kberube

Hi everyone,

I was riding in a local event (The Bear 100) in Northern Wisconsin yesterday and had a few issues with shifting I would like to share with you guys.

The race was 100k on gravel for over 85k of the route. We were expecting okay weather, mid forties with 20-30mph winds (turned out to be 37˚ 25-30mph headwinds and snow for the first 2 hours )

About 45 minutes into the ride, the mud and snow began to make shifting tougher. Eventually, to get the front derailleur to go to the smaller ring, I would have to shift, unclip my shoes, give the mechanism a swift kick with my heel 3 or 5 times and it would eventually move the chain. The rear derailleur was working quite nicely (by nicely I mean I didn't have to kick it) until about an hour in when it began to gum up. About an hour later, while climbing a hill, I snapped my rear derailleur cable when trying to get into a more attainable gear effectively giving me a single speed with an extra superfast gear for the heck of it. So I ate some trail mix, a banana, drank some water, and shifted into beast mode.

My bike: Raleigh Roper, 105 f/d, r/d, and 10sp cassette; and a FSA Gossamer Pro crank.

My questions:

1. Other than carrying a spare cable (which I will be doing on off-road rides over 25 miles) what can I do to prevent this "derailleur failure"?
2. Would a mountain rear derailleur be better suited (less likely to gum up with mud) than my 105 road rear derailleur?
3. Would an upgrade to Ultegra help mitigate these problems?

Thanks in advance!

Keith

DOS

On front derailleur, you need to keep it clean and well lubed. I suspect he gunk you were riding in piled on top of what I suspect was ample gunk already mucking up the dérailleur, thereby preventing easy shifting. A good cleaning and a few drops of lube should cure that.

On rear derailleur, where did cable snap? Where I have seen this, it's always been a case of cable head inside shifter slipping out of place, causing kink and ultimately a break up near the cable head. It's not easy to snap cables ; if break occurred near the derailleur, again I would suspect a totally gummed up dérailleur that was likely gummed before you started riding any single event. The type of dérailleur, mountain vs. rd or 105 vs, Ultegra is not relevant.

kberube

Yes, the cable snapped inside the shifter itself. I cleaned the bike completely before the race (parts wash) and lubed up, but I totally forgot to wipe the excess grease off the chain and cogs.

The conditions in the race were terrible. I think the cold also had something to do with it.

I'll be cleaning and fixing my bike tomorrow, any suggestions for cables and or housing? Also, is there anything I should do to the derailleurs as far as greasing/cleaning?

As far as on the road, what can I do to prevent my components from failing (not the cable snap per se, but the clogged transmission) on lengthy rides like this?

400trix

Pray for better weather?

Beyond that, not much. Maybe stop periodically to blast the mechs a cleaner.

kberube

I hear ya! It's safe to say I was completely unprepared for that crazy weather. I live in Madison, and while here we've been pampered with fair weather for a few weeks now, 200 miles north is a completely different story.