Suggest a new Cassette for '08 Rockhopper Disc
 

Awhile back I ate it hard during a ride and my stock cassette never fully recovered as I can not use the lowest or the highest gear. This was never really an issue as I never used that low or high of a gear but recently I've been taking my girlfriend's 7 year old daughter with us on some rides pulling her with a tandem bike attachment.

I'm fine for the majority of the ride but I've had to cut the ride short by a couple of miles because I need a few lower gears to make it up the hill pulling all of this weight. Any help any of you all can provide will be appreciated.

Thanks Tom

are you sure its the cassette, how did you manage to break that in a fall, more likely its the deraileur, take a look and make sure that your rear derail lines up strail with the cogs, push its and make sure it moves freely all the way across the cogs (you will have to be pedaling so put it in a stand/trainer or have someone hold the bike) if it shifts fine in most of the gears the cable tension if prolly fine, the most likely thing would be a bent deraileur hanger, if you are not sare take it to a shop and have them check it, they will have a nifty tool that will measure accurately if the hanger is bent, also they can use this tool to accurately bend it back, don't just grab your deraileur and pull, that can make things work ok for quick on the trail fixes but if you really want it to work right get it done right, you may instead need a new hanger if it can't be bent back

if you actually do need a new cassette i'd just get a sram pg970, personally i don't like to put a ton of money into parts that wear regularly, although the cassette can last quite a while they do wear out, i find the 970 to be a good balance of cost-performance

also no highest or lowest? that sounds like a limit screw issue, but i don't know how that could happen in a fall, did it ever work (you said you never used to use those gears)

Yes, you are correct the derailer bent when I hit something on a trail. It pushed into the spokes and the tire locked up...over the handle bars I went!

I purchased the bike from a local shop and brought the bike in after the crash. The salesman/mechanic worked on the bike and made the wheel and derailer true again. After I test road the bike I mentioned that I could not get into the lowest gear. He stated that on most bikes this is common and that is the case with my perticular bike.

:roflmao:

Tom, you better call somebody else.

Run,don't walk to a different shop.

Okay, thanks for the help everyone.

What do you all suggest to fix the situation that I'm in? I need a better understanding of what is wrong or what the situation is with the bike so I can go back into the bike shop with a little more ammo.

Is the derailer the root of the issue? Would a more capable bike mechanic be able to fix this issue and the local shop mech is lacking in skills?

i would guess your limits are out of adjust, basically you see the 2 little screws on the rear derail, one is labeled "L" the other "H" the L stands for low and the H stands for high, get the bike in the stand/someone holds it or upside down w/e anyway try to shift into the highest gear, now loosen the screw marked L you should do this in like 1/6th of a turn incraments (at least until you get good at it) any way loosen and try to push the derail over, when it looks like the derail will get into the biggest gear try to shift into it, if you can shift into it yay, now you have to be careful, if you over loosened the screw you coudl send the derail into the spokes and ruin it, so make sure it cant go to far, what i like to do is now tighten the screw until you can just shift comfortably into the big gear, basically make sure you can push the lever a tad past the "click" it makes when you shift into that gear but you don't want to be able to push it all the way (this is technically a little overtight but it reduces risk of ruining everything, if you send your derail into the spokes at speed you may end up having to buy a new derail) i could go into how to adjust this better in person you know where i can show you as such this is not the textbook way to adjust it but i think its more understandable. Anyway now basically do the same thing with the H screw and the high gear, also make sure your cable tension is correct or you could be thrown off

oh yeah and as for understanding the problem these screws are the limit screws, they limit the maximum swing of the derail, (the front derail has em too) the cable tension basically adjusts all the middle gears, and the limits do the gear on each end, they limit the derail from going to far and derailing the chain into the spokes of off the other end and jamming against the frame, as such you want to be sure they are not too loose, if they are too tight well you won't break stuff so i'd err on the side of overtightening

if it is indeed a problem with the limit screws, then a capable bike mechanic could fix the problem in more than a couple of minutes,..
either that, or just pure laziness.

I believe that you are correct in your assessment that they are indeed being lazy.

sirtigersalot, thanks for the great write up.

I called my LBS and I'm bringing my bike in tomorrow after I get off of work. Hopefully they'll be able to fix this issue quickly as I want to do some riding tomorrow. If they can't get it done then my girlfriend and I will have to try out sirtigersalot technique and fix it ourselves.

I'll let you all know how it goes and thanks again.

Get a new deraillieur hanger, I bet that fixes it right up.

Once again, thanks everyone. I just returned from my LBS and I explained in detail what the issue was and what needed to be fixed. They test rode it, took it in the back and test rode it again before bringing it to me. In all, it must have taken 15 minutes worth of work.