RANS Tailwind front derailleur problem and question.
 

I have a 2001 tailwind, the red one with the 2 inch main tube. The front derailleur (shimano soro)'s spring broke. The local bike shop replaced it with a Claris, but It has not shifted correctly since.I took it back, and a guy other than that one that installed it, told me that the new front derailleur was a road bike derailleur, and it didn't take as much movement of the shifter to move it over to another ring. He readjusted it as good as he could, but now it wont go to the large ring without a lot of effort, then it sometimes goes over the ring and the chain comes off. My question is, what brand and model front derailleur is approipriate for the 2001 Tailwind. Do you think if I got the proper one, it would make a difference. I am about to put new sram shifters on the bike, if that matters, and it has a sram rear derailleur.

Thanks for your help.
Bill

You need a derailleur that goes with the biggest chainrings (road) but you need one with the proper pull ratio for mountain shifters. I would say, "ask RANS" but they've just changed hands and getting to them is somewhat difficult. I recommend that you ask over at BentRiderOnline, in the technical section. There are some good mechanics over there who know exactly which derailleurs to use. Also, you may need a chainring guard, to help keep the chain from shifting off on the outside.

Thanks. I just posted it the technical discussion section over there.

Yes, you need a derailleur that is proper for your particular gear, which will handle your relatively huge large ring and cover the range of your rings. You might want to start another post in Bicycle Mechanics and include the sizes of each of your chainrings. My first 'bent was a 2000 Tailwind and I think it had a Sora. My more recent RANS bikes - which came with with 30-39-52 cranksets - have come with Microshift FD's - RANS sometimes slaps a RANS sticker on them and calls them RANS FD's. You might consider contacting the new RANS company for advice RANS Bikes | Contact

Agree with Blazing's advice to post on bentrider.

What kind of shifters are you using? You say that you have a Sram rear derailleur which tells me you must also have Sram shifters. Does your front shifter have only 3 positions or does it have a plethora of clicks? If it's the former, and you're going to upgrade the shifters anyway, I'd suggest getting a set with friction front shifter (the plethora of clicks). I'm thinking that should solve your problem.

Another thing that comes up is the cable routing to the front derailleur. Many Shimano front derailleurs have a little "L" shaped finger in the cable path. It's important that the cable pass OVER that finger it it'll take too much effort to shift onto the big ring.

I am replacing sram 7.0 shifters with SRAM MRX COMP 3x8 8-Speed Gripshift Front & Rear Set w/ Grips Cables Cruiser MTB.

I have a bike tech coming next week to change them out and adjust everything. My LBS seems to have a problem getting this worked out, and I have lost trust in them. My other alternative is to take it to a bike dealer 100 miles away that only sells recumbents and is a RANS dealer. I'm beginning to think I should just do the dealer deal. So few techs have ever worked on a recumbent, but shouldn't the recumbent adjusting be very similar to recumbent adjusting?

Exactly where should I look for the L shaped finger?

MRX shifters aren't going to work with your Sram rear derailleur. MRX are designed with the cable pull to work with Shimano derailleurs.

The L shaped finger, if there is one on that derailleur, will be in the cable path quite close to the cable anchor screw.

The little 'nub' on many Shimano FD's that the cable must go over and not under.

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