Brandt

When in the inside chain ring should the front derailleur cable
be a little sloppy, (have a triple) and when you shift to the
largest chain ring the cable is tight? I was having a hard time
getting my bike to shift up to the outer chainring, so I started
adjusting the high & low set screws as well as the cable. I finally
got it to work but just wondering if this is correct. Thanks

Calvin Jones

Set cable tension last when adjusting a front dertailleur. See Front Derailleur Adjustment

roadfix

General rule.....there should never be any cable slack.....

a2psyklnut

Without touching, feeling, seeing your problem, it's purely speculation, but sounds like you have too much slack in your cable or your "H" limit screw is too far in.

Here's what I would do.

First check to see that your front derailleur (FD) is straight. While looking down from above, the outside plate should be parrallel with the large chainring. Then, while looking at the cranks from the side, there should be a 1 -2 mm gap between the top teeth of the big ring and the bottom of the outer plate of the FD.

Then, shift into the granny gear and the biggest cog in the back. This will put your chain in the innermost position. Check your inside stop. The chain should barely miss the inside plate of the derailleur. Adjust your "L" stop on the front derailleur until it doesn't make noise while pedaling.

Then, make sure your barrel adjusters are turned all the way in, then back it out 1 full turn. The barrel adjusters on a road bike for the front shift cable are either an in-line adjuster or mounted at the cable stop on the frame near the headtube. Loosen the cable fixing nut and pull the slack out of the cable. Don't pull it too tightly, just enough to get the slack out of it. Tighten it down.

Then shift into the large chainring, and the small cog. This will put the chain in the furthest out bound postion. Now adjust the "H" stop on the front derailleur where the outside plate doesn't scrape the chain while pedaling. I leave a bit more gap on the upper limit adjustment. Like a full 1 mm gap. (width of a penny). If you don't you may get some scraping while pedaling hard due to frame flex or crank flex.

Now, shift into the middle ring. Play with the barrel adjuster to center the front derailleur. I do this by shifting into the smallest cog in the rear, and adjust with the barrel adj so it doesn't scrape. Then I shift into the biggest cog in the rear and adj. AGAIN to where it doesn't scrape. At this point you are making very small turns of the barrel adjuster. With 9-speed systems, you should be able to center the cage so it doesn't make any scraping in the middle chainring. (or minimal) Then, shift through all gear combo's to double check everything!

Good Luck.

L8R