Gears

bowdy1987

Is there a reason that my gears end up all over the place every couple of weeks, I have to take my bike to my LBS to get them adjusted every few days.. He tells me it's just crud in my cables but is there a bit more to it?

Slow changing and sometimes having to go down a few gears to come back up if that makes sense.

Also there seems to be a lot of chain rub on the front mech

Aaaargh!

philwint

Probably just old outers and filthy inners to you cables.

But even so adjusting your gears still need doing every month or so as the cable stretches so for gawds sake learn to do it yourself .

Actually replacing the cables (both inner and outer) is only a 10 minute job once you know how. So why not do that at the same time (you will need to buy a decent pair of cable cutters - but that's a good investment)

Getting the LBS to fettle your gears is like taking your car into the garage to top up the oil and put air in the tyres...

ricky1980

You shouldn't need to readjust rear derailleiur that often.

My first bike was like what you described. I think the mech was poor....sora. as well as maybe the mech was going or not indexed properly. Have your crashed the bike such that the RD arm is not running parallel? Or the hanger is bent?

Anyway, try get your LBS to reindex the RD I.e. reset the hi and low screws by loosen the gear cable completely and as if you install the RD from new. That will eliminate the issue with RD. And get a new set of cables installed will help.

Now your FD rubbing is also due to not being setup properly. Get your LbS to sort it out. They shouldn't charge any money for the FD setup but will charge for gear cable setup. So if you change the gear cables then that will include reibdex your FD and RD. So you should be OK. If the problem persists then it may be down to free hub .

FatTed

philwint wrote:

Getting the LBS to fettle your gears is like taking your car into the garage to top up the oil and put air in the tyres...

whats wrong with that?

Yossie

Ignore Phil's rant above - very unhelpful. Something from the communter section I believe.

In the winter gear swill need a bit of TLC as compared to the summer/spring - its just because of the conditions you are riding in and all the crud thats being thrown about getting everywhere.

Just make sure that you give the chain/cassette a good degrease, clean and oil once a week (5 minute job) and make sure that the cables are clean where you can see them.

If everything is clean and nicely oiled it'll also work slicker and smoother.

I tend to change cables at the end of the winter on the winter bike before its popped away for the rest of the year and may need to give the gears a tweak (as in a couple of turns of the barrel adjuster) once every 6 weeks or so during the winter.

As for the front mech, put the chain on the lowest ring. On the mech are two screws - one moves the cage up, one down. just have a twiddle with these until the cage doesn't rub anymore. As you an only move the cage up and down you can't hash it up too badly.

As an aside - there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with taking your bike to the shop to get gears fettled etc - ok, great if you can do it at home but no biggie if you can't.

zx6man

My take, my gears rarely need adjusting on either road or MTB, must be something that needs replacing.

smidsy

Symptoms seem consistent with cable tension/restiction, so crud is possible. Do you ride on dirt tracks or just normal tarmac?

Once you set the mechs there should be no need to adjust them (unless you knock them) and most gear change woes should be fixable with cable tension adjustment. This is often a simple case of a few turns of the barrel adjuster on the rear mech (assuming yours has one).

What positons are you in on front/back when you experience the chain rub?

Cross-chaining will often resort in rub regardless of adjustment, so do not touch the screws if you are cross chaining..

philwint

@ FatTed - ok I phrased that wrong. While you might reasonably take your car to the garage to have the oil topped up. If you were out driving and the oil light came on I'd expect that we could all pull into a petrol station, buy some oil and top it up ourselves. Fettling you mech is jsut something all cyclists should be able to do - what happens if you take a knock while you are out on a ride, or if the cable goes just far enough out to mess up your indexing?

@Yossie - I assume you mean another Phil as my post was good advice. Your maintenance advice is also good. But what the OP describes suggests to me that some more proactive maintenance (new cables) is probably in order.

@Smidsy - exactly. By fettling I meant cable adjustment, not setting the limit or B adjust screw (though i do think the OP would be well advised to learn how to do that as well)

wishitwasallflat

I'm with Phil on this - fettling gears is such a regular thing you have to do that it really is wise to learn to do it yourself. I had a year or so of paying lbs £10 odds everytime before I taught myself how to do it by - u-tube vids, Sheldon, Park web site and advice and reading here and it was such a wise thing to do. I know my bike better and have also made it home after mechanicals on route a few times because of that.

I also invested in Park cable cutters and am very happy to be able change cables myself.

It really makes sense to DIY this type of job IMO - IME no one else will put the time and care into your bike that you will.

bowdy1987

Thanks for the replies, ill try to reply to all of you within this one post..

Phil, yeah I'm wanting to learn how to see the gears etc but I'm quite new to cycling tbh

I ride a CUBE CX bike to work, it's my one and only steed, it has slicks and I only use it on Tarmac (but in all weathers) it has brand new ultegra front and rear mechs and I've just added some FSA K-Force chain rings. Since then I've been experiencing the chain rub on the front mech. And no, I don't cross chain.

I'm in the market for a decent 'proper' road frame for summer use so I can start a project for a summer bike too.

I've now had the cables changed and it all seems ok so it must have been purely sh*te that was inside the cable housings.

I suppose I'm gonna have to be a bit less relaxed on the cleanliness as tbh I just get on and go to work and only oil/clean once every blue moon

Thanks for all the replies

Bowdy