new bike slipping gears
duncanjohnston66
Posts: 31
just got new bike from halfords gears jumping allover the place is it a simple fix ? 
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yes, usually0
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Yes. Here you are Halfords, its running like crap and you need to sort it as I paid you good money for it. The effectiveness of their attempts however may mean you end up taking it to a proper LBS.
However you need to learn to tweak such things yourself too, so youtube and Park Tools website are good sources of info. It is probably just cable tension that needs adjusting.
You do not say where you are but if you are local to Loughborough I will be happy to look at it if Halfords won't/don't/make it worse.Yellow is the new Black.0 -
smidsy wrote:Yes. Here you are Halfords, its running like crap and you need to sort it as I paid you good money for it. The effectiveness of their attempts however may mean you end up taking it to a proper LBS.
However you need to learn to tweak such things yourself too, so youtube and Park Tools website are good sources of info. It is probably just cable tension that needs adjusting.
You do not say where you are but if you are local to Loughborough I will be happy to look at it if Halfords won't/don't/make it worse.
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Need to learn to do this yourself. Even if it was set up perfect in store, Cable stretch will make it bad again soon anyway. Its a very simple thing to do and all you need is a screwdriver and an alan key, and a means of elevating the wheel off the ground (preferably not by putting it on its saddle) Once your gears are set correct most slight adjustments can be made with the barrel adjusters.0 -
If you are in Somerset I'll make food afterwards0
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Isnt this the very reason most shops provide a 6 week service free of charge ?
Cable stretch,it happens to the best of us.Cervelo S5 Ultegra Di2.0 -
upperoilcan wrote:Isnt this the very reason most shops provide a 6 week service free of charge ?
Cable stretch,it happens to the best of us.
As someone who does all their own maintenance I would check things like this before I go out on a ride. If I had to rely on a shop to service it every time something went out of tune I would never get any riding done. Sure a shop can give a 6 week service free but then what happens after that? cables don't stop stretching after 6 weeks. You could put the bike away after a long ride and then next day they are out again. Do you not ride it if you cannot get to the shop first?
I have had gears go out in the middle of a long ride, mostly a turn of a barrel adjuster makes it good again but if you didn't know how to do it are you meant to suffer it until the LBS can take care of it for you?0 -
Luckily for me i have never had any issues other than a puncture with my trusty old steed.
However i have no interest in fixing my own bike,should my bike go wrong then i put it in the shop and pay for it to get fixed.Cervelo S5 Ultegra Di2.0 -
Agreed, or just buy a new one.0
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So I didn't need to buy a new bike and I could have just rotated a barrel adjuster 1 or 2 turns?0
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You need to throw the gears away that came with the bike and buy those electronic Di2 gears as they never need adjusting, and if they do the user guide shows how to do it in 3 easy steps. It's the only way.
What happened to that analogy that used to be kicked about on here occasionally, the one about taking your guitar back to the shop to have it done every time it goes out of tune?
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Don't make it out to be difficult. As long as you have opposable thumbs gear-change nirvana is usually achieved by quarter turns of the rear mech thumb adjuster for coarse adjustment, and the same on the in-line front adjusters for fine tweaking. Best not to go near it with a screwdriver as that implies altering the high & low limits, and that's really not a good plan, esp for people who have already confessed to not knowing what they're doing.SmoggySteve wrote:all you need is a screwdriver and an alan key
Try turning the adjusters a bit at at time. If it makes it worse try turning them the other way. If you really can't fathom the relationship between a lever at one end, a spring-loaded parallelogram at the other and the tension of the cable that links them, resort to Youtube.0 -
CiB wrote:
Don't make it out to be difficult. As long as you have opposable thumbs gear-change nirvana is usually achieved by quarter turns of the rear mech thumb adjuster for coarse adjustment, and the same on the in-line front adjusters for fine tweaking. Best not to go near it with a screwdriver as that implies altering the high & low limits, and that's really not a good plan, esp for people who have already confessed to not knowing what they're doing.SmoggySteve wrote:all you need is a screwdriver and an alan key
Try turning the adjusters a bit at at time. If it makes it worse try turning them the other way. If you really can't fathom the relationship between a lever at one end, a spring-loaded parallelogram at the other and the tension of the cable that links them, resort to Youtube.
Sorry I didn't realise a screwdriver was considered an uber-technical piece of equipment that is extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. If you are going to learn to do gears yourself best learn properly and not half-arsed. Thats where the problems can begin.0 -
"...all you need is a screwdriver"
Last thing you need for sorting gears.0 -
So, have you been to every halfords store in Uk to come up with the aboce conclusion? Also I guess you have visited every LBS to audit their mechanical skills to ensure they meet your standards?smidsy wrote:Yes. Here you are Halfords, its running like crap and you need to sort it as I paid you good money for it. The effectiveness of their attempts however may mean you end up taking it to a proper LBS.
However you need to learn to tweak such things yourself too, so youtube and Park Tools website are good sources of info. It is probably just cable tension that needs adjusting.
You do not say where you are but if you are local to Loughborough I will be happy to look at it if Halfords won't/don't/make it worse.
There will be bad expereinces and good in both and the OP needs to learn how to resolve such basic issues and learn how to adjust tension and gear adjustments as you cannot always be close to a store when crap happens.0 -
Woodywmb wrote:"...all you need is a screwdriver"
Last thing you need for sorting gears.
So when his chain starts getting thrown off the cassette how many barrel adustments will it take to resolve? When you want to change the cassette over and its of a different alignment? If you keep going to you LBS every time you need to tweek something you are just throwing money away that could be better spent elsewhere.0 -
OP started off by saying his gears were jumping all over the place, which suggests that the problem isn't with the end stops it's with the indexing, which is resolved by coarse & fine adjustments. Suggesting to the inexperienced that they start adjusting things with a screwdriver is not likely to end with the situation being better than it was when he started.
Sort out the indexing first. When it's time to start swapping cassettes and rings we'll deal with that.0 -
Lets be honest you have been going on about cable stretrch too,and thats cobblers, the cables do not stretch, they will settle initially and then thats it, after then the only apparent elongation will be caused by wear on the outers. Its not stretch its just the ferrules etc settling into place. You really think a bicycle gear change system generates enough force to stretch that steel cable, what branch of the army you in, the pioneers? Stick to digging latrinesSmoggySteve wrote:Woodywmb wrote:"...all you need is a screwdriver"
Last thing you need for sorting gears.
So when his chain starts getting thrown off the cassette how many barrel adustments will it take to resolve? When you want to change the cassette over and its of a different alignment? If you keep going to you LBS every time you need to tweek something you are just throwing money away that could be better spent elsewhere.0 -
A gear under tension will actually. the constant slacking off and pulling tight again as you go through the gears will make this happen. After all its only a piece of woven steel wire. I suppose chains don't stretch in your world either. And they are a damn sight thicker metal than a wire.
To reiterate, I was not suggesting that in this exact case the OP needs to start adjusting every screw on the derailleurs . I was suggesting that he learns to understand how it works and knows how to maintain it himself. Even so, adjusting the range screws to prevent a chain moving off the cassette is not that technical. Quite frankly by suggesting he OP stays away from this I think it's quite insulting to his intelligence. Maybe a few people have to realise this is a basic piece of machinery and not rocket science. So to burst some people's bubbles on here, get over yourselves, fixing a bike is a piece of p1ss. I was fixing bikes when I was a school kid. So an adult with half a brain can figure it out.0 -
SmoggySteve wrote:A gear under tension will actually. the constant slacking off and pulling tight again as you go through the gears will make this happen. After all its only a piece of woven steel wire. I suppose chains don't stretch in your world either. And they are a damn sight thicker metal than a wire.
Sorry - going OT, but chain 'stretch' is nothing to do with the plates actually stretching. Each one of the roller bushes will wear a tiny fraction of a mm and with 100-odd of them in the drive train, the chain will 'stretch' because of this wear (and not the plates physically stretching).
Anyway, I do agree that cables do stretch. It's a small amount, but as others have noted, a simple half turn of the barrel is usually all that is required to get things back in line.0 -
thanks for all the help will have a go at barrel adjustment0
