I hit a bump.

Apologies if this is a really dumb question

Inutero

If you've only just got it, it will still be under warranty. Take it back to halfords

rich164h

It's almost certainly just the cables stretching a bit which has the result of gears being put out of adjustment. It happens with all new bikes and is why most bike shops throw in a free service after the first month or so. A quick adjustment to the cable should bring it all back in line again. If your unsure about what to do look up how to do this on the park tools site or YouTube. Alternatively pop into your local bike shop and get them to do it. They'll probably do it for free to be honest as it only take a few seconds.

schweiz

You just need to re-index your rear derailleur slightly. By rotating the barrel adjuster which is located on the rear derailleur, you can increase or decrease cable tension. Rotate it a quarter/half turn in either direction. If the noise gets louder then rotate it back to the start position and then a quarter/half turn in the other direction.

mrbubbaman

Cheers for the reassurance, I got an email the other day about the free service, so I'll drop it in to them.

simon_masterson

It could be your front derailleur as well as the suggestions above, but let the shop deal with it. In order to maintain a clean chainline you need to trim your front derailleur as you ride anyway; you will learn in time to do this.

Gizmodo

The service at Halfords can be mixed. Some stores have experienced mechanics who can do a decent job, others only have inexperienced junior staff.

In the long term, you should learn to do it yourself:
How to adjust a rear derailleur
How to adjust a front derailleur

jane90

I also thoroughly recommend Youtube as somewhere to learn how to do all this yourself. After just half an hour or so, you should be able to fix any problems quite easily. None of it is exactly rocket science, I was actually very pleasantly surprised and if someone as mechanically inept as me can do it, then anyone can, I promise you. I had the same problems you did with my gears but after a quick half-hour on Youtube I was able to adjust the derailleurs and the cable tension. Not only have all the noises disappeared but the shifting is so much slicker and with less effort required.

mrbubbaman

It's going in on Friday for its free service, so I'll get them to check the gears whilst it's there. I'll end up attempting most stuff myself from then on, unless it needs some warranty work.

Thanks

p1tse

My new bike is like that on some gears and can't get to highest gear
In for it 6 weeks service and mentioned the latter but not the noisy gears hope they pick it up tomorrow

mactedder

I adjusted mine yesterday after watch YouTube videos. Very useful.

However I do still get a rubbing on my front derailleur when in smallest cogs front and back. If I adjust the front deraillieur so the rubbing stops then I get rubbing on the derailleur when in the largest gears front and back. Basically when the chain is at its two most angles. Not sure what to do.

Might just get it serviced but thought it would be easy enough to do myself.

Dellsinho

The chain rubbing on the front derailleur is almost inevitable when the chain is in it's most diagonal position. It's not a pleasant noise and it'll wear out your chain and gear teeth faster than normal.

Try using a different gear choice which produces the same ratio.

dai_t75

mactedder wrote:

I adjusted mine yesterday after watch YouTube videos. Very useful.

However I do still get a rubbing on my front derailleur when in smallest cogs front and back. If I adjust the front deraillieur so the rubbing stops then I get rubbing on the derailleur when in the largest gears front and back. Basically when the chain is at its two most angles. Not sure what to do.

Might just get it serviced but thought it would be easy enough to do myself.

This is something I learned fairly quickly from this site - you don't really want to be in the small front/small back. As mentioned above this gives the most diagonal shape for the chain that increases the wear. You won't need this gear either as there is a lot of cross over with the various ratios. For example that may be the same as big front and middle back cog. There is a site that shows you all the ratios - sorry I can't remember what it is, but sure someone on here can link it!

Dellsinho

See this for reference:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gain.html

For example, a 39/14 is the same as a 53/19, but this is not obvious.

etc

And this for working out a different combo:

http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_ratios

southdownswolf

OP says that he is in biggest at the front and smallest at the rear, so going to be hard to find another ratio that is similar.....

Gizmodo

southdownswolf wrote:

OP says that he is in biggest at the front and smallest at the rear, so going to be hard to find another ratio that is similar.....

That is true, but they weren't replying to the OP, the thread had gone off topic and they were replying to this one:

mactedder wrote:

I adjusted mine yesterday after watch YouTube videos. Very useful.

However I do still get a rubbing on my front derailleur when in smallest cogs front and back. If I adjust the front deraillieur so the rubbing stops then I get rubbing on the derailleur when in the largest gears front and back. Basically when the chain is at its two most angles. Not sure what to do.

Might just get it serviced but thought it would be easy enough to do myself.

t4tomo

mactedder wrote:

However I do still get a rubbing on my front derailleur when in smallest cogs front and back. If I adjust the front deraillieur so the rubbing stops then I get rubbing on the derailleur when in the largest gears front and back. Basically when the chain is at its two most angles. Not sure what to do.
.

Don't ride in either of these gear combo's.

Basically if you are on the big ring and you are getting towards the bigger third of cogs on your deraileur and you need a lower gear, then change to the small chain ring, and vice versa. Use the smaller rear egars with the large chainring and the larger rear gears with the smaller chainring.

Cross chaining just wears your drive train out prematurely.

mrbubbaman

Took it in today and they adjusted the derailleur for me so hopefully it will be better tomorrow on my ride.
Service was good, but the head honchos were there sorting out the Pinarello display ready for the launch later in the month, which may explain the extra attention I received

mrbubbaman

Still not 100% sorted so will have a go at adjusting it myself (it's better but still can't go on the last gear)

mrbubbaman

Well the noise was continuing and the wife wasn't happy about me doing some diy on the bike and so I took it back to Halfords again. I certainly won't be using them again after today, they looked at the bike and the manager said there's nothing mechanically wrong with the gears as they go up and down with ease and that I should expect a bit of noise due to the extra speed I'm doing!
Now even I know he was talking bollocks.

I've watched half a dozen videos on YouTube, but my two screws don't have an L or an H next to them, so it's been a bit of guess work for me. I've now adjusted it a bit and hopefully it will be fine.... Fingers crossed!
With it on the turbo trainer I can't hear any noise in the highest gear anymore, but I get a slight noise when I go further down the cogs

CiB

mrbubbaman wrote:

my two screws don't have an L or an H next to them, so it's been a bit of guess work for me.

Best not to touch those. The limit screws don't have much of an effect on noise through the gears and if you mess it up you either get the chain between frame & wheel, or worse rear mech in spokes.

Have another go to make sure the end stops are right, then concentrate on the gears dropping all the way to the smallest cog smoothly, then on hitting the biggest without hitting the spokes. Once you have your upper & lower sorted it just needs fine adjustment - work your way to a middle gear and adjust the rear and / or the front adjusters a bit at a time until it's smooth. Test it by riding it back the Halfords branch and explaining to that manager what a complete prat he is.

The front mech will always make a bit of noise unless you adjust (trim) it as it can't be all things to all men all the time, so if you're in a smaller gear at the back you need to ease it left a bit and vice versa for higher gears. It becomes an automatic reaction when changing gears.