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New bike , Cable tension ??

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New bike , Cable tension ??

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Old 03-05-15 | 11:03 PM
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New bike , Cable tension ??

I got a new bike a month and half ago i have ridden it hard almost everyday, 25 miles a day for training , and today i noticed that the cable tension on the shifters rear derailleur and front derailleur cables are a bit loose ,, the shifters feel a bit less snappy and softish or not enough cable tension , the rear derailleur feels and sounds like it needs a slight adjustment and the chain on the front derailleur is rubbing a bit more than it was before. i guess my question is is it normal for cable tension to loosen up on a new bike ?? have you guys ever lost some cable tension on your new bike ?? is it okay to ride like that ??
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Old 03-05-15 | 11:07 PM
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More cable tension makes shifts to small cogs and big chainrings snappier but also makes them slower to big cogs and small chainrings. A balance must be achieved.

If you bought it at a shop within the past 90 days to a year (depending on shop), they'll probably tune the shifting for free. Some will do quick tunes like that for free for life.
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Old 03-05-15 | 11:09 PM
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Normal, most places will at least do a free first tune for new bike break in. Cable tension and wheel truing.
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Old 03-05-15 | 11:58 PM
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Yes. It's called "cable stretch," and it's normal, but it really isn't the cables stretching. It's the housing bedding into the housing ends, and those bedding into the housing bosses on the bike. The better job that the shop does on this detail work, the less stretch there is. In any case, learn to adjust your own cables. Have your LBS show you how, both derailleur and brake. It's normal to have to adjust something every couple weeks if you ride much. Can't be fooling with taking the bike to the shop that often! This will happen to some extent every time you recable the bike, which most folks do every year or two if they ride a lot.

No, it's not OK to ride like that, at least not much. Not that you'll really hurt anything, it's just unpleasant not to have the shifters function properly.
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Old 03-06-15 | 02:56 AM
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Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets
More cable tension makes shifts to small cogs and big chainrings snappier but also makes them slower to big cogs and small chainrings. A balance must be achieved.
It's the same way for the chainrings and the cassette - more tension means quicker shifts to larger sprockets. It only differs if the rear derailleur is a low normal model, but I don't know of any such derailleurs for road bikes.

Last edited by Fiery; 03-06-15 at 11:58 AM.
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Old 03-06-15 | 05:28 AM
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Turn the barrel adjusters counter clockwise (unscrew) 1/4 turn which adds tension, check shifting, another 1/4 if needed and so on. If you need to turn it more than a couple of clicks then the limit screws probably need adjusting.
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Old 03-06-15 | 11:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Fiery
It's the same way for the chainrings and the cassette - more tension means quicker shifts to a larger sprockets. It only differs if the rear derailleur is a low normal model, but I don't know of any such derailleurs for road bikes.
Yep, dunno why I was thinking in rapid rise.
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