Sram Rival shifting

chatlow

Hi all - just got another bike and it comes with SRAM Rival 11 speed which I have gotten used to but I'm struggling to dial in the left shifter to get a smooth gear change from small to big ring.

I have followed the 'indexing' videos online so the white marks line up against the big ring, and the limit screws seem okay. Problem is that without tightening the cable quite a lot and really forcing the shifter inwards, the FD fails to move the chain to the big ring. It now needs quite some force to shift over and a big clunk when going back down to the small ring again. If I shifter it to the point where it 'clicks' and the marks line up, then it's not far enough and the chain doesn't shift, I need to shift it a little further over for a gear change.

My Shimano setups have never been this hard.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

StillGoing

SRAM mechanical front shifting isn't as slick as Shimano. I've had SRAM Red, Force and Rival on my bikes and all have been stiff or clunky to change on the front compared to Shimano. The Rival set up on my winter trainer now has an in line barrel adjuster for the front derailleur. After setting up the front with the barrel adjuster fully extended, I can dial a little of the tension out to minimise the clunkiness without losing the ability to change rings. You do need to be as close as possible to the derailleur inside when setting the L limit, attach the cable and just keep dealing out a tiny bit of adjustment for the H limit until you can get the derailleur to change rings.

chatlow

thanks for that - I have set the L limit to around 1mm away and I'm playing around with both cable tension and the H limit to try and get perfect shifting. I guess it's good to know it's not my setup and SRAM is general tighter/clunkier to shift at the front!

Ben6899

Not wanting to muddy the waters, but my SRAM Red shifts fine. This is the 10spd "yaw" front mech (with Rotor 3D rings).

mfin

philthy3 wrote:

SRAM mechanical front shifting isn't as slick as Shimano. I've had SRAM Red, Force and Rival on my bikes and all have been stiff or clunky to change on the front compared to Shimano.

You've either been unlucky or the setup has been wrong in some way. I've ridden many groupsets from all the main 3. I've run two generations of Sram Red and have run Sram Rival, all of which I've installed myself and the front ring shifting has been extremely quick and 100% reliable on all of them. I've never had a hint of compromised shifting from Red front mechs that some people mention either, everything always instant and perfect.

chatlow

mfin wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

SRAM mechanical front shifting isn't as slick as Shimano. I've had SRAM Red, Force and Rival on my bikes and all have been stiff or clunky to change on the front compared to Shimano.

You've either been unlucky or the setup has been wrong in some way. I've ridden many groupsets from all the main 3. I've run two generations of Sram Red and have run Sram Rival, all of which I've installed myself and the front ring shifting has been extremely quick and 100% reliable on all of them. I've never had a hint of compromised shifting from Red front mechs that some people mention either, everything always instant and perfect.

Interested to know how this plays out

I have just added some lube to the FD spring, cable and joints - in hope that it becomes easier to shift. As it stands if i loosen the cable so it's nice and easy to shift then it won't make it from small to big - it seems to need that higher tension

SJH76

Buy eTap. Its flawless

Matthewfalle

running Red and Rival here and both better than Shimano.........

Matthewfalle

how is the cable run - all nice and smooth?

you are running sram cables, yes?

chatlow

Matthewfalle wrote:

how is the cable run - all nice and smooth?

you are running sram cables, yes?

yeah for my setup - with the cable loosened it runs smooth. Are you saying that gear change from small to big ring is just as easy as Shimano then?

Ben6899

chatlow wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

how is the cable run - all nice and smooth?

you are running sram cables, yes?

yeah for my setup - with the cable loosened it runs smooth. Are you saying that gear change from small to big ring is just as easy as Shimano then?

I genuinely think it's easier than Shimano. I run DA on one bike and Red on another. The Red is a better front shift.

Matthewfalle

Ben6899 wrote:

chatlow wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

how is the cable run - all nice and smooth?

you are running sram cables, yes?

yeah for my setup - with the cable loosened it runs smooth. Are you saying that gear change from small to big ring is just as easy as Shimano then?

I genuinely think it's easier than Shimano. I run DA on one bike and Red on another. The Red is a better front shift.

This exactly. Smoother and nicer and more precise. MF runs Red, Dura Ace, Rival and Ultegra - Red and Rival are so much nicer than the other two.

Is the cable running the right way round to the clamping bolt?

Matthewfalle

Can you post a picture of the cable run and where it enters the clamping bolt so MF and the others on here can have a look please.

chatlow

Matthewfalle wrote:

Can you post a picture of the cable run and where it enters the clamping bolt so MF and the others on here can have a look please.

no it's not wrapped around the bolt, but held in vertical position.

kingdav

I think the problem is right there - hard to see for sure on the picture, I can sympathise if you've had the cable clamped and unclamped multiple times, but it looks like you've been practising knitting with it now unfortunately, but that's not the main problem.

The cable must be routed over the 'lug' before it's clamped to give you the right leverage to move the mech. I'll try and find a picture to illustrate it.

chatlow

kingdav wrote:

I think the problem is right there - hard to see for sure on the picture, I can sympathise if you've had the cable clamped and unclamped multiple times, but it looks like you've been practising knitting with it now unfortunately, but that's not the main problem.

The cable must be routed over the 'lug' before it's clamped to give you the right leverage to move the mech. I'll try and find a picture to illustrate it.

Ha, yeah, it's not in the best shape - the previous owner must have also had similar issues and tried a few times too.

Okay, will try wrapping it over the bolt and tightening and if no good still - then may just grab a new cable

kingdav

See just above the '14' there is a little bump, the cable MUST be pulled over that before it is clamped under the nut.

I have 3 sram based road bikes. 1x apex1 (so that doesn't count today). 1 x Red10sp shifters/front mech/force22 at the rear. 1 x apex 10sp shifters, force22 front mech, rival22 wifly at the rear. All shift nicely and I'm happy to have moved away from shimano. I hope you enjoy yaw front shifting in the end, I do!

paulbnix

My last bike had SRAM Apex and I went through a period of heavy shifting on the FD until I got the HL and cable tension right.
I've recently changed to SRAM Rival 11s and the front shifting is much better - very light action and always accurate.

chatlow

this is really annoying.. i have completely trimmed the lot again and anchored the cable fully around and over the stub. It seems to shift fine if i push the shifter all the way across (and push through the click), however it doesn't quite reach the big ring if i stop on the click - especially when on the bigger cogs at the back! I can fix this by adding more tension, but then there's slight rubbing against the FD when in the biggest cassette at the back and small ring - and the limit screw is all out so it doesn't seem to move away when adjusting.

It's also still nowhere near as easy to shift as my 5800 setup, but a bit better

StillGoing

chatlow wrote:

this is really annoying.. i have completely trimmed the lot again and anchored the cable fully around and over the stub. It seems to shift fine if i push the shifter all the way across (and push through the click), however it doesn't quite reach the big ring if i stop on the click - especially when on the bigger cogs at the back! I can fix this by adding more tension, but then there's slight rubbing against the FD when in the biggest cassette at the back and small ring - and the limit screw is all out so it doesn't seem to move away when adjusting.

It's also still nowhere near as easy to shift as my 5800 setup, but a bit better

I've built up plenty of bikes with Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo. Nothing shifts as nice as Shimano on the front. I can get SRAM to change just fine, but in no way does it compare to the ease of Shimano and I'm a big SRAM fan before moving to Di2.

kingdav

Are you following the SRAM instructions to the letter?
The front mech comes with the lower limit screw forcing the cage out to the big ring where you align it.

https://www.sram.com/sites/default/file ... lleurs.pdf

Matthewfalle

spot on adice from kingdav - het.

first thing mf would do is change that cable then follow kingdav's advice.

chatlow

bought a replacement cable yesterday and on the way back home it started to miss the the big ring again, so I just turned the H limit screw out a little more (I thought it was perfect before throwing the chain) and angrily just adjusted the tension again and it then felt great. much easier to change and every time, fine. Typical, but I will see how it goes over the next few days before replacing the cable.

Thanks all

chatlow

well, I now have a spare cable because shifting seems perfect and a lot easier. Thanks for the 'anchoring' cable advice!

Cheers