Originally Posted by
ridethecliche
I'll check those things tomorrow. I'm just confused because when it shifts, it shifts fine. I just can't consistently get the shifter to engage when I'm trying to get it to the little ring. Shifts to the big ring are consistent.
unlikely to be the cause, but I had those exact symptoms when my cable was super gummed up with sports drink and sweat and road grime where it went under the bottom bracket. Shifting small to big I was pulling in cable tension and it worked fine. Big to small, the cable tension was released and the derailleur spring had to really work against the gummy bits.