Gears Assistance

[Trigs]

I wouldnt normally post a question like this on here as there is more than enough information on google and other forums to to search through,so apologies. But before i get told to google it, i need some information on what to google, as im stumped. Im no mechanic by any means, but id rather try and fix anything that goes wrong myself for the sake of learning how to do it.

Long story short..
My gears have never been right since i bought the bike,were a bit odd on my first attempt out, which ended badly. After only 15 miles or so from new, the chain snapped, and snapped the deraileur too. So back to the shop, and it came back out with the gears even worse.
I got the gears working alright again, and in the first trial run, the gear cable plastic housing burst. I replaced the cable+housing, and set the gears up again.

They've been workable since then, but always a bit off. No matter how much i fiddled, they were never perfect, but were good enough. Always needed adjustments frequently to keep them workable. In the past 5 days however, ive done 2 rides of 10 mile total, and they gradually went from workable on the first to being 1 full gear out of adjustment by the end of 2nd ride. Crunched/banged and cursed my way home

Obviously something wrong, i could adjust it and get them working again, but what would cause it to lose the gear setup like that, as fast and frequently?
Not sure if ive explained it right tbh, readind it back it sounds as if gears just need adjusted, but hopefully you get the idea. Why do the need adjusted after every second ride or so.

Trying to get fit enough again to start bikepacking after 2 years or so off it, bloody bike makes me concerned about going anywhere remote.
Perhaps a bike maintenace board on here would be of use. I could certainly keep you all busy enough

[cyclingtiger]

First things I would check there are

a) is the cassette on tightly. A little rocking is OK but not a lot.

b) is your derailleur hanger straight with the frame

c) is the cable running smoothly/not kinked

d) is your chain the right length

[Bearbonesnorm]

Assuming that shifters / mech's / cassette / chain are okay, there's only really two things that will affect shifting.

1/ Limit screws - in reality, once these are set then there's nothing apart from a knock or possibly play developing on the mech' that would cause them to require adjusting.

2/ Cables - this could be either dirty / sticking cables, bad routing or a damaged inner. It could also be cable stretch or to be more accurate, cable outer compression but that should require more than a quick twiddle of the barrel adjuster.

Going back to 'is everything else okay', it could be a mismatch of parts. The shop sound a bit clueless, so they might not have noticed something like a 10 speed shifter on a 9 speed drivetrain, too short a chain or similar.

First thing I'd do is check all the components are correct and will live happily together. Then I'd buy a quality cable set and fit that.

[ScotRoutes]

Cables - replace both inner and outer. It's not worth trying to perfect the gear changing without this step. Make sure they are long enough, with no tight bends. Allow for suspension travel if applicable.

Straighten the mech hanger. Even new bikes often need this step.

Make sure everything is compatible.

Check the mech itself isn't damaged/bent.

Check the cassette isn't bent and/or loose.

Check the chain isn't damaged and is long enough to account for suspension travel.

Now you can start setting up the gears.

[Trigs]

Alright, plenty of places to start looking. Will give everything a checkover tommorow night, and may get some new gear cables. I think when i replaced them the first time i may have bought cheap ones from halford but i was getting bother in the short period of using the original cables.
Bikes a calibre two.two from Gooutdoors,and reading their website it seems quite a few people have had the problems with the chain and cable housings.

Thats my friday night occupied anyway

[voodoo_simon]

Bent mech hangar? Chances are if your chain etc snapped, the hanger will be bent (not always visible to the naked eye).

In all honesty, take it back to the shop you got it from and get them to check it over. If you have little faith in them, ask them to check the mech hangar and the points mentioned above.

[Bearbonesnorm]

In all honesty, take it back to the shop you got it from and get them to check it over.

He bought it from Go Outdoors - would you really take it back there?

[voodoo_simon]

In all honesty, take it back to the shop you got it from and get them to check it over.

He bought it from Go Outdoors - would you really take it back there?

Didn't see that! Ok, take it to an LBS then. Not saying don't attempt it yourself but at least attempt it once you know everything is in align

[Trigs]

The mech hangar got broken when the chain snapped, i named it wrongly in OP, the deraileur itself didnt get broken. Since id only had it for 15 miles or so, i took it back to go outdoors thinking they'd just swap it for a new bike since paint etc was chipped off also, (which didnt bother me to be fair) but they only put a new chain and hanger on it. It then came back from the shop and the gears were 1 gear out of alignment, 2 clicks to shift up one. It was in the process of fixing that when the gear cable housing burst. By that point i was for giving up this cycling carry on

Id certainly gave up with gooutdoors mechanic anyway, and decided just to change the cable and housing myself. I doubt i could take it back now anyway, as ive had it 2 or 3 years. Only been used for 140 odd miles however, had to take a break from cycling due to health problems till recently.


Gonna have a look at tommorrow and fiddle about. If i cant get it then ive no choice but take it to a bike shop for a look. Its annoying, cause you can sometimes get the gears working perfectly when you spin the pedals and shift gears whilst not on it, but as soon as you go on it, it starts clunking and clicking and before you know it after a few miles its gone completely wrong again.

[Blair512]

If you're fitting new cables hit up youtube and find a video of how to set the gears up correctly. First time I done it I watched the video through then restarted it and paused it after each step and done it myself. Gears worked perfectly first time and now I can replace the cables and adjust the gears in minutes by myself. Youtube is my friend!

[JezS]

I'm all for piling in to jobs I've never done before and learning as I go along...but in the circumstances of this being a new bike, not set up right, repaired once badly already - I think I would persevere with Go Outdoors and make sure you don't end up spending a load of time and money trying to fix something that they should be doing for you.

I have cycled with several members of the Go Outdoors management and "head of cycling" team up in Sheffield - they are all really decent people, dead keen mountain bikers and proud of that Calibre range of bikes they've created - which are pretty good considering the price.

So, if you're not getting good service from the shop - this is certainly not their company policy - and I would have thought a call to customer services to escalate this a bit would get you some proper service without you having to spend on new components after a handful of miles.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I think I would persevere with Go Outdoors and make sure you don't end up spending a load of time and money trying to fix something that they should be doing for you.

Yeah but the bike's somewhere between 2 and 3 years old - I can't help think the less stressful approach is either sort it yourself or with the help of a friendly LBS. A set of Shimano cables will be less than £20 and even if you don't know what you're doing, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to fix. I can see chasing GO could easily end up costing more in time, money and grief ... and besides, you'll have learnt a valuable new skill

[JezS]

Yeah but the bike's somewhere between 2 and 3 years old

^ah - missed that bit

in that case...it's time to get fettling

[Trigs]

Spent a couple of hours today working on it.

Had a look over all the parts, nothing that i can see wrong, but thats not to say theres not as i dont know the names of half the bits

I ended up replacing my gear cable again, and changed the housing lengths a bit better at some parts. I had copied the original lengths my first time round, but it seemed a bit long at 2 parts so ive shortened that.
Had a look at the chain length also, shortened that by 3 links.
My limit screws were still fine, so all i had to do was my barrel adjusters again and im back to my gears being workable.

Was giving it all clean up when i noticed my next problem, my forks are spotted with rust badly near the top. Not sure why its started to rust now, as it is only recently, but ive given them a clean up and rub with oil to protect them a bit hopefully. I'll hopefully never be going that far down on the forks for it to cause a problem

As for going to Go outdoors, when i took it back for them to replace the chain and hanger, they had it for about a week. Though they did agree to fix it no questions asked.
Despite everything, i do like the bike. I only paid about £349 i think for it, and its only been the chain and gear housing that let it down so far. Not exactly done much on it mind you.
The gears are a problem, but it would be unfair to blame the bike for that, as maybe it is just something im missing that a shop would have fixed in no time.

Will need to give it a longer ride or two to see whether its gonna mess up again. If it does i think im just gonna take it to a bike shop, hopefully they'll notice something im missing.