Lightingguy

2 thoughts:

1) Are you using by chance, a crank designed for 8 speed chainrings ?. I have had issues using a 9 speed chain, dropping into area's it doesn't belong on the crank, as well as generally crappy shifting, all because of minute spacing differences on the crank.

2) Have you taken the bike to a good LBS for some advice ?. That's how I found out about the 8 speed chainring and crank with 9 speed shifters and chain issues and is part of what I was referring to about Shimano's (as well as Campy and SRAM's) tight tolerances.

Remember that in order for the shifting to be as perfect as it usually is - and current Shimano 8 speed and up systems, when correctly tuned and using correct parts, is generally spot on perfect, the tolerances have to be very tight.

That is the enemy of tinkering.

Which is one of the reasons I just plunked down $250 for an Ultegra 9 speed triple crank (30/39/52), plus bearing cups, plus a 105 triple derailer (all from Cambria), in order to get a 2nd road bike to use a triple setup, now that I am tired of trying to get a Centaur shifter to shift a vintage 105 F derailer, with correct but old square taper b-bracket and a 9 speed, but old Tiagra triple crank.

Steve B.

Al1943

An original 9-speed Ultegra triple would come with 30-42-52 chainrings.
It should shift best with a 9-speed Ultegra or 105 triple front derailleur.
The only Shimano 9-speed triple with a 39 middle ring was the Dura-Ace with 30-39-53 chainrings.

Panthers007

Be as it may, the Ultegra triple is now found in 52-39-30T. And the prices of these, and many other Ultegra 6600-series, is coming down. Cambria has the Ultegra-triple @ $159.95.

kenhill3

Hi, Tom-

You said that the drive train components are all Ultegra 9 speed. The exception is the old chain as quoted here in my post? Correct?

If so, then I am going to guess that the chain is the problem. That 10 year old chain is unlikely to be a 9 speed (as far as I know). A 9 speed chain is narrower than the chains of old (chains up through and including 8 speed). A nine speed front derailleur cage's width is optimized for this narrow chain, and a pre-9 speed chain is gonna be a tad fat for the cage. That may be the reason you get more chain rub than you would prefer.

I have a bike with a full Ultegra triple drive drain that is about 4 years old, a stock Bianchi Vigorrelli. I must say that this drivetrain shifts pretty much flawlessly. There can be a tiny bit of chain rub in the middle ring, but that can be rectified because the front shifter has a two-position trim on the middle ring.

Say, Al1943-

Interesting that you should mention all those possible positions for the front shifter on Ultegra. As I just noted, it seems that there is a two-position trim only on the middle ring, the granny and large seem to only have one position each. That would make for a grand total of 4 positions across the entire crankset. Am I missing something? Did Ultegra 9 speed have some differences year-wise? Is there a function on my shifters that I have not taken advantage of?

noglider 

What a horrible typo I made! No, the drive train is ten years old, except for the chain, which is new. It's a 9-speed chain.

I tinkered tonight. I found that it is possible to trim the left shifter a bit when in the loosest position. I.e. I can be in the smallest chainring and bump the left brifter a bit and move it over. Very nice.

I also saw that the chain rubbing on the front derailleur's cage when the chain is on the smallest sprocket was caused partially by the front derailleur being too low.

Now my only remaining problem is that the chain rubs the right side of the cage when I'm in the largest chainring and the smallest sprocket. I think a bit more tinkering can fix this. But I won't use that gear much, and by the time I'm using it, the wind noise will be deafening, and I won't hear the chain rubbing.

I've learned from this thread, so thanks go to everyone. I'm glad I started the thread.