what should i buy?
 

i have a CAAD9 thats about 2 months old and the shifting i killing me. ive got everything adjusted but switching gears anything but good. i fight shifting the front and the rear often slips to different gears. ive got the cables adjusted which helped but its just not good enough...

bike comes with front and rear Shimano Tiagra Derailleurs. i don't mind spending some $ but ive never bought/changed Derailleurs before, not sure where to start

2 months old? Just take it back to the shop

Changing deraillers won't fix your problem. You say you've adjusted the cables but you don't describe how you've adjusted them. Have you properly set the high and low stops first?

Yeah, did you buy the bike from a shop? If so, it may carry come sort of three-month free tune of sort of thing. Most bike shops offer some sort of maintenance program with their bikes.

i made a mistake, the front is a sora. here is a review from someone else, perfectly annotates my problems.


"While it might be true that Sora shifts well when tuned up, Sora doesn't like to stay tuned. The rear derailleur never indexed completely accurately, even after multiple tunings by my LBS mechanic. This would lead to 'ghost shifts', or shifts that would happen whenever too much pedal pressure was applied. Sora's also low on features: the front derailleur only has three positions for a triple crankset, and the lack of a 'trim' means that many chain combinations result in deathly annoying chain-cage rub."

yes they have but, their mech was recommended by many of my friends. if im on the large ring, i get a annoying rubbing sound, if i sprint it slips into other gears (on the rear) ive been searching around online and im finding several of people complaining of this. i did buy an entry lev bike...

Still, that's an LBS tuneup problem.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/byregion.asp?catid=53 My last bike had Sora which shifted beautifully. They will wear out faster than higher models, but dont wear out in 2 months Follow the Park tool instruction exactly. If that doesnt fix it have the bike shop check for a bent rear derailler hanger.

thanks for the help & for saving me some $$$

take it back to the shop, but one thing to check is ghost shifting sometimes happens when the rear der cable isn't traveling freely in the bottom bracket cable guide (underneath). If its sticky, when heavy torque on the crankset twists the frame (this is natural) the cable moves with the bottom bracket shell. leads to some funky shifting. worth putting a dab of grease in the guide where the cable runs under the bottom bracket.

Good thought ... also check, or have the mechanic check, that the cable is routed correctly and isn't mistakenly next to the guide, not in the guide.

CAAD9 comes with SORA nowadays? That's amazing to me. I have a CAAD7 that I bought in in 2004; at the time it was the top of the Cannondale line (this was just before they rolled out Six13, their first foray into carbon). It is still a fantastic frame so I assume the CAAD9 is as well. I always appreciated that Cannondale offered high end frames with a much wider array of component options than other manufacturers in order to get to lower pricepoints -- as opposed to putting mid range components on lower quality frames.

Anyway, if you can't take the Sora, find a good deal on 105 or Ultegra shifters somewhere and you will have one fine quality bike. By the way, I rode Tiagra derailleurs and shifters for years and found them to be quite good for the price as well.

I rode a Sora equipped bike for about 10,000 miles and my wife has one full Sora bike now which she's put about 1000 miles on and another bike with just a Sora rear derailler with about the same number of miles. None of these bikes have ever ghost shifted. Neither of the two bikes with Sora front deraillers had any more problems with chain rub than I've had using other much higher end deraillers (assuming it's in tune, it will stay there just like any other front derailler).

Sora triple shifters do in fact have a trim position when in the little ring. You can easily use the full range of the cassette in the little ring with this trim feature. My Sora bike (Specialized Sequoia) had long enough chain stays that I had no chain rub when using the full cassette range in the middle ring too.

Had this happen to me too. It seems like a fundamental design flaw to run the cables, essential for a mechanical function, right under the spot where they are assured to catch as much road crap as possible.

It sounds like the author's post is most likely something wasn't tightened or adjusted properly to begin with. Maybe the cable has slipped a little in the clamp?