GT parts advice for a beginner please.........

Sir Dubalot

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, I've joined as I've found myself spending more and more time on my mountain bike and I'm now at a point where its just become part of my life.

I have a GT Avalanche and as I've done quite some miles on it now I wondered if its worth upgrading the parts on it, over the past few months gear changes are iffy to say the least, so my thoughts are that is it possible to replace the front and rear derailleur, if this is recommended I have no idea what to replace them with so if anyone can advise me what would be a good replacement as there seems to be a mass of different types and even if this is a good idea I would be very grateful.

I'm pretty much a beginner so any help is appreciated, many thanks in advance.

Willy....--

cooldad

Have you replaced the cables?

mrmonkfinger

cooldad wrote:

Have you replaced the cables?

or cleaned the existing ones?

Sir Dubalot

cooldad wrote:

Have you replaced the cables?

Hi thanks for the reply, I have replaced the cables and did set up, I did some research on YouTube to set the gears up and believe I have done it correctly.

I'm not really sure on the quality of the standard parts on the bike, o I thought maybe replacing them may improve the gear changes.

Sir Dubalot

mrmonkfinger wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Have you replaced the cables?

or cleaned the existing ones?

Hi, thanks for your reply, I did grease the cables when I replaced them, hope that was the correct thing to do. I'm on a bit of a steep learning curve.

The Rookie

Grease can make it worse by collecting muck or thickening, a light lube oil is all I ever use.

The Avalanches all come with competant components so if you're having issues they are either worn out (unlikley) or not set up right.....

Best to describe the exact issues and then get a reply to those, the very best components work no better if poorly set up.

Sir Dubalot

Sometimes when changing gear the chain gets stuck and then the rear derailleur moves up and fouls with the frame.

Additionally the chain when not under tension rests on the front mesh, when pedaling the chain rattles against the mech too.

Many thanks.

Willy.....

cooldad

Sounds more like set up/adjustment issues (or n on issues) to me - new bits will not solve.

The Rookie

Each issue in turn.....
Could the chain have a stiff link? What gears changing from/to when it does this.

What gears front and rear are you in when the chain is sitting on the front mech lower element? Have you checked the chain length, what is the mech clearance to the largest chainring (see Shimano tech docs).