episodic

Hey there, drove some distance to a bike store and picked up my new bikes. My background is - 70 miles from nearest LBS - so I need to learn to do minor stuff. I've done some stuff - but as much as I read, I usually mess derailleurs up.

My son has a Felt F95. Compact double in the front. Sora front derailler. Microshift shifters (brifters). Tiagra rear.

When he is in the 'small chainring' in the front, and goes to the 3 largest chainrings in the back (granny gears) - the front derailleur rubs - and can't seem to be trimmed. Other than that it shifts great. I'm sure it is a tiny adjustment of 'something' - but I don't know what exactly.



For me, I got a Salsa Casseroll road bike. Mine shifts beautiful 'except' it hesitates and takes a while (several pedal revolutions) to shift into the 'smallest' chain ring in the front. It is a triple chain ring. Once it is there everything performs as it should. I also have a sora front and tiagra rear with tiagra shifters. Can someone give me ideas on it. I know three things that are to be adjusted with these - cable tension, H and L screw. Sadly these Sora front derailleurs don't label the H and the L - any 'easy way' to tell?



Finally, stupidest question of them all. My new hubs are 'chrome' with no writing on them. Is there an easy way to tell if my front wheel is backwards? I was always told if you can read the writing of the hub while spraddling the bike, that was how you told.

LarDasse74

On front derailleurs there are a couple of alignment adjustments that are crucial to the proper function... The cage of the derailleur must be perfectly parallel to the chainrings, the cage of the derailleur must be between 1 and 4 mm above the large chainring at its closest point, and the end point adjustment screws must be set to allow the chain to go into each gear but not hold the derailleur so it rubs on the chain when it is gear. All these adjustments should be done without the cable installed. The last remaining adjustment is to set cable tension and that is easy if you stop to think of how the derailleur works.

Go to this website: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...ur-adjustments and start over and follow all the steps without leaving an anything out.

Edit:

regarding your front wheel, front wheels do not necessarily have a direction, unless you have disk brakes or a heavily directional tire that doesn't work well in one direction (most tires work fine in either direction). THe method I use is to always put the quick release lever on the left side of the bike - this is actually a historical industry standard.

jimc101

For trimming the FD, would look at the tech docs relevant to that FD, for exact details of how to trim it, https://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs...&bmUID=j7mSuWG

For the Salsa, what crankset does it have, are the rings ramped like Shimano are?, again, for triming details, look on the link above, at the specific SI doc for you FD

Hubs, does it matter?, for disc brake wheels yes, as the disc is on one side, anything else, not so much, although it is comon to have the QR handle on the left hand side, would go with the direction of your tire tred (if any) for which way the wheel should go on.

episodic

I read the information on the park tool site so far. My front derailleur seems a little high. It says a penny between the teeth of the outermost ring and the cage. I probably have 2-3 pennies worth of space. I'm a little timid to start deslacking wires and moving entire derailleurs around. I read the rest of the parktool page and decided to try to just back out the lower limit screw a little. On my Salsa that seems to have completely solved my problem.

On the felt, I did the same - and what happened was that before the easiest three chainrings in the back (largest) would all three make his front derailleur rub. Now only the very largest rear cog makes his front derailleur rub. After backing out the screw a few more turns, it became apparent that you can only back it out so far before it ceases to have any effect. So I put it back in, and he'll just have to live with it till we can revisit the bike store. It is better than when it started. His front derailleur is also a little too high as pointed out by the park tool site. I'm scared if I loosen the bolt on the frame and slide it down that will effect the cable slack and ruin the indexing. I have no idea how that comes into play.

We know how to trim, the problem is he runs out of 'trim' and it still is 'barely rubbing' when he is in the smallest chainring in the front and the largest chainring in the back. At least I made it 'better'.

To the other question, it is a Sugino crankset on the salsa. I don't know what ramped rings mean though.

LarDasse74

Funny... there was a discussion in another thread the other day where someone quoted the following line from the parktool website:

However, the person who posted the quote misinterpreted what it meant and it did not apply to the problem at hand. It is probably 100% appropriate for your situation.

Te problem with your bike is likely the front derailleur cable is a touch too tight, and that holds the derailleur higher than it needs to be to be properly limited by the limit screws. But since you say the derailleur is also a bit too high, if you have a bottom pull front derailleur (most road bikes do) then lowering the derailleur 1 or 2 mm into the correct position will remove a tiny bit of cable tension and probably solve the rubbing problem.
However, I don't recommend that you do this, as you say you are not entirely comfortable adjusting your FD, and if the angle of the cage or the limit screws get maladjusted then the shifting is likely to be worse than it is now.

episodic

Ok, so I got brave. I undid the cable pinch bolt. I tried to adjust the L & H screw again. I repinched the cable and still the same deal. So I got to looking at the derailleur again. I have no idea of this was a good idea or not, but I noticed that 'everything' was fine 'except' when it was on little front and big back the chain rubbed the front. It was just a hair - enough to be annoying and wear the chain.

So I looked at the pinch bolt on the Felt's frame, and I loosened it just enough to move the whole derailleur about 1 - 2 mm in the direction that would stop it from rubbing the chain. I snugged everything back up. Hopped on the bike ran it around the block. Everything except the two cross chained gears seems to work fine now. Those cross chained ones still work, they are just a little noisy just as before. We know to avoid those. I still get this queasy feeling I screwed something up (probably because me and mechanical have never been friends). . . I had my son run it through it's paces and he said it seem all smooth now.

So I either tuned it properly, or I faked it well.

LarDasse74

Rubbing on the derailleur will not increase wear to the chain in any noticable way. But if the rubbing goes on for long enough (like, years) the chain can wear through the derailleur.

If you view the derailleur from above is the cage perfectly parallel to the chainrings? If not then the shifting will never be perfect.

If you had the cable removed you should have been able to loosen the L limit screw enough so the chain was no longer rubbing when in the small/big combo. Reattaching the cable should not change this.

reptilezs

sometimes the fd bottoms out against the frame/seat tube.

episodic

When I loosened the cable, the L screw did not move the derailleur off of the chain. That is when I had the bright idea to move the derailleur just a hair. I'll check on the parallel thing.