Originally Posted by
Needles
Last time was on a new bike maybe three years ago. It was a Shimano system, but I don't remember what exactly. It belonged to a friend of mine, and would not shift to the low gear cog. He took it back to the shop where he bought it, and they ended up swapping the rear deraileur. A couple of months later, it still would not go into low gear. Like I said, if it works for you, great. A pet peeve of mine is mechanical crap that does not do what I bought it to do. Any more, I just do not waste time on it.
Then it's just an adjustment - probably just a couple of clicks on the adjustment barrel. Either that, or your friend is damaging RD's somehow. This stuff has been bulletproof for at about 25 years based on bikes I own or, if you will, the millions of bikes sold to others.
Incidentally, cable stretch on a friction shifter can also prevent you from being able to shift all the way to the largest sprocket on the rear. That's not unique to indexed shifting.
J.