BikePiet

I bought a cheap second hand Supercycle sc1800 with Falcon FIS front/rear derailleur and shifting. At first sight, everything seemed fine. Nothing I thought I couldn't fix. The front derailleur and shifting is fine, but the rear derailleur keeps skipping gears, both up and down. It looks like there is a piece broken on the shifter. Before pulling everything apart, does anyone have any suggestions? They appear simple to fix from what I've read, but it's not worth the money finding replacement parts (it'll be more than I paid for the bike itself). (cannot attach photos apparently, something with an url and not having ten posts yet)

veganbikes

Anything using Falcon (Kaw-Kaw) isn't really worth the time or money. The whole bike new is 109 CAN and I don't know if it is worth that much in scrap. The fact the bike sort of works is a good thing.

I personally wouldn't ride it but if you had to, ride it further into the ground and save up money to buy something of quality from an actual bike shop.

Bill Kapaun

Falcon is pretty low quality when new. I've never used a "new one", but have ran across a few "used ones". None shifted properly.
Best bet for the $ is probably this-
https://www.benscycle.com/SunRace-MT...CABEgImcPD_BwE

Also make sure the chain doesn't have stiff links. It seems Falcon equipped bikes tend to have rusty chains & cogs.

Miele Man

OP. Where are you located? Is it a thumbshifter or a twist-grip shifter?

Cheers

BikePiet

Thanks everyone! I'm in Montreal and bought it at Renaissance for CAD 20 for my kid (who only ever uses 1, at most 2, gears anyway).

It's a thumb shifter and there's a bit of rust here and there on the bike, but the cables appear ok. Probably the previous owner dumped it when the derailleur/shifter started acting up. As said, apart from the rust, there was very little wear & tear, cables seemed fine, wheels & tires ok, etc. Should have checked the shifters better for damage..

Haven't taken anything apart yet, so not sure if there's rust inside the shifter too and I'll see if thoroughly removing rust/dirt on all the mech helps (my own time is free, right?). Still, it doesn't feel like something is stuck or blocked. The shifter moves fine, but the chain only settles on the highest, lowest, or middle cog and just won't settle on the ones in between. Just drops 2-3 cogs at a time. Cable tension seems fine, but I haven't done a lot of cable replacements, so I could be wrong there.

Every crappy bike is crappy in a different way. Learning a lot though..

Really wish I could add photos..

dsbrantjr

A friction shifter will shift just about anything. This is about as cheap as they come: https://www.amazon.com/SunRace-Right.../dp/B001GSSO4E
Edit: and it comes with new shift cable and housings

veganbikes

I have to disagree nothing crappy about my Ti road bike. Things I could upgrade if I wanted to but no crap. The outer layer of bar tape wearing off was annoying but the tape is still comfortable and is more an eyesore I don't want to replace till I can install the bar end DI2 junction box and probably some new cables.

As far as adding photos you just need to explore the forums, post around a little bit and you will be able to post photos all the time. The idea is those who enjoy bikes will want to enjoy the forums and those who are just here to ask one question and leave don't really need to be here. This is an awesome place full of some great people and several a-holes who make the place more interesting and fun. We get to talk about bikes and all things related to them and learn and share and laugh and love and all that fun stuff.