Red is Faster!

I know you can rebuild the shifters, but can you service the derailleur for this particular problem?

It's a Campy Chorus rear derailleur from 2006. Last summer I was with a group. We went around a right hand turn. There was oil on the road and I came down on my right side - hard, but not too hard. A few scrapes on my body and a lot of road grime. Everything seemed ok on the bike. It shifted fine and I finished my ride.

Over the last few months my shifting seems to be getting worse and worse. I had 2 mechanics (good ones) look at the bike and the could not find the cause. The bike needed a new chain plus I put a new cassette anyways so I just had ths doen about 2 weeks ago. 11x23 if that means anything to this story. The shiftng has become far worse.

Last Friday night, I was watching a movie while playing with the derailleur adjutment trying to come to some solution. It was then I discovered that I could get the derailleur adjusted so it would either upshift smoothly or downshift smoothly BUT NOT BOTH! Visually everything was OK. Nothing looked out of whack.

Then I noticed the side of my derailler had a healthy scratch on it. Presumably this was from the wipe out several months before. Upon closer inspection I discovered that the part of the derailer that is bolted to the frame, where one of the springs lives, was a little wobbly. Bear with me as i try to explain this part: This is the part where the derailleur bolts to the frame. It looks like a cylinder that sticks out from the frame by about 1 inch. it attaches to the first moving part of the deralleur. it appears there is either a bearing or a bushing built in there that has gone bad giving it the ability to wobble just enough. I would guess it cause the first pully to deflect 5 degrees or so. I have two other bikes and neither derailleur has ANY wobble. They shift fine.

Question #1 Can that part be serviced, or am I getting a new derailleur?

Question #2 Do you guys think that something else might be wrong? How can I check? The frame has no sign of having been bent - but I am not sure I could tell. The hanger and everything else in that area are firmly attached and show no signs of trauma. The only "wiggly" part is the one I described above.

Question #3 Should I just buy a new derailleur and see if that works? This is an expensive way to "test" my theory.

Question #4 Does it sound like there is more going on and I should start looking for a new bike???

TO11MTM

I'd say for starters to have your Derailleur hangar Alignment checked by a LBS, just to be safe. Even small differences can do the job.

Many campy derailleurs are rebuiltable part by part, I'm not sure if that part in question is replacable. Once again, a stop by an LBS should be in order as they can check their Catalog... Or if you feel like staying in the comfort/saftey of your home check out https://www.campagnolo.com/pdf/spares06_A.pdf, that's the 2006 spare part file, Part A. That'll have the parts available listed.

Campy spares are expensive, but less expensive than a new Derailleur.