I bought my first bike used on CL. It's a Specialized Crosstrail 2012. I'm the third owner so the guy I bought it from didn't know much about it. At least according to the specs on the web, it looks like the rear & front derailleur and crankset were changed. I don't know if there has to be some compatibility between components and frame but it would not move smoothly to the highest gear on the front. This is what led to my tweaking (or breaking lol).

Short version: Can a crankset be installed too closely to a frame where the derailleur won't line up with the first gear? The low set screw is maxed out and I can only get the second and third gear. Could it be missing a spacer or something? Everything looks kinda hacked together.

Long version: Initially I assumed my high limit set screw was the reason I couldn't shift to the third gear. I adjusted it w/o success. So then I thought the derailleur was just positioned incorrectly on the frame. Upon looking at that I noticed there was only half a shim to make the derailleur attach to the frame. So it's shimmed on the left side near the screw but on the right side closest to the crankset the bare derailluer clamp touches the frame. It has the affect of bringing the derailleur closer to the frame. I can't imagine this is by design and seemed like a hack. I moved the shim to be on the crankset side but that pushed the derailleur so far that it won't line up with the first gear. So... something is not right... either the derailleur or the crankset or maybe something else? I purchased what I believe is the proper shim but it's the same width as the existing shim. I'm assuming I'll have the same problem but I'm also assuming this is how it's supposed to be installed so maybe it's a crankset issue?

lol, geez this gets frustrating fast. I'm new to this but I'm wiling to take time and learn. My kids are finally starting to ride and I just bought my wife a bike. I'm itching to all go out. I know I can just bring this into a LBS but I would much rather learn what's going on myself so I can diagnose and make repairs for all our bikes in the future. Thanks for any help!