rushncrush

trying to get the gears tuned right , followed a guide and now I'm stuck.. i loosened the front deralier to move it closer to the CoG like the guide said but mine seems to be spring loaded.. i cant get it to sit on the outside of the cog.... spent hours trying with plenty of cursing and stress.. so i went from poor shifting to it being completely unusable

so then I call a few LBS and they all want at least $75 for a gear tune up.. WTH i thought a full assembly was around this price??? why are all LBS so expensive for something a pro can do it 15-20 min

Chief

do you have cycling co-op nearby?

Andy_K 

The "spring loaded" thing is normal. That's what pulls it back to the low position when you click the shifter (which releases cable tension). There are two screws on your front derailleur. One limits how far it will go on the inside, the other limits how far it will go on the outside. If you haven't messed with the clamp that holds the derailleur to the frame, that should already be correctly aligned. You need to use the low limit screw to set the inside position with no cable tension. Then you can attach the cable (or just pull it by hand, but that's a little trickier) and set the high limit. If you have a two-ring crankset the only thing left to do is make sure that you have enough cable tension that your shifter will pull the front derailleur all the way to the outside but not so much tension that it won't drop all the way to the inside when you shift to the lowest gear. If you have three rings, the cable tension needs to be a bit more precise. In that case, you should have an inline barrel adjuster that lets you fine tune the tension.

This can be a frustrating process, but you can do it. If you get frustrated, just step away from it for a while. Maybe watch another video when you feel calm, and try it again. You'll get there eventually.

Try this video: https://youtu.be/tfBiXgf8JxI

rushncrush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfBi...st=WL&index=12

20 second in is where im at.. i cant figure out how to get the front chain guider to stick out past big cog..

Aubergine 

What derailleur do you have?

Do do you know what "limit screws" are? (I hope you do!) are you trying to set the derailleur's height on the seat tube, or are you trying to adjust where the cage stops on the inside and outside of the gears?

Andy_K 

Oh, I see. When you buy a derailleur as a separate part it comes with a little piece of plastic that fits behind the cage to hold it out for that adjustment. Lacking that, you can either try to hold it in place by hand, pushing down on the derailleur pivot while also holding the bottom of it, or you can look for something of an appropriate size (about half an inch) to wedge in there. You want the cable to be slack when you make that adjustment so it's not pulling the derailleur down.

andr0id

Disposable chop sticks work great for this as they are tapered.

Or you can turn in the lower limit screw.

fietsbob

You can Buy Lennard Zinn's Books on maintenance for less than $75..

You must live in a High Cost of Living area for Bike work to cost that much, they dont pay you Much there ?

squirtdad

Repair Help Articles - Park Tool may be of interest

LesterOfPuppets

If you have a road double it shouldn't stick out outboard of the big ring. It'll be just about parallel with it when the LOW limit screw is adjusted properly. You want the bottom edge of about 2mm above the teeth, as mentioned in the video.

If you're working with a triple, thing are gonna be a little different.

LesterOfPuppets

They're probably a little freaked out that the front derailleur height probably isn't even right, what else could be wrong?

Out of box bikes typically have the front derailleur height pretty much dialed in, so they figure the bike is gonna be a little more work than an out-of the-box build, which they might do for $50 or so.

rushncrush

I know how it's supposed to look I just can't get it that way... This chain guider is busting my *****.. still can't figure out this spring loaded contraption..

Really wish I didn't try to adjust this part, video made it look so easy

LesterOfPuppets

Hmm, got pics?

Scooty Puff Jr

Because they know what they're doing, you don't really pay for the time, but you pay for the knowledge.

cpach

The cost they quoted you sounds like a more complete tune up than just adjusting your front derailleur. Shops generally charge approximately a dollar a minute. Retail space is expensive--shops have a difficult time turning a profit as it is. Standard rates like that are designed to absorb the time of more difficult bikes, and generate profit when things go well. That tune up probably actually involves some general assessment of the bike, adjustment of both derailleurs, and the brakes, probably a chain lube, and inflating the tires. This price probably hedges their bets a bit against your bike being a clustershow needing pretty much full reassembly--which isn't an unreasonable bet for many mail order bikes. You have to take into account that a mail order bike often requires a meaningful amount of mechanical work to be up to the standard of a bike leaving a good bike shop--which doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad deal, it just tempers how good of a deal they can seem.

Also, people have different learning styles, and sometimes video can be illuminating, but I like text and diagrams for most bike mechanics because it allows the steps to be broken down very clearly, and it can allow for very clear pictures of, say, how the derailleur should be aligned to the chainrings.

Anyhow, the key to good front derailleur adjustment is to do it systematically without skimping on steps. Front Derailleur Adjustment - Park Tool is as good a guide as any. Key steps that the lazy might skip:
-You really should unclamp the cable to set the derailleur height and angle, and you should be fairly particular about this step. Make sure you're setting the 1-2mm gap to the cabe against the taller teeth of the chainring--modern chainrings have teeth of irregular size to aid shifting. After tightening down the derailleur in this step, double check for height and rotation again to make sure nothing went out of adjustment tightening the bolt.
-Adjust the inner limit without the cable to ensure that it is not effecting the adjustment.
-Be careful adjusting the indexing. There's a lot of potential to do this sloppily, particularly on a 2 ring bike, but you're limiting the usefulness of the trim positions. Interesting the park tools article doesn't really mention this. Anyhow, generally for a 2 ring bike adjust it so that trim positions for both the inner and outer ring allow you to cross chain without rub.

rushncrush

just going to take it in.. which sucks cause ill never know how to do it that way.. its a commuter its going to take a lot of tune ups in a year

Andy_K 

Ask them if you can watch. When I first started being interested in doing my own bike maintenance I learned by watching a guy at the LBS do simple things I could try myself the next time they needed doing. A couple of times I got it wrong when I tried it myself and had to take it in and have them show me what I messed up.

I would imagine that for complex jobs they wouldn't want you looking over their shoulder the whole time, but for something routine like this they probably won't mind.

mulveyr 

Once it's dialed it it's unlikely to require much more than replacement of consumables ( brakes, chain ) and the occasional minor tweaking. As the other poster said, they may even let you watch as they service the bike so you can see how things are done.

mconlonx

For that money, it's probably a full tune, where they go through the rest of the bike as well, adjust shifting front and rear, check brake tension, bearing adjustment at the headset and hubs, true wheels, and check things over in general. For just a quick FD adjustment like you describe where we'd need to adjust height and limit screws, our shop would charge $20, and for $30 we'd do front and rear adjustment regardless of current tune.

fietsbob

LBS Here , $60 is the Major tune-Up full service flat rate for Labor , not new parts ..

Most of the time Is spent Cleaning the Bikes , brought in Grungy.

GravelMN

Shop Rates:

Basic Labor (one hour minimum) = $15/hr
You Watch = $25/hr
You Help = $50/hr
You Worked On It Yourself Before Bringing It In = $75/hr

GravelMN

Make, Model and clear, close-up photos of the mechs in question would be helpful.

rydabent

Check for a good bike repair and adjustment at your local library. Reguardless of what some would have you believe, a bike is a really simple machine to adjust. Granted sometimes there are some special tools that you might need for some jobs, but adjusting a front derailer does not need one.

fietsbob

fi , fy