Road Cycling - Shifting smoothly

I have a Trek2200 which came with a 105 front derailleur. I was having trouble shifting, espically from larger to smaller gears. I just upgraded to an Ultegra and although it is smoother I still have the same problem. When I go from smaller to larger gears it is as smooth as butter but going the other way it gets stuck. When I try to even "trim the gears" by using the micro shifting function it drops into the "granny". Any ideas?

My local bike shop is usually great but they cannot seem to get this right.

you have a truple, right?

you have a truple, right?

Yes, I have a triple.

when you say you have trouble shifting from larger to smaller cogs, does it not shift; skips 2 gears; is slow to shift.... i would turn the adjuster on the rear derailleur clockwise one notch. are you using an ultegra chain + cassette?!
problem with the shifter or using the shifter?
is this happening under load or all the time?

What gears do you have the front and back in when this happens? If you have it like 53/25, 30/12, or close to those ratios, it will definitely cause this to happen.

I have a 2200 triple and the shifting is pretty good, though more "touchy" than I'd like--you really have to keep on top of the cable tension to keep it from throwing the chain (esp when shifting up to the 42).

when you say you have trouble shifting from larger to smaller cogs, does it not shift; skips 2 gears; is slow to shift.... i would turn the adjuster on the rear derailleur clockwise one notch. are you using an ultegra chain + cassette?!
problem with the shifter or using the shifter?
is this happening under load or all the time?

It happens only in the front. When I try to go from 52 to 42, the chain does not move and starts to grind. If I try and microshift it drops to the granny. I have no problem going from 30 to 42 to 52.

how long have you had the bike? two things to consider... 1. the lever throw on shimano triples [all triples. for that matter] is very, very long. 2. the shimano fd pulls a lot of cable. that stretches cable [even pre-stretched cables]. if this is a new-ish bike [a few weeks old] or you have never had the fd tuned since you bought it, you'll want to either take the bike into your lbs to have the derailleur[s] tuned, or tune it yourself.

most decent lbs's have a shakedown policy, where they will give you free tuning after a few weeks of owning the bike.

now that i look again, the problem could well be a limit-adjustment issue. take your bike to the shop. it'll take ten minutes to tune.

how long have you had the bike? two things to consider... 1. the lever throw on shimano triples [all triples. for that matter] is very, very long. 2. the shimano fd pulls a lot of cable. that stretches cable [even pre-stretched cables]. if this is a new-ish bike [a few weeks old] or you have never had the fd tuned since you bought it, you'll want to either take the bike into your lbs to have the derailleur[s] tuned, or tune it yourself.

most decent lbs's have a shakedown policy, where they will give you free tuning after a few weeks of owning the bike.

now that i look again, the problem could well be a limit-adjustment issue. take your bike to the shop. it'll take ten minutes to tune.

The bike is 2 months old and this all happened after a tune up. I upgraded from 105 to Ultegra so this would stop happening and it did not stop. What type of adjustment should the LBS do on the cables?

If the LBS swapped out the FD from 105 to Ultegra they may not have tightened up on the cable feed. Have them re-adjust and test drive. Just so your prepared, they will tell you "squeeze the lever, don't click on it". Which for dropping from 52 to 42 should be no more than a click away.

If the LBS swapped out the FD from 105 to Ultegra they may not have tightened up on the cable feed. Have them re-adjust and test drive. Just so your prepared, they will tell you "squeeze the lever, don't click on it". Which for dropping from 52 to 42 should be no more than a click away.

I am not sure I understand what you mean by squeeze the lever and dropping from 52 to 42 is only a click away.

i'm not sure that upgrading to ultegra because of a poorly-tuned fd was a great idea. the ultegra and 105 fds are functionally identical. my guess is that your lbs does not have a huge amount of expertise in tuning triples [not all that rare -- triples are devilishly difficult to tune].

of course, one thing that comes to mind is chainline. tell me, when you have trouble dropping into your middle chainring from the big ring, what cog are you in in the rear? cross-gearing could be a big part of your problem [in which case, it's not the fd, but your shifting style].

i'm not sure that upgrading to ultegra because of a poorly-tuned fd was a great idea. the ultegra and 105 fds are functionally identical. my guess is that your lbs does not have a huge amount of expertise in tuning triples [not all that rare -- triples are devilishly difficult to tune].

of course, one thing that comes to mind is chainline. tell me, when you have trouble dropping into your middle chainring from the big ring, what cog are you in in the rear? cross-gearing could be a big part of your problem [in which case, it's not the fd, but your shifting style].

I am usually in one of the middle cogs in the rear.

I upgraded because the LBS said it would help make the shifting smoother. I thought the Ultegra was a better FD than the 105 and would help.

What should the LBS do differently to tune the triple correctly? Thanks.

what should they do?

well... if the problem isn't chainline, then i suspect that they should tighten the high limiter a bit. not much... maybe half a turn. then they should check that the low limiter isn't too tight. i suspect that whoever set up your fd had some trouble dropping the chain on downshifts to your granny gear and compensated by over-tightening the low limit, and leaving the high limit a bit loose so you would be able to upshift. it's actually a classic mistake for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience tuning triple fds. [i've made the mistake myself]. another problem, and one which might be contributing here is that you could have a dirt fd cable housing. what happens is that crud gets in the housing and prevents the cable from moving smoothly.

my suggestion would be to take your bike to the lbs and have their best wrench tune your fd WHILE YOU WATCH. if that doesn't solve thr problem, replace the shift cable and housing and retune the fd.

the 105 and ultegra fds function identically. the difference is that the ultegra is a bit lighter and prettier.

This may be too simplistic but if the shifting from 52->42 does not go, it could be the cable tension is too tight and not letting the FD move enough to complete the shift.

This may be too simplistic but if the shifting from 52->42 does not go, it could be the cable tension is too tight and not letting the FD move enough to complete the shift.
either way, it sounds like the lbs wrench did a crummy job.

Yup! I've seen enough crummy LBS wrenches. Nothing like asking a wrench for a 4mm ferrule or a Campy threaded barrel adjuster and getting a blank look!

Yup! I've seen enough crummy LBS wrenches. Nothing like asking a wrench for a 4mm ferrule or a Campy threaded barrel adjuster and getting a blank look!

Yeah, I was at a local shop recently looking for a 15mm crank bolt wrench, and the kid behind the counter told me with a straight face that all crank bolts were 8mm allens. Oof.

This may be too simplistic but if the shifting from 52->42 does not go, it could be the cable tension is too tight and not letting the FD move enough to complete the shift.

Can you describe in more detail where and how I might try to fix this myself. My LBS is not right around the corner and to have to go there again, wait until they fix this and then test ride is getting a bit tiring. I will certainly do it if you think I should but maybe I could try to fix this myself. Thanks.