gerv 

I have been unable to get my front derailleur adjusted on my Bianchi Volpe, which has a triple chainring. After reading numerous threads here and following up all the leads, I am still stumped. The best I seem able to do is get my granny and middle chainring working. I have given up moving to the big ring... if I set it up so I can shift to this ring, I have all kind of scraping in the middle ring.

This morning at the bike co-op, one of the volunteers was unable to adjust her front derailleur for a triple. There was a wrench there who took over and basically suffered the same problem I had. He claimed he sees this a lot with setups using Shimano brifters in index mode. It's like there aren't enough clicks... or the indexing is spread too wide and the brifter can't pull enough cable.

Has anyone ever run into this?

Panthers007

The best way to adjust a FD (front-derailleur) is to start over - completely. Follow the instructions here:

https://bicycletutor.com/adjust-front-derailer/

and here:

https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=75


Most will agree that the best way to adjust a FD is to start from scratch. This is much easier than trying with an already halfway-working unit. And the triple-cranks are a notorious PITA. But you'll get it. Once you do and have torqued-down the pinch-bolt to hold the cable (48 - 60 i.p. according to Shimano), the cable will likely stretch and cause the chain to rub against the FD's cage. You can either loosen the pinch-bolt and pull it taut again - likely to cause the cable to fray - or install a barrel-adjuster on the cable in the first place. These allow you to tighten the cable with a small turn on the barrel-adjuster. Here is a picture (that's been getting a lot of use here lately) of such installed on a hybrid with an Ultegra triple:

Doug64

Panthers007 is right about starting the adjsutment process from the beginning. Shimano has a good site theat has the sequence to use for adjusting the Tiagra FD. My Volpe has a barrel adjuster on the cross tube, which serves the same purpose as the inline adjuster shown in the picture above. I found that getting the right amount of cable tension is important. The following link is to the Shimano site, but the sources mentioned above will give you the same information. The Shimano site does not seem to working tonight, but you can click on Tech Support and then Tech Documents and the y will have the specifics for the Tiagra FD.

https://cycle.shimano-eu.com/publish/.../nl/index.html

Panthers007

Here is a good source of all-things-bicycle. And here are the available barrel-adjusters. I suggest bookmarking the home-page. They have items other places have never heard of:

https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...usting-Barrels

chas0039

I agree with the wrench in the first post. I have seen way too many triples that should never been used with anything but friction shifters, both road and MTB. When you get the large ring set up, the granny gear won't reach, and vice-versa. My LBS says many of these were shipped with incompatible components and wear and tear don't help.

DaveSSS 

You'll never have a problem like that with a Campy triple. The left shifter has 12 clicks and enough cable pull to operate any FD. That changed in '09 with the excess travel eliminated.

Experienced Shimano triple users always tell me that their setups work perfectly, although the ability to trim the FD is more limited.

One problem that might occur is attaching the shift cable incorrectly. With most FDs, the cable attachment seems obvious, but it's possible that someone attached the cable on the wrong side of the clamp bolt. That changes the lever arm length and makes it impossible to set up.

I agree to start from scratch, being sure that the finger lever is pushed repeatedly to fully release the cable, before pulling it tight and reattaching it to the FD. One thing that is common with all FDs and shifters - the first click of cable pull should always create some significant movement of the FD. If not, then that click is being wasted, taking up cable slack and it will never work properly.

Retro Grouch 

BINGO!

And follow the directions in order and don't just start with the setting the low limit screw either. Examine carefully the position of the derailleur on the seat post before doing anything else.

Every adjustment that you make to a front derailleur affects the subsequent adjustments. Usually, when somebody brings a front derailleur to me that isn't working, it's had one misadjustment piled onto another misadjustment trying to compensate for something basic that's wrong.

I do quite a bit of work for tandem owners and for road bike people who don't race. I've had a good amount of experience setting up STI triples. They work fine as long as you're not cross chaining stupidly.

gerv 

I followed the same instructions Panthers007 pointed out, particularly the Bicycle Tutor. I get to the point where both the H and L setting are correct and the I shift down to the highest gears in both front and back and set the cable tension. I move the shifter to the lowest gear position ( I assume this means where it would shift to the big ring....) and tighten.

I think it finally comes down to what you both suggest... cable tension needs to be set precisely. I've used the barrel adjuster on the Volpe, but maybe I can have a brief interlude of tweaking it before I let the adjuster nut off (and then need a new cable )

I guess this need to micro-adjust the tension is what's missing. But I still think these brifters are at least part of the cause. I've adjusted triples with friction shifters and it seemed much easier.

I'll check out the link you provided too... although right now it just bring me to a picture of Denis Menchov (who has no problem shifting at all.. )

gerv 

One hour later...

I take everything I said back. Retro Grouch's suggestion (and Panthers007 ...) was absolutely correct. I started from the very, very beginning of the process.

I noticed that my cage was pulled slightly so I lined up the outer cage to be parellel with the big ring, followed the instructions and it started shifting perfectly.. no cable adjustments needed (handy since my adjuster seems to be kaput...)

I am still confused about where the shifter should be when tightening the cable. Today I moved it to the correct position for the granny ring and that seemed to be correct.

Anyway... thank you everyone.

Camilo

I can't relate. My ultegra triple shifts flawlessly and all I've had to do is tweek the HL and cable tension. Probably because it was set up well from the beginning. That's why I never can understand when people say triples shift worse than compact doubles, I've just never seen it. But I can understand now based on what is written above.

DaveSSS 

Just as I stated in my first post. Keep pushing the finger lever until all the cable is released. That is the little ring position. Then pull the cable snug by hand and tighten the clamp bolt. With Campy shifters, the thumb button is pushed all the way down rather than the finger lever on a Shimano shifter.

If a frame has not cable tension adjuster, the there is another trick to use. Screw the low limit screw in (CW) 1/2 to 3/4 turn, then attach the cable, then return it to the original position. That puts extra tension on it. It a little hit or miss, but I do it on both of the LOOK 585 frames.

Al1943

It would really help if you would share with us what the components are, road, mountain, group, etc.