Gear alignment woes - buy an alignment tool?

craker
craker Posts: 1,739
edited October 2013 in Workshop
I've just replaced the hanger and I still can't get my rear gears indexed. I've tried three different mechs too (none of them new). It's an alu. road frame with 9 speed shifters.

So I've got three or four choices
- Take it to a shop (£££ ?)
- Buy the cheapie alignment tool from bikediscount (£22) and do the alignment myself
- Buy a new mech. (£23 for a Sora)
- Build up a frame that's in my shed waiting for a rainy day. (Bit drastic this one).

Any opinions?

Ta.

Comments

  • ashleydwsmith
    ashleydwsmith Posts: 693
    Persevere or shop.
    New hanger and mech mean its not alignment surely.
    Cables new? Not sticking in outers or frame?
    Tension on cable's?
  • Dazza
    Dazza Posts: 7
    Replace cables and outers. Go cheap first.
    I\'m only wearing black until they invent a darker colour
  • montyburns56
    montyburns56 Posts: 70
    Do the dérailleurs look as if they are aligned correctly with the sprockets when they are fitted to the bike?
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    Check the hanger mating surface. I had a frame with a lump on it there once; took me ages to find it.
    - - - - - - - - - -
    On Strava.{/url}
  • Mister Jolly
    Mister Jolly Posts: 1
    I had a similar problem and found that manually aligning the gear hanger got it right, after aligning it with the proper tool hadn't been successful.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    After trying different mechs and hangers I'd be inclined to suspect a cable or shifter problem.

    Last time my gears wouldn't index properly it was because the inner cable was fraying inside the shifter. Quick and easy to fix if you catch it in time.
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    Cheers. I changed the frame in the end and it's running beautifully. Makes me wonder whether the original frame (bought off here for a meagre sum) had been pranged. I'd certainly pranged it quite heavily...
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    ashleydwsmith wrote:
    New hanger and mech mean its not alignment surely.

    Could be a slight frame bend.
    I say get an alighment gage on it before you do anything else. Doesn't make much sense to keep buying things that may or may not work without first checking to see if somethings bent.
  • crankycrank
    crankycrank Posts: 1,830
    Buy the tool. I own one and use it more than I could have ever imagined. Four new bikes I've purchased needed a slight alignment plus I've lost track of all the friends and neighbors bikes I've checked and corrected from crashes and tip overs.

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