Rear derailleur fettling frequency

davidwilcock

Hi

How often would you need to adjust your rear derailleur typically? Every 100 miles I get a clicking noise from it, then some chain slip and imprecise shifts. I'm on sora if that changes things. The main frustration is that visually it seems to be in good alignment but when riding, its clear its not right. This makes adjustment a bit of a trial an error process. Once its perfect, 100 or so miles later its back to the same problem

Does quality of groupset make a difference to how often you have to tinker with it?

Thanks
David

alihisgreat

I use 105 and can't remember the last time I touched it? Think I tightened the barrel adjuster a bit? on a new bike you're going to be fiddling for a while due to cable stretch.. but my 6000 mile old cables obviously don't have that problem.

joshlg103

if it's happening that often and you can't seem to find anything specifically wrong with your mech the problem could be down to a build up of dirt mainly in your cassette but also on your chain and jockey wheels. try giving your cassette a good deep clean and degreasing your chain and re-lubing it.

sungod

sora should be just as reliable as more expensive models

remove the rear wheel and check that the rear mech hanger isn't loose, just see if you can wiggle the rear mech

if the shifting problem is when going from larger to smaller sprockets, dirty/worn cable/outer can cause this

if you're having to repeatedly turn the barrel adjuster to increase tension (turning it anticlockwise) check for...

loose cable clamp on the rear mech

if there's an adjuster on the downtube, is it rotating a bit from road vibration, make a mark with a pen so you can check

is it a new bike or have the cables/outers been changed recently? it takes a while for all the ferrules to fully seat, this causes a slight loss of cable tension

loose/damaged cable stop