grantelmwood

I was on a long hill and wanted gear 2/2, but it would skip between 2/1 and 2/3

First click of lever would do nothing and then second click would skip 2 gears up.

More just a nuisance for me, but I can see how serious rides would not want to tolerate this

Iride01 

You shouldn't tolerate it either. It's likely just adjustment, a slightly bent DR hanger or something simple to replace.

Every one of my gear combinations is important to me. Even if I'm only in that combo for half a turn of the crank.

wolfchild

Get a singlespeed and you will never again have shifting problems.

tomato coupe

I can see why crappy misadjusted gears can be annoying.

xroadcharlie

I agree with Iride01 that you may need nothing more then an adjustment or something is broken or bent.

Check the cable routing and function. A bouncing or binding cable that's not secured correctly might shift gears randomly. Even the lowest of the low, Like my SunRun (not SunRace) 7 speed freewheel shifts flawlessly and is rock solid in any one gear. Many of them even get high ratings. Its probably easy to make a 6 or 7 speed shift correctly so I'm not too surprised that even budget models perform very well. But 9+ speeds might require a more precise alignment and fine adjustments. Quality might be more important on these too.

Koyote

Yes, poorly-adjusted bikes are annoying.

In other news, the Pope is Catholic.

cyccommute 

The order of troubleshooting is:

1. Check the cable tension. Shift into the smallest gear on the back (assuming high normal derailer) and pluck at the inner cable. It should have just a little bit of twang to it. If you can pull it away from the frame, it is likely too loose. Turn the adjustment barrel on the derailer or shifter to the left (screw out the barrel) as needed to get the shifting adjusted.

Since that is the problem, there really isn’t much else to do.










Okay, okay. You might…but probably won’t…have a bent derailer hanger. Put the bike in the middle range of the rear cassette and sight down the derailer. The cogs and jockey wheels should line up in a nice straight line. If they don’t, you can align them with a 5mm allen and pry up (gently) on the hanger to align it. If you have a derailer hanger alignment tool, use that but if you don’t the 5mm allen works.

That’s it.



No. Put down the damned screw driver! Those 3 screws on the derailer do nothing to adjust your shifting. I know you want to pick up that screw driver but be aware, brave Ulysses! Stuff up your ears and avoid the Sirens’ song. The screws only sing to crash you upon the rocks of limit screws. Many a fellow mariner has crashed upon those rocks thanks to the limit screws’ enticing song.

It ain’t the limit screws!

shelbyfv

Cycling doesn't suit everyone.

Calsun

Suggest taking your bike to a local shop and let them diagnose the problem and fix it. This is also a good time to decide whether your bike's current cassette cog sizes are the best for you and where you ride. My new road bike came with a 11-speed 11-42t cassette and after a few months of riding I changed it for a 11-34t cassette to have tighter gear spacing.

I have replaced the cassettees/freewheels on every bike I have owned to get the gearing that I wanted for it. It is a relatively inexpensive upgrade for a bike.

JenkemSuperfan

Never cheap out on or neglect maintenance for tires, wheels, or gears and you will have a happy life with your bike.

Pratt

Personally, I call slipping out of a gear and crashing down on the nose of the saddle, while I am standing on the pedals, trying to muscle a loaded bike up a 12% hill, something different than 'annoying', but it is not appropriate for a civilized Forum.

RCMoeur 

On that bike, anyway.

Just because I rode my fixie 25 miles on Wednesday doesn't mean I'm ready to toss all my other bikes - I sincerely appreciated the having the 24-28 low gear available on a 10%+ climb this morning on a different bike.

spelger

ha ha, pretty good.

Ron Damon

But you'll be out of gear, spinning inefficiently most of the time. 😉 There's no free breakfast, lunch or dinner.

KerryIrons

But what do bears do in the woods? Film at 11.

grantelmwood

Thanks.
I will look up videos on how to adjust and tune gears

Calsun

Nor does thinking or empathy

shelbyfv

Sorry, we can't all have the depth of cycling expertise you've displayed.

rollagain

Good, but don't just stop at the first one you find; some of the vids out there are much better than others.

Camilo

There are a few that are decently produced so as to be useful. Unfortunately, many (most?) are just a propped up phone and a person who has no idea of how to actually produce a useful training video, which these are. They don't know how to feature and focus on the parts so the viewer can tell what they're looking at, the best 'step by step" method, and - the most common and worst - they just TALK to much.

You can't go wrong with Park Tool videos. They are actually produced for good educational value, not just an ego trip for some joker in his garage.

GCN is reliably good for a variety of cycling topics including how-to's. There's others for sure. But beware there's a bunch of crap.

RobbiRobbi

I found the Park Tool guides on rear derailleur and front derailleur adjustment to be really well made and clear. The links include an embedded video and the same information in article form.
https://www.parktool.com/en-us/blog/...eur-adjustment
https://www.parktool.com/en-us/blog/...eur-adjustment