During some routine tuning after taking my bike out for the warm weather I noticed something that I wasn't sure was right...although I have never noticed it before so I am not sure of the its initial position (that is, if this is not it).

The pictures below are close ups of the front chain guide. Firstly, the metal guide I thought was a bit too close to the rear tire and the body with the semi-circle is not flush with the vertical support bar. Again, I am not sure if these were always like this. Help!

https://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...c/DSC_0196.jpg

https://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...c/DSC_0195.jpg

The outside edge of your chainguide or "cage" as most call it should be on a parallel plane with your chainrings. Kinda hard to see from the picture whether yours is or isn't. The inside of the cage is heavily ramped to help with shifting to the large ring, the outside just has a lip to push it off the large ring so it has a more regular face on the outside.

I agree that the cage is very close to your rear tire, it looks as though you probably get some chain rub in lowest gearing unless you still have the room to trim. I run my tires within about 2 mm of my chainstays without any problem so you are probably fine as long as you have strong and true wheels.

The question is whether the front mech is working properly.

Well yeah my wheels are solid. With regards to the chain rub...adjusted the cage height with the two screws through the range of shifting and at the extremes im only slightly off chain rub...but it doesnt so im happy.

What about the gap there from the vertical support bar. Is the cage body suppose to be snug there?

Thanks for the help so far

The position of the cage with respect to anything else except the chain and chainrings is meaningless, unless there's interference. It's like horseshoes, close doesn't count.

If the FD cage face is on line with the chainrings, and the FD shifts and trims properly (doesn't rub chain) in all gears it's correct. The tire isn't going to magically move right and grab it, and on most bikes it would rub in the stays before it could anyway.

Sometimes bikes are like buying sausage, you don't want to think too much about what you really don't need to know.

The front derailleur (what you call a chain guide-which is something completely different in bikespeak) is a Shimano E-type, that mounts off the Bottom bracket. It does not connect directly to the seat tube (what you call the vertical support bar). A gap is normal between the 2.

The screws you fiddled with are stroke adjustment screws. they limit the inside and outside travel path of the front derailleur. They do not control the height of the derailleur.

Basic derailleur adjustment tutorials are available online from Park Tool, Harris cyclery, and a few other places. And some local bike shops do classes to show you how to do it.

What's the problem again?

As long as the derailleur cage is not rubbing against the tire, it's good. It can be close, so very close (witrhin a couple millimeters), but as long as it's adjusted properly it shouldn't be rubbing.

Awesome. Thanks for all the help...

And yeah ive watched some derailleur adjustment videos before.