Bicycle Mechanics - Front gear/derailleur Shimano shift won't work

Hi all,

I'm relatively new to cycling, with a 2005 Giant TCR-One and all Shimano Ultegra gear set, from gears through to 'flightdeck'. I believe it is the ST-6600 shifting lever. It has three clicks - small chainwheel, trimming, large chainwheel.

I've just done my first big clean of the bike (amazing amount of grease, etc!) and I noticed my front gear cable seemed 'slack' so I loosened the hexagonal bolt holding it to the assembly to pull it a little tighter. No problem with that.

Problem is now I cannot select on the st-6600 lever the top chainwheel (ie, I can't use the lever to pull across the chain guide plate). I can shift from 'small' to 'trimming' but I can't click again up to 'large', the most important setting.

Help! Even with the cable completely free the lever won't shift the second click.

Remove the cable again, then click the release (inner) lever several times to be sure it's in the most "relaxed" position. Turn the crank to be sure the chain is on the small ring and the front derailleur is held by it's inner stop. Reconnect the cable just snug. Then try it.

Hillrider is right but he didn't go far enough. Go to the Park tool website and look up front derailleur installation and adjustment. Start at the very beginning and don't skip any steps. I doubt that your front derailleur was properly adjusted before you futzed with it and your futzing didn't help. Get it right and you're going to be surprised at how good it works.

I think it was ok at first but when he took the slack out of the cable, the shifter was already in an intermediate click. That's why it won't shift all the way across the crank.

Thanks for your help so far, but the thing is even with the cable completely free I cannot select the large chainwheel.

The park tool website - are you referring to http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=75 ?

I couldn't work out how it improved the situation.

There is still some slack in the cable on the 'intermediate' setting, I can't get the click over on the stick, however.

When you took out the slack you ruined the adjustment by making the cable so tight during shifting that the derailleur can't be lined up with the big ring because the shifter will not travel to it's detent and it won't stay put.

You over tightened it.

With the cable totally lose there is not enough tension to pull the derailleur into place.

There is to much slack.

The front derailleur adjustment is fine tuned with a barrel adjuster screw that tightens and loosens the cable a small amount, somewhere (probably on the side of the head tube). This make small adjustments a little at a time. You need to fine tune the adjustment by barely moving the cable. Like turning the barrel adjuster a half turn at a time and then try shifting.

See if there is a mark on the cable that indicates where the cable was crimped before you moved it. Try and get it right back where it was.

A bike shop can get you going in ten minutes. They might show you what I mean.