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Just spent a frustrating couple of hours adjusting the front derailleur gears of my bicycle. If they don't want to be adjusted, they can be right bar stewards. After an hour, I watched the YouTube video again in case I'd missed something, then spent another hour until they reluctantly agreed to change gear, kinda. Been for a 10 mile test run and I can live with them for now...

What gets me, is who in a drug-fuelled haze, scribbled the design of derailleur gears on a fag packet and thought, "that'll work a treat"? Worse still, spent years fiddling with the design until it did work, and didn't just chuck the whole thing in the bin marked, 'seemed like a good idea junk'.

It's up there with let's build a huge ship out of iron; that'll work, and let's fill a big tube with enough explosive mixture to melt a small planet, and fire these guys at the moon; that'll work.

As you might guess, I'm only jealous of their ability and frustrated by my mere mortal incompetence.

its just a parallelogram and controlled by a pull ratio from the shifter... (says he being all smug) triple or double, road bike or MTB? Shimano, Campag (doubtful) or SRAM? I've watched peolpe almost break down in tears trying to trim the front mech!

funnily enough I just ripped the front mech of both my MTB's and have gone 1x10 running a thick thin front chain ring, clutch mech and a 42 tooth ring on the cassette.

I would say the bar has less clutter, but I had to move the controls for the dropper post to where the front shifter was... ho hum.

Ty

Probably one reason I had so much difficulty is that I very rarely swap the front ratio, and it got set in its ways. There is a deceptive little hill near the village that a voice in my head bets me I can't do, every once in a while. And I can't resist the bet. It's only for that hill (around here) I sometimes feel I need the lower gearing and it usually lets me down, through lack of use. And I make it up the hill anyway.

So maybe I should look at decluttering too and just get rid of the front set.

Sometime the problem is the front ratios - I couldn't get the chain to miss on the middle ring just cos Shimano in their wisdom decided to alter the front chainring sizes!! I am pretty handy at fixing bikes and building wheels etc having worked in bike shops and fettling my own bikes for numerous years but have now lost interest - I built a Kona full carbon MTB and couldn't get it to go as well as my £700 Specialized - Sold the Kona, bought a VFR800 and kept the Spesh - problem solved and the old gears work perfect!!

STURMEY ARCHER 3 speed hub on my Brompton has never given me any problems !

You obviously never had to take one apart!!!

Fw190 wrote:its just a parallelogram and controlled by a pull ratio from the shifter... (says he being all smug) triple or double, road bike or MTB? Shimano, Campag (doubtful) or SRAM? I've watched peolpe almost break down in tears trying to trim the front mech!

funnily enough I just ripped the front mech of both my MTB's and have gone 1x10 running a thick thin front chain ring, clutch mech and a 42 tooth ring on the cassette.

I would say the bar has less clutter, but I had to move the controls for the dropper post to where the front shifter was... ho hum.

Ty

Correct answer! I'm on 1X9 at the min, thinking of upgrading to 1x10 with a 40t on the cassette, but the cost involved is silly! Plus I've just annihilated the bank account to buy a Santa Cruz frame and new fork.

And yes, giant iron boats are a silly idea!

Boxered wrote:STURMEY ARCHER 3 speed hub on my Brompton has never given me any problems !

I have stripped and rebuilt a Sturmey Archer but they can be tricky to align. To get current pushbike gears into top I have to kick the slack out of the cable at the back and I've given up trying to get it perfect.

I do two weeks push biking a year, when we go to the seaside. In the hut are half a dozen bikes in various stages of decrepitude which have mysteriously gone completely out of adjustment despite having been under a tea cloth for 10 months. So it's out with the spanners and bodge tape and entertain passers by with foul oaths for a morning trying to get them vaguely rideable. By the end of two weeks they're actually not bad.

Push bike wheel bearing adjustment is readily transferable to paralever bearing adjustment though

One day,hopefully you will have a bus pass,when you can safely leave pedal cycles to young people who are not old enough to ride a motorcycle.

Always take ours to local bike shop, 30 mins and £5 later fixed, no cursing no slipping cogs.

Al.

depends where you go for your bits and bobs, CRC of course top of the tree when it comes to cheap and reliable. Hope fat/thin chain ring is about £40 odd quid I think and the 40 for the back about the same; shifter wont cost that much Shimano SLX being more than up to the task, add in an XT cassette and mech (clutch type) and you're good to go, carefull on your gearing choice though.. 850+ meters of vert climbing in Chatel saw me begging for a 42 on the back.. funnily enough an E13 one dropped in the post box this morning!

Santa Cruz... Bronson is it? 27.5 I hope.. or you've gone for a Tall boy!

Ty

I wish! A Superlight 29er and some Reba RL forks.... Should be a nice build though with my home laced wheels and xt kit.

I'm well out of shape (5 years of eating like a 200mile a week cyclist, but only riding motorbikes!), so I'm thinking of riding a double chainring set up for a while.