Gears - Who needs 'em! I'm pissed off with frigging gears, specifically the ones I fitted today. If it wasn't for the England - Germany match Id have been messing about with those poxy things all afternoon, covered in oil and crap off the bike, chain, derailleurs, sweating under the sun and with one eye buried in the Zinn maintenance book trying to figure out why the hell they wont work properly.
The front one goes on the small or middle one depending on how tight I do up the cable. The rear one seems to skip gears and either wont get to the inner cogs or wont get to the outer. Slacken the cable, tighten the cable, adjust the high screw, adjust the low screw...I eventually gave up in frustration.
I will probably have to work late almost every night next week so I doubt I can get to do anything with a clear head in the evenings. I might just take it into the shop & beg.
The only good thing about today was I made this in the morning.
A nice chilled pasta salad for dinner, which went with a bowl of mixed lettuce I drizzled in rice wine vinegar & poached chicken breasts which I had been marinading in a chilli, lemon & dry white wine solution all day. Absolutely fantastic on a hot day like this. Plus theres a good 2/3rds of the pasta left over for meals during the week.
As for the England match, well I don't blame the referee - it was all the lines mans fault who should have had his eye on the ball like every other person in the world watching the match. As for FIFA and their stance on no goal line monitoring, they need a good kicking. Its not fine to say "well it wouldn't have made a difference in the end", because we don't know that! If England had equalised its possible this would have driven them mentally & given them the edge they didn't have being a goal down. Maybe it wouldn't, maybe it would. Of course our defense was non existent anyway. I mean the Germans had nearly the whole England half to themselves sometimes! Meh..football.
Yeap gears can be tricky. I wish I knew more about bike tuning.
ReplyDeleteYes and great looking pasta.
Oh, and I have a confession to make.
My fiance is from Germany. :-)
Glad you got the brakes working man! The good part of this is, when you are done, you will know that bike inside out!
ReplyDeleteAnd fuck fifa man. I don't understand why the hell they can't either have instant replays or add two refs to either goal line to watch what the hell happens. The Argentina/Mexico game was even worse than the England/Germany game in terms of shitty ref calls. Fifa needs to get into the 20th century, if not the 21st.
Setting up gears can be a pain :-)
ReplyDeleteBest tip is...leave the front alone set up the back first!
Back of the cable and ensure that the chain runs smoothly on the smallest gear (Adjust the High stop as necessary)
Shift up and ensure the chain moves to the largest gear tighten the cable until it shifts up (Adjust the low limit screw as necessary - make sure the de-railer doesn't hit the spokes!)
Ones the upper and lower range is working drop the chain into the middle of the cassette and index up and down adjusting the cable until it shifts smoothly (Should only need small adjustments half a turn at a time)
Now shift up and down the whole range fine tuning as necessary.
Once the rear is sorted move to the front...Make sure the cable is nice and tight.
The chain should just be clearing the cage with the chain on the small cassette and small chain ring. Shift up to the large chain ring...if the chain overshoots adjust the limit screw in - if it doesn't shift enough adjust it out (If there isn't enough adjustment try towing the de-railer in a little).
Drop the chain onto the small chain ring, if it over shoots adjust the inner stop.
That's it job done... The only issues can be wrong shifters, sticky cables, sticky mechs.
Hi John. Thats kind of what the Zinn book said. Problem I have is with your 4th paragraph, where the chain wont go as far as the inner cog. Ive adjusted the cable so it just gets to the small gear which in theory should give it enough to travel to the large one but it doesnt.
ReplyDeleteThe bloke said it was a 21 gear pack I bought so other than the gears are spaced too far apart I cant think what it can be.
I can take it to the shop and get them to sort it out for me, the only problem there is I personally want to know how to do it. Alternatively I have a hammer & a saw!
That dont sound right...
ReplyDeleteI guess the de-railer has the range..ie you can move it manually..
How much range is missing?
Does it index correctly on the range that it has?
Yes when I grab the deraileur and move it to either extreme it will go there, but not with the cable attached to the gear lever. It worked okay with the twist grip ones before.
ReplyDeleteHowever I just popped into the shop at lunchtime and asked the bloke there and he said to bring it in for them to look at. As I bought the shifters there they'll do it for free possibly while I wait and watch tomorrow lunchtime.