phatfree

Hello. I just bought a 04 rt3000 and am having a hell of a time with the front dérailleur. The bike has an Ultegra front d and Ultegra shifters. The front d has a difficult time going from the largest ring to the middle ring. Usually when I down shift the chain will actually jump all the way to the smallest ring. The drive train is usually very noisy as well b/c the chain is rubbing the side of the d. I am in the middle of the cog, not at extremes, and it is still rubbing a bit. LBS worked on it and it is a little better but to me the shifting is very messy! Anybody have experience with these components? Any solutions?
I was thinking of adding a non indexed bar end shifter for the front d so that I would have more control on it's position in the drive train.

thanks

Telkwa

Do you have some basic bike tools and a willingness to delve into this?
If it were me I'd see what I could do with the parts I've got before buying other stuff.

Shimano's website has some good guides
https://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/index.jsp

and there are others out there on the web, like Sheldon Brown's, that walk you through the steps for adjusting/troubleshooting. The Park Tool website has some decent guides too.

Get the bike up in the air. A rope and a truss in the garage will do if that's all you have.

I'd:
1) Remove the cable at the DR end and lube all the lengths that run in cable housings. If your cable has one of those little aluminum keepers on the end you might be able to re-use it if you carefully squeeze it with some pliers at 90 degrees from the original crimps but you'll probably have to get a replacement.
2) Loosen the frame clamp and adjust the DR so that it's parallel to the chainrings and riding the correct height over the outer chainring (1-2mm I believe). Getting the DR parallel is a bit trial-and-error because it twists slightly as you tighten the clamp.
3) Adjust the inner stop screw and outer stop screw. The DR springs are pretty strong so you may have to fine-tune the outer stop after you get the cable back on.
4) Twist the adjuster built into the cable housing all the way in, then reattach the cable so that it's fairly snug with the DR at rest, then start playing with the adjuster as you shift up and down to the middle chainring. Remember, it's the two stops that control your top and inner chainring. That's fairly straightforward. Getting the middle one right takes some patience and the proper attitude as you'll have to come at the middle ring from both sides over and over, make little tweaks to the cable adjuster, try again, etc.

Chances are that with a little practice you can do as well or better than the LBS.

If you can't get the DR to settle in at the same place every time on the middle ring then there may be something wrong with it mechanically.

jgg3

You need to determine how much "trim" function you have. The front derailleur should have 4 or 5 clicks; sometimes these are "lighter" in feel to the big ones, and can be easily missed while riding. With the chain moving, play around with the front shifter a lot to see what sort of clickage it has. You can also lift the hood of the shifter, get the model number, and go to the shimano website to get the doc. It is amazing how different the models are; Ultegra triple is only the start of the journey down this identification rat-hole. But you can just figure it out with the clicks.

So the last click (most cable pulled) is the big chainring setting. If you are there, sometimes there is a trim "down" from that which handles the big-big combinations. Sometimes, the first down shift is to the next (middle) ring. Just play around with this pair until you totally know how it works. One click each way.

Then you start investigating the clicks from the middle ring. Sometimes there is a trim on the upside. What you are trying to do is find out which way the trim click goes. If it goes on the low side, then you tune for silence with the higher gears (smaller cogs) on the back. Then trim will handle the low side.

Once you totally understand where the clicks go, you need to start the standard process, which involves setting the derailleur to the lowest low (small front, big rear) position stop point. You want that just so that it makes no contact with the cage. Then you do the same for the high stop, big front, small rear). The top end is not nearly as important as the bottom, since it can't really go beyond the cable that can be pulled.

Once you get the stops set, you should be able to see where the trim positions come in relative to the shifting positions. Since everything is based on the amount of cable motion from the lower stop, the cable has to be in a "no slack" state at that position. Otherwise your first few millimeters of motion just go into tightening it to the point the cage will move.

Ultegra is good equipment. Don't give up on it.

mackey

You may want to go ahead and replace your shifter cable and housing. The bike is 4 years old and either the cable or housing could be binding internally.

Bill

lmzimmer

You may want to go ahead and replace your shifter cable and housing. The bike is 4 years old and either the cable or housing could be binding internally.

+1

phatfree

Thanks for all the advice! I did not know what "trim" is before I got this advice. I'm going to get a new cable just to be sure, then start troubleshooting from there.

Thanks again!