fujidon

At the end of last year (2021), I bought a Specialized Roubaix with Shimano 105 11-speed groupset. I'm loving the bike and have no regrets, but I do have a question,
All of my previous bikes were 9-speed and what I notice about the 11-speed, which is new to me, is that I have to trim the front derailleur depending on which gear on the cogset I'm using.
It's not really a big deal, but since I live where there are many small hills, I find myself trimming the front derailleur somewhat often.
Again, no big deal, and I can certainly deal with it if it's the nature of the beast, but I am wondering if an 11-speed cassette could be adjusted to to avoid trimming.

Koyote

I’m not a bike mechanic, so take this with a grain of salt.

With my small sample size, I have found that it is easier to set up a nine speed drivetrain (double crankset) so that trimming is unnecessary; remember that with those two extra gears in an 11 speed cassette, your chain can travel to further extremes and make it more likely to rub on the front derailer – which necessitates trimming.

You’ve got three potential solutions: you can try to avoid cross-chaining, you can buy an electronic drivetrain which will automatically trim for you, or you can just trim the front derailleur yourself – which will become second nature after a while.

And by the way: you do not adjust the cassette to eliminate front derailer rub. Cassettes are not adjustable.

Iride01 

It's the nature of the beast. You might learn to shift out of the big ring before you get to the biggest cog on the back (lowest ratio cog).

Also don't forget if you have to trim, then you also will have to un-trim if you start going the other way on the back without shifting out of the front ring.

Bikes with longer chain stays seem to have less of an issue with chain rub requiring trim. So the experience can be different on different bikes as to when trim is needed.

Troul 

it's normal.

urbanknight

Sometimes you get lucky and don't need to trim the FD, but sometimes you do, no matter how many gears. That's why they have that function. You can try to adjust it out with the cable tension, but it may or may not be possible on your particular bike.

Dan333SP

Even on the 10 sp 105 which I'm still running, I have to trim a click when on the 2 largest cogs on the back to avoid FD rub, nothing unusual there. Nature of the beast, easy enough to do.

shelbyfv

It's a feature with 11 speed. When you shift from big ring to small, the FD does not drop all the way. You still have one more click to move it farther in for use with the largest rear cogs. This is intended to minimize chain drops when shifting from big to small. You don't want to adjust this out. There is also a trim for the big ring. It is used in initial derailleur set up. It doesn't do a lot in actual use, IME.

fujidon

Yeah, I know that. I just didn't write what I meant clearly

fujidon

Thanks, all. It was new to me, but good to know that things are they way they are by design.

IcySwan1 

What is meant by “trimming” the FD?

Mike

fujidon

On some shifters, you can make small adjustments to the position of the front derailleur without shifting to the other chainring. These small adjustments keep the chain from rubbing on the derailleur cage as the chain moves up and down the cassette.
I've only noticed the need for trimming since buying a bike with an 11-speed cassette.

datlas 

The trim feature is amazingly useful, and interestingly many cyclists are unaware of it.

Of course, using trim will be a dying skill as the electronic shifting takes over, not unlike using the clutch in a standard transmission car.

ps

mikethe

I spent a lot of time trying to adjust my 105 and in the end all solutions ended up utilising trimming

eduskator

Shimano's engineers put the trim feature for a reason. It's part of the deal! Your cassette can't be ''adjusted'' to avoid that. The total width stays the same and your chain needs trimming on certain gears.

Once you go DI2, you never go back!

the sci guy 

Is this a new feature in the newer 105? How is it accomplished? I had 105 shifters/FD/RD on my Roubaix from 2016, but I don't recall this? I'm planning on putting new 105 on a build project I'm doing currently so this is relevant to my interests.

nomadmax 

Shimano specifically engineered that feature in to get you to buy Ultegra or Dura Ace next time you buy a bike or components

fsdogwood

105 5800 has the trim feature, maybe the newer 7000 has it, too

Iride01 

Trim was on the 105 5500 series group and probably even before that. If you had a 2016 Roubaix, you probably had 105 5700 on it or maybe even the just introduced 5800 which I put on my very old Schwinn Paramount.

They all had trim. At least all the 105 series I've mentioned. I don't know how far back trim goes, but some products back in the 80's and/or 90's actually had trim.

You, like many other apparently just weren't shown how to use it and just never realized it existed. You won't be the last person to ask this question either. It's really surprising how many times on BF you can find members asking this.

Koyote

That's the only thing I've learned in this thread, and I find it surprising.

bruce19

Interesting. I have 105 11 sp on my cross bike and have never encountered this issue.

Iride01 

What issue? Trim?

Maybe you didn't ride in the gear combinations that it might be an issue in. If you avoided cross-chaining gear combinations you would never have encountered the need for trim.

Even if you did ride in the big big combo, if the noise wasn't of concern to you from chain rub then you really wouldn't need trim. Though you might have worn out some front DR cages if you rode enough distance in the big/big combos.

There was trim for the small small too on many or all, but I've seldom needed to use trim for the time I'm in the small small.

SpedFast

The front DR lever has 3 clicks even though you only have 2 gears. This gives you the option of pulling the DR farther to the inside or outside depending on where your chain is in relation to the rear cassette and front chain rings. I rarely have need of it until I hit that hill after coming out of a sharp corner and I don't want to lose my momentum and find myself dropping from big gear to little gear on the front DR without changing to a larger cog on the rear until absolutely necessary. It avoids cross chaining to some degree and the horrendous grinding sound. Then, as you slowly down shift the rear cassette and your momentum dwindles and you begin to get the chain into more friendly chain territory you can click the front DR (trim) to keep things aligned. Does that make sense? I don't need the trim often, but I still find myself using it to avoid cross chaining noise and angst. HTH
I should add, there are other ways to get around this issue without trimming the front DR. I could just downshift the rear until I reach somewhere in the middle of the rear cassette and then drop the front to the smaller chain ring. But that would be too simple when you have such high tech toys to play with.

prj71

No it's not new and not specific to 105. I had it my Giant road bike from 2015 that had a Tiagra groupset and was a 2 x 10 speed.

It's accomplished by pushing the brifter/shifter half way which moves the front derailleur cage over 1/2 the distance it normally moves.



https://www.bikeroar.com/tips/front-d...fting-and-trim

shelbyfv

Maybe you are asking about the low trim I mentioned in post #7? If so, that came out with first generation 11 speed and has continued into second gen. The second gen 11 speed FD set up procedure is different from all previous, including first gen. Just follow the instructions, it's not intuitive, at least not for me.

big john

I don't remember having a bike that didn't have a trim adjustment, Campagnolo or Shimano. With downtube shifters it was easy. Bar ends, too.