Originally Posted by
akexpress
I am helping a friend work on his Calfee recumbent and we are having front shifting issues. It has a Ultegra derailleur with Xtr flat bar shifters. 55/44/30 chainrings and has trouble missing the middle chainring on the downshift. Can anyone confirm that there needs to be 14 tooth difference to make it shift right?
Which Ultegra FD are you using? If you use FD-6503 or older it's designed for 52-42-30 ie the 10 tooth step you want. As far as I know FD-6503 works for 10 speed just fine. I use it with dura-ace shifters on a 9-speed system with 54-44-28 (+jump stop).
Newer FDs 6603, 6703 (for no good reason) are designed for 53-39-30 or 52-39-30 triple set ups. The low end of the plate hangs down lower to help with the 13 or 14 tooth middle-large jump, so it tends to interfere with the middle chainring if you use something bigger than a 39 middle ring. So you have to set it higher than you want.
So if this is the issue, your options would seem to be
1) Try a 42T or smaller middle ring.
2) Buy a FD-6503 shifter on ebay (Campy may work better too)
3) Drop the FD as low as you can and fudge the middle position on the high end. You can use the limit screws to set up the small and large positions but the middle needs to be dialed in on the screw adjuster. Set this up without worrying about the other rings.
Good luck!