Bicycle Mechanics - Newbie - derailleur/shifter problems

I recently purchased a Fuji Team 08 bike. It comes with Shimano 105 FlightDeck shifters (3 gear shifter) and a Shimano 105 derailleur (with only 2 gears in the front). The problem I have is this: When I try to shift to the larger gear in front, I need to move the shifter two clicks and often the chain will fall off (goes past the large gear).

The other problem I have is when I'm in the large gear in front and I go to the second smallest or smallest gear in the back (total of 9 gears in the back), the angle in the back will cause the chain to fall off the large gear in the front.

How should I tune the derailleur or the front shifter to fix this? I can take it back to the shop and have them do it for free, but I have to schedule it and they were having problems doing it when I bought the bike (from Performance Bike). Does it simply need to be tuned or is there a faulty part somewhere here?

Whatch these videos....

How to shift your bike (http://bicycletutor.com/gear-shifting/)

How to adjust a front derailleur (http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-front-derailer/)

How to adjust your rear derailleur (http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-rear-derailleur/)

A couple of questions:

1) In the derailleur video it says to use the middle gear in the front and shift the full range in the back to make sure the chain doesn't touch either sides of the derailleur. I only have two gears in the front, do I need to make sure the chain doesn't touch derailleur across the entire range in the back from both gears in the front?

2) My front shifter has 3 settings, but I only have 2 front gears. How should I be shifting? Should I be shifting twice up to get to the large gear in the front or just once?

105 9 and 10-speed STI brifters are double/triple compatible so the extra click is a trim click. Start from scratch in setting up the front shifting as shown by the Park web site or go to Shimano's web site and get the .pdf of the installation instruction sheet and follow their directions.

Spilling the chain to the outside says the high limit screw has to be tightened slightly.

A couple of questions:

1) In the derailleur video it says to use the middle gear in the front and shift the full range in the back to make sure the chain doesn't touch either sides of the derailleur. I only have two gears in the front, do I need to make sure the chain doesn't touch derailleur across the entire range in the back from both gears in the front?

An experienced bike tech might have a better answer than I. For me I would approach this question from a mechanical perspective, which would lead me to ask a couple of questions.

1. Which range do I use the most?
2. Which chainring's plane is in line with the center of the rear gears.

#2 would be the most important one for me to answer. I would adjust the FD while on that chainring. If both chainrings are equal on the center line, then adjust for the chain to be on both.

105 9 and 10-speed STI brifters are double/triple compatible so the extra click is a trim click. Start from scratch in setting up the front shifting as shown by the Park web site or go to Shimano's web site and get the .pdf of the installation instruction sheet and follow their directions.

Spilling the chain to the outside says the high limit screw has to be tightened slightly.

I started out by adjusting the derailleur with the hexagonal screw...so I shouldn't be messing with that now? The other problem I have is shifting from the smaller to the larger front gear doesn't work when I shift (unless I shift twice on the front shifter). That is when it spills over. Otherwise it doesn't shift well at all. I don't know if that made any sense.

Sorry to add so many problems, but when I am on the large front gear and the smallest rear gear (9th gear), the chain will also fall off...

Sorry to add so many problems, but when I am on the large front gear and the smallest rear gear (9th gear), the chain will also fall off...

Spilled off the your largest chainring, or the gear?

For a chain to come off the highest or lowest gear, normally the H & L limits are not set right.

For a chain to come off the highest or lowest gear, normally the H & L limits are not set right.
+1 and the fact the OP says he set the "hexagonal screw" doesn't mean it was adjusted correctly. A properly set high limit screw should positively prevent spilling the chain to the outside of the large chainring no matter what the shifter does.

BTW, the limit screws on all of the derailleurs I've ever seen don't have hex or allen heads, they have screwdriver cross slots that will allow using either a flat blade or Phillips screwdriver. Maybe you adjusted the wrong bolt.

it turns out after the shop adjusted the derailleur the chain fell out again and then it broke. a new chain and adjustment of the derailleur fixed the problem :). i still have yet to do it myself. how many bikers tune their own bikes?

how many bikers tune their own bikes?

everyone in this forum