Bicycle Mechanics - Rear shifting problem....

This seems weird.

Since I bought my bike, Gear #6 has always been stubborn about being shifted to. (It either skips over it, or doesn't shift at all until a while later when you least expect it.) Well, since then, after my bike having seen some rough times, gears 4 and 5 have become temperamental as well.

The top gears work fine. The bottom gears work fine. The middle gears are a pain in the butt!

Any clues for non-mechanical me?

1. see if the dropout is bent.. actually if you dont know what your doing take it to a shop..

2.. if its just skipping on it adjust the barrel on the derailleur until the skipping stops

3.. it may somehow be the b-adjuster screw.

Originally posted by WorldIRC
actually if you dont know what your doing take it to a shop.


Thanks, that's probably what I should do. :P I'll ask the dude to look at it when I get my new cranks....

Often, worn-out shifters are responsible for this. I'm riding an old Trek 820 MTB a lot these days, and it has some gawd-awful plastic twist-shifters. These things are so worn that I often have to overshoot a gear to get it in. I'm only storing the bike, otherwise those shifters would be gone today!

I bought my bike in April, so I doubt I've worn out the shifters yet. :P

No, it started really badly acting up after I took it out on a MTB trail and crashed it a few times, so I suspect that the bent drop-out thingy might be the problem. Since I'm not even sure what a drop-out is (gotta read my Bike Maintenance Guide one of these days) this looks like a job for Super Joe at the bike shop!

Turn your rear derailluer barrel adjustment counter-clockwise in quarter turn increments until shifting improves. This solves 90% of all shifting problems.

Thanks, Mr. Bones. :P (And welcome to the forum, BTW.)

I had to pop open my newly-purchased bike maintenance book to find out what the barrel was (clueless me, I know), and I clicked it over a quarter turn or two with no noticeable difference.

So I clicked it over a WHOLE lot, and there was improvement. :D When I tightened it as tightly as I could by hand, everything worked except that rebel 6th gear, so I took a wrench to do one more click....and now ALL my gears work, for the first time since I bought the bike.