gears !!! what am i doing wrong

goldenbolux

i would be grateful of any help as this is now doing my head in .

went to the lakes this week with the family, i tool my merida cyclocross the rest of the family took mountain bikes.
we took two cars and had all of the bikes in one car with the front wheels removed

had a great time , i had to make slight adjustments to my rear derailleur low limit stop as i could hear a tiny amount of spoke rub in low gear and didn't want a disaster whilst out and about

anyway to cut a long story short for reasons no one knows we couldn't get the bikes to fit back in the car nicely as they had been on the way there (even though i took photos !!), so took my back wheel off mine and sat mine on top. frame and wheels separately

came home , put pedal and all wheels back on etc and now my merida doesn't index through the gears properly.

i have tried adjusting, this didnt work . tried starting from scratch again this doesn't work either, reset high and low stops on my stand with cable detached. then reattaching and trying again

i get to the point where it is set perfectly to index up but then wont come back down from high gear to low correctly, and never the twain shall meet.

looked at all you tube videos and non seem to have an answer they all just say adjust slightly till you get the sweet spot.

the cables are quite new as had them replaced not to long ago after someone knocked me off.

with the cable detached whilst setting up the high and low stops the derailleur moves freely down the gears to the low gear , everything is clean and well lubed up.

any ideas or hints etc would be greatly appreciated

figbat

Have you put a kink in the cable somewhere? Are the cables sitting nicely in the various frame stops?

goldenbolux

no everything seems fine. all cables seem to sit fine .
when i had it detached to set up high and low limits properly . i tried the changing up and down whilst holding the inner cable and it seems to move lovely

scottishgeek

goldenbolux wrote:

i had to make slight adjustments to my rear derailleur low limit stop as i could hear a tiny amount of spoke rub in low gear and didn't want a disaster whilst out and about

Sounds to me like your hanger got bent slightly on your outward journey. How was the rear mech sitting on the way back in the car?

I'd start by checking hanger alignment.

ElectronShepherd

goldenbolux wrote:

i could hear a tiny amount of spoke rub in low gear

goldenbolux wrote:

someone knocked me off ... not too long ago

Those two both point to a probably bent rear derailleur hanger.

goldenbolux wrote:

sat mine on top. frame and wheels separately

Even if it was straight before, it could easily have been bent while travelling.

goldenbolux

i will have a look and see what the hanger is like , it was all replaced after i got knocked off .
frame sat on top hanger side up on way back but will give it a look tmw night when i get in from work.
at least its something to look at
thanks

keef66

Bent hangers don't always look obviously bent to the naked eye. I bought a hanger alignment tool and found both mine to be quite a long way out.

mfin

Careful using hanger alignment tools while on some carbon frames.

keef66

mfin wrote:

Careful using hanger alignment tools while on some carbon frames.

I am very careful with both carbon and alu frames! It is however surprisingly easy to bend the hanger. Which also probably explains how a small knock is able to bend them out of alignment too.