Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

http://www.falconcycles.co.uk/CORP/g...Stoneriver.jpgi bought this bike a few weeks ago and am quite new to this, any ideas on better parts or bits to upgrade on it?the rear mechanism seems like it is huge and gets in the way a lot, how can i fix this, the chain also feels really lose.Help!!!

Umm... you serious?

The chain is gonna feel loose, because it's a derailler setup... the "rear mechanism" keeps enough tension on the chain to keep it from falling off, but it has to be loose so it can change gears.

How does the "rear mechanism" (I'm assuming you mean the derailler? The thing that moves the chain onto different gears?) "get in the way a lot"? In the way of what?

Yes we need mroe specifics to figure out what's going on here.

An example of what I mean is instead of saying "the chain feels loose", saying for example "When I am in the small front and largest rear gears, the chain feels loose". Thae way, we know when it's acting this way.

Oh, and Jeff is spot on. The deraileur is supposed to allow the chain to flop around a bit. If the chain has a slight amount of sag, it's ok...any more and you might need a link pulled out of it....take it to a bike shop for that.

The rear deraileur does have a large lower jockey pulley. This is normal for entry level components. one answer is to get a better rear deraileur. Again hit a bike shop....but it is not going to be a $10 upgrade...it's going to be at least $50 once you factor in labor.


edit: and a full parts list as well as info on your riding style or aspirations helps when you are looking to ask for upgrade parts. There are sooooo many different riding styles that fall under "mountain biking", from cross-country riding (no jumps, some log hopping and riding over roots/rocks, to freeride (lots of jumps), to downhill racing, to trials (controlled low speed maneuvering/jumps...it's an art), and others I may have forgotten...and each style has different demands on the components.

Ditto.

Catatonic left out one last style: Mountain biking on paved roads only, a peculiar style that many Americans and new cyclists engage in.

Ok, enough sarcasm.

A few weeks? My advice on "upgrading": Don't. Ride for a while, determine your needs and riding style. If you need to swap basically brand new parts out already that are fairly major components, then perhaps you should have started with something else. So take your time, ride and figure out exactly what you think you need, ride a bit more to make sure, and then start researching what you need to do to make your bike do what you want it to do.

Eggplant and Catatonic both have great advice up there...I'd listen to that as well.

Good luck to you.

Excuse me for barging in on this comment, but for us who don't like those prissy little thin things they call road bikes prefer a little meat and suspension under our fat arses :D

Nothing wrong with that... as long as you swap out the knobbies for slicks.

..a complete and utter waste on roads if ya ask me.
That must be why the road cycling forum has a clydesdale thread.

I started out at 200+lbs with a mountain bike. yay :(
Moved to a hybrid and then a touring bike. The most durable bike so far has been the touring bike. It is not a weight weenie bike by any means. However, It does weigh significantly less than a mountain bike and is frequently mistaken for a normal road bike.
Then again I now weigh 165lbs.
So, whatever floats your boat *shrugs*

Next year's bike will be a nice racing bike. Yeehaw!

Now that we got that out of the way [fully agree on the slicks for road use, BTW], back to the subject at hand...

Since the bike is new I must beg the question, did you buy it at a bike shop or from Wal-Mart [or alike]?
If things just don't seem right with the bike and you bought it at a box store, visit a knowledgible local bike shop and have them give it a once-over and a full adjustment. This is especially true if you don't know what to look for. A well tuned bike, even a cheap one, can feel totally different when it is set up right. Bike assemblers are simply not qualifies to do this. They often work on quotas or more coffee time.

I've had a namebrand bike with a seal installed wrong in the headset. Only a week old and I totally stripped the bike and rebuilt it. Wasn't taking any chances since I hate an unexpected spill due to assembly errors [not that one ever expects a spill]. That bike went 5 years without a hitch after that. Sold it in a garage sale in perfect condition when I bought my Specialized MTB [which was assembled correctly and tuned by the LBS where I bought it, I might add].

peace

Also mountain bikes have a larger gear range, 3 up front and 8 or 9 in back (a little more complex than that), and that's a lot of chain that has to be accounted for. So that rear derailer is going to have a much longer arm than a road bike to take up the slack.

My road bike is neither prissy nor thin, thank you very much. It's more of a touring/commuter bike, but still a road bike. (You are thinking of a racing bike, which is also a road bike. Kinda like a poodle and a german shepherd are both dogs.) Between it and my MTB, it is the lighter and more durable and reliable of the two.

This threadjack has been sponsored by Banzai.