Bicycle Mechanics - novice here,advice appreciated

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View Full Version : novice here,advice appreciated

ynwa
04-26-05, 03:23 PM
hi

just got a bike off a friend and it has been in their shed for quite a while.
good condition,some rust but nothing too bad.

the gears are grip shift,however,the 'front' shift is far too tight and won't move and the 'back' is too loose,therefore the gears don't actually change.

any advice on what the problem is and how to solve it would help.

cheers

sydney
04-26-05, 03:52 PM
hi

just got a bike off a friend and it has been in their shed for quite a while.
good condition,some rust but nothing too bad.

the gears are grip shift,however,the 'front' shift is far too tight and won't move and the 'back' is too loose,therefore the gears don't actually change.

any advice on what the problem is and how to solve it would help.

cheersNo way to know. Could be nothing but minor adjustment and some lube or the whole business could be trashed. Or anything in between. LBS can sort it out.
biker7
04-26-05, 05:36 PM
If you don't have the money to take it to the LBS, what you can do is mark each cable where it attaches via the pinch bolt to each derailleur. Normally you don't have to mark the cable because the cable is crushed under the pinch bolt showing where its adjustment is. Free the cable from each derailleur and rotate each grip each direction to see if they have freedom or are bound up. If the grip shifters are bound up you have a frozen cable issue or the shifters are boogered up and you can try to disassemble them and lubricate them to free them up. If the grip shifters move each cable freely then you have a derailleur issue. The derailleurs may simply be frozen due to rust and can be removed and soaked in WD-40 to free them up. None of this stuff is difficult to diagnose if you take a measured approach. Try to find someone who knows about bikes in the neighborhood to help you out. If you lived around here, that person would be me.
Good Luck,
George

MichaelW
04-27-05, 04:19 AM
Is this a problem with the shifter mechanism or the gear changing mechs?
Could be a lose or stretched cable or something else.
http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/FAQindex.shtml