Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

If a bike shop packed it and did not follow instructions, left the rear derailleur on, I suspect hanger.

I suspect you need to have a bike shop straighten the hanger. Where are you? Columbia? Do you know where there is a good bike shop?

Yeah, Colombia. I've seen a couple of shops that look decent and cycling is pretty big here so I reckon I can get someone to try and sort it out if it is a hanger issue. Will just need to figure out the right terminology in Spanish...

With fenders on the bike, it would be hard to see from a photo if it is straight, as you can't see if the derailleur cage is parallel with the wheel. But take some photos anyway, so you can later ask the local bike shop that packed it to cover your costs to get things fixed, etc. I doubt if it would help, but you can try to get some money back. Some small businesses can be really obnoxious if asked to pay for someone else that repaired their mistake. But if they are a good bike shop, they do not want anyone local badmouthing their work, so maybe?

Yeah, I will drop them an email. It was confusing to see the derailleur on after I'd had a long chat with the guy in charge about the pros and cons of taking it off. I'd even taken a video of him reinstalling it so that I knew what to do on the other end. Then found it still on when I unboxed the bike!

LHT has a steel frame and hanger is part of that frame, should be easy for a shop that has an alignment tool to adjust it quickly. But it would take a few minutes for them to remove derailleur, etc., to do that. So, there is some shop labor time.

Yeah that should be okay - just hope I don't have to buy a new derailleur...

There is a tiny chance that the rear derailleur cage is bent instead of the hanger, but that is unlikely. Just mentioning it as a possibility if a bike shop says that the hanger is good.

Yeah I thought about the cage as well: looks okay but like the hanger I don't really trust my assessment.

Originally Posted by saddlesores

1. possible. check that the cable end bushings are properly seated in all the cable stops and shifter & derailler housing, and there are no spots where the housing runs over a bolt head. could also be that the housing wasn't properly seated BEFORE the trip, but now it's correct, so cable might need adjusting.

These look fine.

1a. handlebars were taken off and re-installed. are the bars in the same position as before? could you have mounted the bars at a different angle, putting the shifter in a different position? is the cable housing running the same as before----which side of the head tube did it pass before and now?

Yeah, good questions... I should have taken photographs of the whole setup before having it boxed. I don't think the cables would have run a different way, the handlebars and stem were removed together [I should have been clearer about that] so angle shouldn't be an issue. The stem is positioned with the same number of spacers as before.

1b. did you get a new rear gear cable when you got the other new stuff installed? was the cable end properly seated when the fixing bolt on the derailler was tightened down when adjusted after installing the new parts?

Yeah they put in new cables. I don't know for sure but the guy who did the build itself seemed very experienced so I'd expect him to have gotten that kind of thing right.

2. put your head on the floor behind the bike.......does the derailleur body seem straight? is the body loose? is it tightened down fully to the hanger? did it install easily or did you have to crank the wrench-----any chance you cross-theaded when putting it on? take some photos.

Other than the usual trickiness of putting it on (at least for those of us who don't do this often) it seemed to go on fairly easily. My focus was on getting the screw to impact the hanger at the right point - this was emphasised to me by the mechanic as the thing most people get wrong. The body seems fairly stable and tightened down. The cage definitely isn't bent inwards, which is what I would expect if it had been damaged during transit. I can't be entirely confident it isn't bent outwards, but that would be weird.

2a. when you re-installed the derailleur, you may have accidentally turned the adjuster barrel where the cable housing fits.

I don't think so, but can't rule it out.

3. chains don't "stretch." the bushings wear down.......over a thousand miles----not sitting in a box for a day. you might check that the rear wheel is properly seated in the dropouts. easy to tighten down the QR skewer a little off when the fenders are blocking your view. you don't have a disc brake rotor to scream at you if the wheel is off-center.


Point taken (Also from other posters).

4. should have shown up already. how does the new chain shift on the NEW front chainring?

Originally Posted by gauvins

1. Removing the handlebars is not likely to impact the cable. I've done that dozens of times and never had issues. Do you notice similar problems with the brake cables? If not, you can probably assume that the shifting cables are ok.

Well now that you mention it...I did have to adjust the brakes after unboxing: they were too tight and the pads were rubbing against the rims, particularly on the front.

2. Well... this could explain that... (how did this happen??) But you seem to be unsure about this. You may want to read here.

Yeah. My problem is that finding advice on how to try and fix it is easy, but not much good guidance on how to tell if it is the actual problem (where it's not obvious).

3. You mean that links have been added to the chain. This shouldn't create any problem, assuming that the additional length can be handled by your deraillers. (i.e. no rub in small-small)

Right.

4. This is not simple. I'd suggest testing shifting solely on the new components at first. I'd adjust mid-mid until there is no noise suggesting that the chain doesn't sit where it should. Then up one / down one cog. Adjust cable tension until it shifts smoothly.

Thanks, will give this a try. Need to improvise a bike stand (I'm even less good trying to work on a bike upside down but obviously don't have my repair stand with me).

• If you can't get the mid-mid to run smooth, find a friendly LBS.

If I recall the mid-mid was amongst the worst 😬

• If you can, expand until you can shift from the largest to the smallest cog.
  • If you can't - LBS
  • If you can - try to adjust the front derailleur. If all was good on mid, and all hell breaks loose on the small ring, perhaps get a new small to determine if wear is the culprit. If a new small ring does the trick, repeat with the large.

Thanks, will add this process of elimination to the one suggested by saddlesores above and see where that gets me.