mecheng

Well, I got my first roadbike delivered (actually, UPS missed me, so I had to stop by their place...twice...but I was desperate ) yesterday. Assebled it today. It's a Motobecane Record. Nothing special, I know, but took it out for a short ride today and it felt great. Too bad it's a bit sore between my thumbs and the index fingers (from riding in the hoods) and all over my neck (from riding with a helmet first time in my life ). I tried, but all I could get out of the bike was 30mph. In 15mph zone. But the roads are **** here. Didn't venture on to the largest chainring though.

Anyway, now for the question. I noticed a bit of rattling on my front end. I have a suspicion that it may be the front wheel spokes, as everything else is pretty secure. Indeed, when I lightly tap a spoke, it produces that sort of rattle. Is it normal, or does spoke tension need adjustment?
The other thing is the front deraileur. When on the middle chainring and 3-4th largest cog, the chain is rubbing against the inside of the inner cage of the FD. There is no such problem when I shift to the smallest chainring though. Would a simple adjustment to FD screws be enough? If it helps, FD is a Sora.
Finally, do you have any suggestions on non-destructively removing light reflectors from the wheels? I don't enjoy the rotational imbalance created

TIA!

mecheng

Ok, an update. The rattling came from the light reflector, now dispatched with. In regards to FD, it actually hits the chain when in the small front/large rear setting, so a more thorough adjustment will be necessary.

operator

That's called cross chaining, hitting the FD may be impossible to prevent. Solution: don't ride in those gear combos. Places undue stress on your entire drivetrain.

the beef

I'm not sure if it's cross chaining if he's only on the middle chainring and 3rd/4th cog; shouldn't the chain run fine with that combo?

WheresWaldo

Large rear/small front should be fine. It is usually one of two things if there is some rub, one is too much cable tention, this will cause the front derailleur to move slightly off the limit screw and might not let it full move to the low gear position, secondly it could be the the low limit screw is ¼ turn too far in. For helpful hints on how to adjust the front derailleur take a wander over to the Park Tools website

ElJamoquio

I second the Park Tools website information... and remember you're going to have to adjust everything again once the cables get stretched.

dekalbSTEEL

YEAH, that sounds like an almost straight chainline to me. Especially on an 8 speed cassette(sora)

nobrainer440

Yeah, it should run fine on those gears. My sora bike definitely took some tweaking to get the derallieurs how I wanted them. Look at the park tool website and follow their basic instructions, figure out how everything works, and tweak it till it works for you. I never let anyone touch my derallieurs when I get my bike worked on now (Which is not very often. As a mechanical engineering major, I like working on my own stuff.)

mecheng

Hey, nobrainer, cheers from a fellow ME

Thanks for your advice guys, FD is sorted out now. Had to drop the height and fiddle w/ the 2 adjusting screws.

Just came back from a 20mi ride. I don't thnk I was ever so hungry in my life. Wow! Oh, and non-tail kind of wind sucks!

the beef

"Headwind"? Haha. So I tried to drop the height on my FD last night and I ended up messing a lot of stuff up. What procedures did you take? Do you need to unhook the cable first, and how do ya hook it back on correctly? Should you shift into the big chainring before you do anything? I need help.

mecheng

Hi beef,
The parktool website has it all on there. What I did was keeping the chain on smallest chainring/largest sprocket (so your cable is relatively slack; consequently, you don't need to loosen the deraileur cable bolt), loosened the deraileur holding screws (but not enough for the FD to freely move up and down).
Then I pressed on the FD cage to move it outside, noted the large chainring-cage clearance (which was too large in my case), and slid the deraileur down the tube a little bit. Keep iterating untill you get a penny-thin clearance between the chainring teeth and the FD cage.

After I got the height figured out, I unhooked the cable, adjusted the low-speed screw (still in the small front/large rear combo), tensioned the cable back, secured it, shifted to the big chainring and small sprocket, adjusted the high speed screw and that was that. Checked across all the gears, seems to work just fine.
Good luck!

BTW, I also meant sidewind. Riding on a flat straight at about 10 degrees to the vertical is a weird sensation