I am having issues with getting my bike to shift into it's lowest gear in the front properly. It will shift back and forth fine, but for some reason when it goes to the lowest gear, the chain lands on the chain ring's teeth instead of fitting neatly in between! This consistently happens and after a pedal or so it falls in between. Here is a picture.



This is a Shimano 600 component group from the late 70s if that matters.

Thanks for reading, I'd appreciate any help!

Looks like your front derailleur is adjusted so it dosn't move far enough down towards the small chainring. When you shift that way, does the cable go slack just a bit?

Look for the 2 adjusting screws & loosen the one that controls the inwards limit. But if the cable is too tight, maybe THAT's what's preventing the front cage from moving far enough.

Make the adjustment a little bit at a time so you don't throw the chain completley off to the inside...

I have tried adjusting it as much as I can and this happens even with the derailer adjusted so far that it clicks on the lowest gear. It's going far enough it seems, just landing on top of the teeth.

Try adjusting the front derailleur using the instructions found at www.parktool.com. Do all of the steps in proper sequence.
It may help if the chain is more toward the center of the cassette when shifting in the front.

what kind of chain are you using? Seems like the kind of thing that can happen if you use an 8-9-10 speed chain on an older crankset.

Or maybe just a chain that has worn past it's replacement point.

Chain too narrow, and/or outer chainring bent toward outside. Has the chain ever gotten lodged between the rings? Usually when we see this, the chain is too narrow, but on a recent tandem, a blown shift caused the chain to jam between the rings and it bent the large one rather evenly. Only by removing it and laying it on a flat surface were we able to see that it was bent.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I really don't know what this bike has been through, last time it was used 5 years ago was for racing. I bought it from the guy a few months ago. I guess the chain could be worn out or bent, but like I said, the last time it was used it was for racing so I think that it has the correct chain size on it.

So I should remove the chain from the bike? What exactly am I looking for?

And also, just to clarify, after a pedal or so, the chain falls in between the teeth in the gear and then works fine after a pedal or so. Sorry that wasn't clear in my original post.