Chain feels loose in highest sprocket/small front ring
 

I just took apart my crankset and rear derailleur and gave it a whole cleaning and re-greased everything - it really needed that!! Everything ran smoothly other than misplacing a few pieces a couple times. But now when I shift into my small ring at the front, all of the sprockets in the cog work fine except for the highest gear (smallest sprocket). The chain feels tight like it should in the other gears but as soon as it goes down in the highest one, it feels like the chain just droops down. It actually touches the bottom of my front derailleur and if I pedal slowly it gets all jammed up. I tried adjusting everything but nothing seems to work. It also skips gears quite a bit when shifting and has a really hard time shifting into the smallest sprocket too.

Sorry if my terminology is off or all over the place, I'm not good at this stuff, if you need me to reword anything ill be happy to edit, thanks!

There is no point to run in the small chainring/small cog combination; there are other combinations which yield the same or very similar gear ratio without the problem you are having, among others. Look up "cross chaining", read about it and make it a habit not to do it.

DO NOT try to shorten your chain to fix this issue unless you are 100% certain that the chain is still long enough to go into the big/big combination (another cross-chained combination you shouldn't use) without straining anything.

I understand why you shouldn't cross chain and all, but it worked normally before, and now it's all f'ed up. Also, if I'm racing or even just riding, I can't always keep looking down to make sure I'm in the right combo. And I don't want to jam up my gears and cause a crash or anything of course.

edit: I just read something about chaining and I see exactly what you mean now. I was thinking (and probably will in the near future) about getting a power meter, crank wise. Would I be better off with a 53/39 cassette? I have a compact right now and read that the ratio causes a greater risk of rubbing and causes skipping and chain wear a lot more.

If you didn't change anything like chain length then I suspect you've somehow gotten the freehub (or freewheel) stickier.

It's only slight, so you only feel it when the chain is slightly slack, otherwise the RD cage is enough to resist the force. You can test for this by shifting to the small/small combination with the bike off the ground apply your brake to stop the rear wheel. Then watch the upper loop as you give the wheel a push to spin it forward. I suspect that you'll see the upper loop immediately sag somewhat.

The effect is mos pronounced in the smallest rear sprocket because the chain has less leverage to hold the cassette back.

Take the wheel out and feel to see if the freehub feels a all sticky, and if so, you'll want to clean and lube it.

I never took the freehub or the cog off at all. I did degrease the whole thing though. It was really cleaned out. I could really lube it up a lot more as I most likely didn't put enough on, but when I pedal slowly and even sometimes just normally it like the rear derailleur jumps all over the place and the whole thing just becomes a mess. If I shift just one cog up, the chain becomes tight again and works pretty normally. It's only that one combo, every other combo works, even the big/big cross chaining works. It's very confusing, I could possibly take a video if you want me to.

What exactly are you talking about here?

A video might help, but you're own eyes confirming whether the top loop sags when the wheel spins forward (coasting). This is pretty definitive, but note that I'm not taking about the cassette, but oiling the freehub ratchet or the seals between the freehub and hub.

BTW- some hubs and freehuns are very easily user serviced, others less so. Try searching for lubricate (brand/model) freehub and see what's involved for your specific model.

Just in general my cassette/chain, pretty much anything that needs lube on my bike.

You don't ever want to lube the cassette. The chain needs 1 drop per link on the roller, then wipe off as much extra lube as possible. You should NEVER see chain lube on the drivetrain.

That's a bit hopeful. But yeah, there's definitely a huge gulf between a minimum sort of black film where the rollers rest and the horrible gungy mess many drivetrains are.

No lube whatsoever on the cassette? Strictly just the chain? Well, this is new to me.. I know that black gungy stuff you speak about^, I would always spend so much time and have a nice clean bike and then lube, go ride, and it was back to dirty disaster. So what do I do with all the cogs? Leave them spotless and let time dirty it up?

I only tried it once while riding. Realized the gears were messed up and the rest was just by lifting the back wheel and spinning the pedals around while shifting. Thanks for the advice though, I'll look into that.

Why would you oil sprockets? They don't have any moving parts. There's enough oil on the chain want it'll deposit a bit where it touches as it comes onto the sprocket.

Like I said before I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff. I seem to prefer learning things the hard way. Such as the problem I have here: I watched many videos and searched a lot on the internet on taking apart/cleaning/installing rear derailleurs to make sure I got it right. But only NOW do I find the video about how my rear derailleur pulley's are very slightly different and it turns out I put them on the wrong way. The one I put on the back should be at the front/top and vise versa.. again, I learn things the hard way.. This is why I do this though, the best way to learn is hands on! Thanks anyway guys, I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow...wow do I feel dumb.

Yep.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=330526

It appears you have succeeded in spades, but in doing things the hard way rather than learning. Yes, learning hands-on is best but trial and error is not a good idea with something mechanical, as you can damage parts or cause an unsafe condition without knowing you have done so. When it comes to something that you depend on when you're traveling at speed on roads and paths, it's important things be done correctly. Further it's just not true that you "learn more" by making mistakes, as there are multiple ways to do something incorrectly.

I directed you earlier to the Bike Centre in Guelph - did you not take advantage of their services? If you did and ended up with this result I am sorry, because you received poor assistance.

Exactly...but if you lube your chain correctly and actually wipe it down every now and then it will stay pretty clean.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psb9f0641e.jpg

Alright thanks guys. I changed the pulleys today and it works fine now. I also wiped all the excess lube off my chain, and luckily I never put any on the cassette in the first place.