hhnngg1

Question - I was recabling my FD, and as usual, if I left the FD shifted onto the small front ring, I couldn't get enough cable tension to smoothly shift with the lever.

The limit screws are correctly adjusted (I think - followed Park tool's instructions.)

Even using my inline cable adjuster, it was nearly impossible to get a clean front shift.

I ended up manually pushing the FD into the big gear by hand, and only then pulling the cable tight by hand in that position, and then locking down the cable. That seemed to do the trick - the 'by-hand' cable pull left just enough slack that it would shift cleanly into the small front ring, but also keep the cable short enough that shifting to the big front rig is clean.

I couldn't find any mention of doing this anywhere on a typical google search of front derailleur cable tension or adjustment. Is there a reason why this might be an incorrect approach - am I doing something basic wrong (I'm pretty new to this whole FD thing)?

With this method of FD cabling, things seem to be working fine (finally!) - there's a trace amount of FD rub in the extremes, but otherwise it seems to work well.