I just wanted to know, does your bikes make any chain noise (rubbing on the front deraileur) in any of the gear combinations? Mine has a little noise when using small ring to small cog in the rear. I know I'm not supposed to crosschain, I just would prefer it to not make noise, even if I'm not using that combination normally. I also get an intermittant, and very very slight amount, when using the middle ring in front along with the largest rear. Is this normal for this bike? My last bike had 24 speeds instead of 27 and I never had any rubbing issues whatsoever. Other than that I love the way this bike shifts and rides so far. But in all fairness, it is the best bike I have ever owned so far!

I've owned seven different bikes of all levels (from the cheapest POS $100 Walmart special to my current carbon-fiber-frame, Ultegra-equipped Specialized Sirrus LTD) in the past 15 years, and each and every one of them has chain-rub when crosschained, if the derailleurs have been adjusted properly.

The only time they don't chain-rub in cross-chain is when the derailleurs are out of whack.

Just don't cross-chain. Bike drivetrains are not designed to operate optimally in that mode.

As far as the slight chain-rub when you are using your middle chainring / smallest cog combo, use the barrel adjuster along your FD cable routing and give it a quarter-turn more tension. The higher tension will make the derailleur move outside just a hair more and eliminate the chain rub.

I've found loads of tutorials on you tube about adjusting bicycle drive chains and other things and learned a lot of things.

In most cases no, but every once and a while after moving from the small front to middle front there can be a minor rub. It's fairly rare though. It's usually because I haven't fully shifted the front derailleur.

up4speed, your question has very little to do with a specific bike or model.
It's simply a matter of ever so slightly adjusting your derailleurs until you reach the desired effect
Especially for new bikes it is common that all parts will settle in and need readjusting after a while.
As jbc said a lot of info can be found on the web about adjusting these things.

The reason I ask, is that no matter how much the shop tried to adjust the derailleurs, there is always some noise with some gear combos. I am wondering if he is pulling my leg by saying it's normal, or if there is a combination of components that don't work well together, or if something is defective. The mechanic that worked on it has been working on bikes for 20+ years, and seems to know his stuff, and he claims that, that is the way these new bikes with more gears are. He keeps insisting not to cross chain. While I know I'm not supposed to cross chain, I would still like the chain not to rub if I did. I don't want to mess with it b/c I have 2 years of service for free, plus it is under warranty. If there is a defective part, I would like it replaced. If it is normal, I can live with it, but that's why I asked the people with the same bike and same components. The reason that I am starting to believe that it is normal, is that when I was in the shop, he showed me a road bike, and when it was cross chained the chain rubbed on the other front chainring!! It had nothing to do with the derailleur. Apparently some components don't work well together.

Some "rubbing" is normal. The had part is knowing what you are hearing - exactly - and knowing what you're experience level is. From what you've said it sounds normal.

There's a reason why your mechanic is warning you not to "cross chain". Listen to him.

If you won't listen to him, listen to Sheldon Brown:

creativepart, the noise I am referring to is the chain hitting the right side of the front derailleur when I am using the small chain ring in front and the small gear in the back. Like I said, I know I'm not going to cross chain when I ride, just wondering if other people's 7.5 FX's are doing the same thing. It seems like the new 2011 Deore derailleur is narrower with tighter tolerances. If I were to set the low limit more restrictive, so it doesn't hit, it seems like it would then hit on the left side when I am using the small front ring and the large rear gear, which is obviously a usable and thus more important combination. Are these things designed that way, or is it an adjustment issue. I would like it quiet in all the gear combos if it is possible, even if I don't use those combinations (I'm anal like that! lol ). I don't think the older models would have this issue because the derailleur cage was wider.

That's what happens when you crosschain. Don't do it.

If your derailleurs are properly adjusted and working right, it WILL chain-rub when you crosschain (forcing the derailleurs and chain to operate in a non-optimal mode, i.e. OPERATOR ERROR).

It's not just your LBS mechanic insisting that you avoid crosschaining. Everyone else on this forum have been telling you that too.

+1
OP: you've kind of answered your own question(s) in your last post -- 3x9 gearing, up to date derailleurs > close tolerances. There is nothing wrong with your bike/its components; the noise (derailleur rub) when running, say, small chainring to smallest cog is your chain/cassette/chainrings saying to you "Knock it off/you are wearing us out prematurely and wasting your own energy in the process."
The point is, that's what would be happening whether there was noise or not.

Got it, thanks guys!! Time to ride it (properly, lol) and enjoy it.

It could be that your front derailleur is slightly too low or too high and this causes the rubbing of the chain.
If that's not the case then it just is as it is and it's no big deal.
Just make sure not to crossgear

On a sidenote: my front shifter has 9 clicks like my rear shifter does ... this makes it possible for me to simply click one down or up in the case of rubbing as I have intermediate shifts compared to typical 3 click front shifters.

BTW, this maybe naive of me and been told already several times but...Why do the bike makers have that many gears if you cannot use them all, hence, crosschain? That's like having a 6 speed car but cannot use the 6 gear cause it will make noise.

So, if you do crosschain even if you're not suppose to will it hurt the bike and/or have to tune it more often? Sorry I'm new to bikes.

No it's not.

The crosschained combos have gear ratios that duplicate other better NON-crosschained combos.

Let's say your bike has two chainrings in the front, a 40 tooth big ring and a 32 tooth small ring. And the back has a cassette with 12-30 teeth cogs.

Why run the crosschained big-big combination (40 tooth front and 30 tooth back, for a 4:3 gear ratio) when you can use the small 32T ring and a 24-tooth cog in the middle of the cassette (which is also 4:3 gear ratio) to keep the chain straighter? Same gear ratio, but without the added stress of crosschaining.

The Big-big and small-small crosschained combos have gear ratios that are replicated by NON-crosschained combos. There is NO NEED to crosschain and put extra strain on your chain, derailleur and gears.

A bicycle drivetrain works best when the chain is as close to straight as possible. Crosschaining puts a kink in the chain, which will cause accelerated wear on your gears and the chain, as well as put extra stress on your derailleurs. The big-big combo will pull the derailleur pulley all the way forward and put a lot of stress on its spring, which may cause the derailleur to fail. The small-small combo will put too much slack in the chain (the derailleur pulley can't retract far enough to put sufficient tension on the chain), which in addition to chain rub and gear wear, might cause the chain to come off your chainrings.

If you are running crosschained, you are committing OPERATOR ERROR.

I kind of agree with you. I have a 27 speed bike, but...
If I am using the small front chain ring, I shouldn't use the 2 smallest rear cogs. If I am using the middle chain ring, I shouldn't use the largest and smallest cog. If I am using the largest chain ring, I shouldn't use the 2 largest rear cogs. I just lost 6 speeds!!
Shouldn't my bike be called a 21 speed bike then?
If it is so wrong to use those cross chained gears, shouldn't the shifters be designed to "lock out" the unusable gear combinations? That could be very easily engineered, but I guess we would need an additional cable from shifter to shifter (so they can communicate). I know, don't say it.....If tou don't know how to ride a bike properly, you shouldn't be riding, right?

Actually, no, you didn't lose 6 speeds. Those crosschained "speeds" merely duplicate the same speeds available in other non-crosschained gear combos. And they do it in a bad way, with chain kink (extra stress on the gear teeth), chain rub, and extra stress on the rear derailleur.

As far as building lockouts into the shifters to prevent crosschaining, it would just add complexity and weight to a shifter system, though I'm sure entry-level riders would appreciate such a feature.