Originally Posted by
pumpkinhed
What shifting issues are you experiencing? Front or back or both? Hard to diagnose without lots more details.
The shifting issues I have specifically as possible is I shift, the gears shift, and all seems ok for a second and then a clunk. After the clunk its staying in gear but feels like it skipped teeth at the clunk. Or sometimes when I shift it's a clunk and teeth skipping right on the shift. before settling in the gear. It's such a big clunk I run through the gears to see if there's been a skip, but no skip so far. All rear gear changes. I'm trying to reduce variables by not even switching the front. The clunk happens under heavy load and on flats under minimal load, and also with different gears. Seems to happen unpredictably. This would make me think bad derailleur or teeth on rear, possibly chain. Whatever it is the chain isn't being placed properly and making such a hard shift I'm concerned about breaking the teeth. Teeth look fine (so far), cassette is clean.
Four things to check based on my fairly limited experience:
(1) Does the shifting issues happen both on the work stand and when actually riding? If only the latter but not the former, maybe the cable tension is just slightly off, so you can experiment with that setting.
(2) Did someone install the wrong speed chain (too narrow) during a prior maintenance visit?
(3) Are the rear derailleur pulleys lubricated, mixed up, or installed in the wrong direction (in the case of the tension pulley, i.e., lower pulley at distal end of rear derailleur cage)?
(4) Chain and/or cassette are worn out?
Originally Posted by
pumpkinhed
1st gear is still a little noisy due to cross-chaining. Again, this is to be expected.
This is interesting, I might have unreal expectations. Maybe I'm expecting seamless gear changes, or wondering if this is possible with an upgrade.
When I said "noisy" in first gear above, I meant noisier due to slightly increased friction, not random clunks, which should not happen. What you call an unreal expectation, it is actually somewhat expected during the pandemic, as people cycle more and get more in tuned with their bikes' behaviors, so one would more likely notice things that are off compared to the past when riding less frequently. Assuming drivetrain in good condition and properly adjusted, Shimano hyperglide gear changes should be pretty seamless.