My pile of crap Giant needs some help, concerns front derailleur.
 

Well, where do I begin ...

I took my bike to the shop because the handlebar shifter thingymajig took a ride across the river styx so they ordered in a new one and installed it and all that. But now i still have the problem i had when i broke the shifter trying to fix it!

The thing that's wrong is that i can't go from 1st to 2nd but i can go from 1st to 3rd and downshift into second, the bike dude told me that the derailleur cage is bent. So i figured i would fix it, and i haven't done jack ****. So, how can i fix it without replacing it?

Front derailleurs seem to be out on strike this last day. Here's another thread you may find helpful for your problem:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=480084

And be sure to type "front derailleur problem" (no quotations) into the search-engine at the top of the pages here. Or type something similar. You'll find a lot of information.

Good luck.

parktool.com.

Find the section about installing and adjusting front derailleurs. Start at the very beginning with the position of the derailleur on the seat tube and the shift cable completely disconnected. Do the steps in order and don't be tempted to skip any.

Ah-ha! The problem was that the derailleur was not correctly positioned in the seat post!

Thankyou for all your help and consider this problem resolved.

FYI, the FD attaches to the seatube. The seatpost goes into the seattube.

Glad you figured it out - I abhor the fickleness of FDs and have abandoned them altogether. :)

Derailleurs mounted on the seatpost will definitley cause problems.