Front Derailleur shifting. Technique or adjustment problem?
 

When I lift the rear tire the front derailleur shifts fine. When I ride it it doesn't want to shift down to the small chainring. I have Deore rapidfire shifters and it's a Deore front derailleur. I can occasionally get it to shift but it seems to do it only under certain conditions. When I actually manage to get it on the small chainring, it takes considerable thumb effort to get it back on to the middle chainring. Is it me or do I just suck at adjusting?

it's usally the adjusting that sucks. Tried doing the drill from the beginning at www.parktool.com repair section?

Ooh OK I'll do that today. Never thought about the height. Thanks.

You didn't say what kind of bike. Is this a full suspension bike? If it is you might need to put a load on your rear wheel when you set up your front derailleur.