Road Cycling - Front derailler help!!!!

I had my bike in the shop for the deraillers to be adjusted, but the problem still continues. When upshifting, from the small ring to the middle, sometimes the chain will jump all the way off the inside of the crank, onto the frame. I have Ultegra on the bike. They have tried to fine tune adjust for it, and it has improved, but it did it once yesterday, again. What do I need to adjust to stop this? The inner and outer settings seem to be as close as possible. Whey isnt it getting fully on the middle ring?

From what Ive been reading, Im thinking my indexing is off. What are your opinions?

Mine does that also. It's been adjusted a few times by different wrenches. It happens when you try to shift from the small ring to the middle ring. The chain never quite makes it to the middle ring, and keeps jumping on the middle ring until it falls completely off the chain rings. It never happens on my Trek 1000 with Sora. I'm wondering if it has to do with the little "half click" on the front derailleur, allowing you to position the derailleur half a click while on the small and middle chainrings to keep the chain from rubbing. This feature isn't availabe on Sora. I wonder if this happens with Tiagra also. To shift from small to middle, I move the lever all the way over, then quickly release it just enough to catch the half click setting and move it all the way again. This shifts the chain right up onto the middle ring. I have no problem shifting onto the big ring with one sweep.

I just thought of something. I ride a lot in the larger rear cogs, so my front derailleur is "half clicked toward the small ring. I'm going for a ride today, and I will try shifting after "half clicking" toward the big ring, then fully shifting from small to middle with one sweep. I'll let you know. This could be a drawback of the way the front derailleur works with the "half click" feature. The derailleur is "half clicked" away from a smooth shift.
My bike is a triple. Is this "half click" feature also on the doubles? This is Shimano STI.

I kno this probably isn't a big help, but I solved this problem by installing a bar-end shifter for my front derailleur and a Shimano std. brake lever. Perfect shifts every time.

Dchiefransom,,, that is exactly what mine is doing. I even notice that after I put the chain back on,,,, the first shift afterward doesnt shift,,,, it is the half click adjustment shift. After that, it goes back to working fine. Let me know what you come up with.

Boy, you pay all that money for a work stand, and then forget it's in the garage.
I just tried my theory, and it's correct. I don't know how long this feature has been on the front derailleur. If you are on the small ring in front, and shift to your granny in the back, the chain rubs, so Shimano let's us move the front derailleur a half click to stop the chain from rubbing. If you shift about four cogs in the back while still on the small ring, you will rub again, so you have to half click the front to stop the rubbing. When your front derailleur is half clicked toward the left, or BB, when you sweep the brake lever all the way to shift to the middle ring, your front derailleur is too far left to shift. If you half click the front derailleur to the right, then sweep the brake lever all the way, the chain goes smoothly onto the middle ring. There is a similar but not as pronounced effect when shifting from the middle to the big chainring. The front derailleur must be half clicked to the right, (as you look down at it from the saddle), in order for you to shift with a sweep of the brake lever. Shimano actually added that little extra distance to the indexing, so that seems to cause this problem. You can many times feel these half click positions in the shift lever while shifting from middle to small chainring. You will actually feel two clicks many of the times.
"Back in the day" before that half click feature was put on the front derailleur, we had to pay more attention to the combinations between front and rear gears to keep the chain from rubbing on the front derailleur.

Good riding.

Dave:D

Sweet,,,,,,, Ill check it out tonight when I ride. It was beginning to piss me off, because we tuned it for 1 hour just last week. I thought it should be dead on, as did my LBS mechanic. Thanks for the info,,,, now it wont drive me crazy all day. :D

Front shifting is why Campy > Shimano!

Indexed front shifting is the devil I tell you, the devil indeed.

I don't ride in the drops, so I like the Campy thumb lever shifters, even though I've got Shimano.