In praise of fine tuning
 

Had my chain replaced a few hundred miles ago and never like the way it shifted since then. Chain would drop off the big ring in front. If I adjusted the "H" screw, then I had to "double clutch" to get from the small ring to the middle. I blamed the chain since it was a brand I hadn't used and was the last thing chnaged.

After reading some of the threads here decided to do a tune-up of the FD, not just fiddle with a screw here and barrel adjustment there. Walked through the entire Park Tool tutorial - took all of about 10 minutes.

Wow, what a difference. Every shift today was rock solid and crisp. It was great.

Thanks for the inspiration to get me to try this on my own!

Congrats :) always nice when you do something yourself and it works :D

I hate having to get someone else to do any work to my bike or car. I avoid it whenever possible, even if it means buying expensive tools and/or having to learn new skills.

That way, I'm not locked into relying on people who are absolutely guaranteed to care less about the job than I do.

And it took only 10 minutes to read the Park tutorial. That's what I call a good investment.