erina2

Hi,

I'm converting a vintage Nishiki Prestige to 10 speed with parts I got from Performance clearance sale. I have a set of older Shimano STI 10 speed shifters, new 10sp cassette, 10sp chain, used but ok condition 10sp front chain rings and a Shimano 9 speed long cage rear derailleur.

Everything is installed and working ok (rode 20 miles on it yesterday) but I'm having trouble getting the shifting just right. A little worried the 9 speed derailleur isn't playing well with 10sp drive train but I've read on here that it should work. I can get "sets" of gears working, like the first and last 3 but not the middle, or the middle but not the first three, etc.

This is my first bike build and first time dealing with a higher speed drivetrain so maybe there is something I'm overlooking or a method I don't know? Suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

andrewclaus

How did the rear hub fit? Did you have to spread the dropouts? If so, did you realign the derailleur hanger?

alcjphil

Which exact model 10 speed shifters did you buy? Tiagra 4700 10 speed shifters for example will not work properly with any 9 or 10 speed derailleur other than Tiagra 4700

HillRider

A 9-speed Shimano rear derailleur will work fine with any Shimano 10-speed road shifter except Tiagra 4700. I'm currently using an Ultegra RD-6500 GS rear derailleur (9-speed group) with a Shimano 10-speed shifter, cassette and chain and it works perfectly.

I expect yours is an adjustment issue and I recommend starting the rear shifting set-up from scratch. Disconnect the shift cable at the rear derailleur, set the limit screws properly, shift the shifter to the smallest cog position, reattach the cable and adjust the cable tension until it shifts properly all across the cassette.

One more thought, is your cassette firmly fastened to the freehub body, i.e. does the lockring clamp it firmly? If you left out the required 1 mm spacer behind the cassette it won't be locked in place properly and shifting will suffer.

dsbrantjr

What is the condition of the shift cable and housing, especially the lower loop going to the rear derailleur? High cog count systems are sensitive to cable friction.

bikemike73 

Does the chain have any " kinks" in it ?

Or places that are " frozen "...hard to bend ?

oldbobcat

I'm not seeing any reply to this very pertinent question. If you spread the rear end from 120 or 126 mm to 130 mm, the dropouts will be out of parallel. They need to be realigned, mainly to eliminate bending stress on the rear axle, and secondarily, to get the derailleur hanger reasonably in line. After aligning the dropouts, the wheel should be installed and the hanger aligned using the derailleur hanger alignment tool, to ensure proper indexing.

erina2

Thanks everyone. I MAY have found the problem - I had the downtube housing stops installed backwards resulting in a bend in the cable! I also didn't replace the lower loop of shifter cable so I will do that as well.

The hub was a tight fit, but I didn't have to cold-set the frame and the derailleur hanger and dropout on cassette side look parallel. Non drive side dropout might be a bit off.

Shifters are Ultegra 6600, old but functional.

Kapusta

”Looks” parallel means almost nothing. Once you get up into 10 speed, alignment is very important, and there is no way in hell you can eyeball it.

Check the derailleur hangar alignment with a alignment tool.

Go ahead and deal with the issues you mention, but if that does not fix it, invest in an alignment tool before spending money on anything else.

erina2

Thanks again everyone, it seems to be working ok now. I'll definitely see if I can borrow an alignment tool anyway to check that. In case anyone else has this problem, one thing that helped was ziptie-ing the cable at the point where it leaves the frame for the rear bit of cable housing. It was bending pretty hard on its own which I guess didn't matter so much in the 80's.