Front derailleur cable maintenence

bsharp77

Hi guys,

Shifting to the big ring on the front has became very heavy in the last few days on the commuter bike - to the point where it hurts my wrist to do it! (Boardman Team bike, Shimano 105 10 speed gear system).

Just wanted some advice on how or what to do to service it? I don't want to bring it back to the LBS just for this - and would be good to know for future repairs.
Ive had a look on the park website and a few youtube videos, but they all seem to cover installing a new cable.

Could I just lube the cable to hopefully smooth out any gunk (and if so where exactly do i lube?), or as mentioned on some sites, newer type cables should not need lubed - you have to replace the cable??

Sorry for asking what im sure is a maintenance 101 question - im just terrible at all this stuff, but hoping to get a lot better this year - call it a new years resolution!

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips.

keef66

If the front mech is requiring more effort to shift it's more likely the mech itself that's becoming stiff. Easier to clean and lube if you take it off the bike. Give it a good clean and lube all the pivot points in the parallelogram, working it back and forth through it's entire range of movement. Only reinstall it once it's moving freely.

While the cable is detached you could take the opportunity to drip a few drops of oil onto the inner wire and lift it up so they run down into the cable outer.

Consult Park Tools website or Shimano Tech Docs for instructions regarding reattaching the cable and setting up the mech from scratch.

freezing77

keef66 wrote:

If the front mech is requiring more effort to shift it's more likely the mech itself that's becoming stiff. Easier to clean and lube if you take it off the bike. Give it a good clean and lube all the pivot points in the parallelogram, working it back and forth through it's entire range of movement. Only reinstall it once it's moving freely.

While the cable is detached you could take the opportunity to drip a few drops of oil onto the inner wire and lift it up so they run down into the cable outer.

Consult Park Tools website or Shimano Tech Docs for instructions regarding reattaching the cable and setting up the mech from scratch.

I would concur that it is most likely the mech itself.

bsharp77

Thanks a lot for all the info keef66 -I appreciate the detailed response.

Sounds like a weekend job for me - just hope i can put it all back together again - ill study the websites you mentioned and hopefully all will be ok!

wishitwasallflat

+1 if its that stiff it's probably the mech itself gunged up, could be cables as well but as stiff as it sounds mainly the mech.

crankycrank

Try to isolate the problem by undoing the cable at the mech and moving it by hand. If the mech is OK then pull the cable out of the housing and notice if there is excessive drag while also checking for fraying at the cable end and damage to the housing. If this is working fine then possibly your shifter needs some lube.

bsharp77

Just a quick thanks to everyone that provided info above - it was all very useful and much appreciated.
Finally got a chance to have a look, and to my embarrassment, the front mech was pretty grimed up - serves me right for not maintaining my commuting bike better!
Anyway, after a good clean and a bit of liberal lubing, shifting is now much much better - still not as light as id like, but id say the last 10% is in the cables, which could perhaps be due a change soon anyway.
Thanks as ever to all the helpful forum members..... and I promise to maintain my commuter better from now on!!