Gears slipping, any pointers

yop

Lads,
Out today and on the small cog on the front and in the last 3 small cogs on the back the chain slips like hell. Never happened before.

Am doing a charity cycle from Limerick to Sligo on Thursday next for AWARE and am away working in Dublin tomorrow and Tuesday so I will be tight for time to get this sorted on Wed on my return to Mayo.

So any pointers on how I might fix it or is this completly bike shop fix? If its bike shop fix would it take them long.

Sorry for the daft questions but am caught for time on this for the bike to be ready for Thurs cycle.

buzzingnoise

yop wrote: »

Lads,
Out today and on the small cog on the front and in the last 3 small cogs on the back the chain slips like hell. Never happened before.

Am doing a charity cycle from Limerick to Sligo on Thursday next for AWARE and am away working in Dublin tomorrow and Tuesday so I will be tight for time to get this sorted on Wed on my return to Mayo.

So any pointers on how I might fix it or is this completly bike shop fix? If its bike shop fix would it take them long.

Sorry for the daft questions but am caught for time on this for the bike to be ready for Thurs cycle.

if you have been training alot for this the chain is probably worn. mine does this about every 1500 miles. easy fix. good luck with the charity cycle and fair play.

yop

buzzingnoise wrote: »

if you have been training alot for this the chain is probably worn. mine does this about every 1500 miles. easy fix. good luck with the charity cycle and fair play.

Thanks very much. Aye there would be about 2000km on the bike this year since I got it serviced in May.

Would that be a fix I could do myself or it is a new chain?

Thanks

bcmf

Have you ever replaced a chain before?
Is there a 'quick link' or is it just a standard chain. If it is a normal chain do you have a chain splitter?

adrianshanahan

Hi,

If you are changing your chain you may as well change you cassette at the same time. The bike will feel brand new, you will need a chain whip,cassette tool and chain splitter to do this. Not difficult at all.

And bike shop worth their salt can turn this around in sub 30mins providing they have time. If you are in Dublin there are loads of quality bike shops around that can sort you out.

I particularly rate The Cycle Inn, have also been into Cycleways once when I was stuck and I was well impressed with the service I got.

Adrian

yop

Thanks Guys,
For this one I had better give it to a shop, I will be run off my feet on Wed when I get back to Mayo to get organised for the cycle.
But its something I will learn!

Thanks for the advice.

yop

A ballache!

I replaced the chain and the chainsette ( well the shop did!)

I have done about 350km on them since and feck me today is started slipping again on the small front cog!

Now I had to take the back wheel off last night to replace a tire, could I have moved something?

Apologise for been a right thick on this!

kona

Its bad practice to cycle in these gears, you are crossing the chain which causes premature wear.

yop

kona wrote: »

Its bad practice to cycle in these gears, you are crossing the chain which causes premature wear.

Ok, I don't quite get you, I can't cycle in the small cog? Its the only 1 I can get up the hills in so not sure I understand you.

I would have though the small cog on front allows me to spin up the hills which I have always done, there is only 350km on this chain and cassette.

Can you explain a bit better please.

seamus

yop wrote: »

Ok, I don't quite get you, I can't cycle in the small cog? Its the only 1 I can get up the hills in so not sure I understand you.

I would have though the small cog on front allows me to spin up the hills which I have always done, there is only 350km on this chain and cassette.

Can you explain a bit better please.

You have presumably one small cog on the front and at least one other big cog on the front.

You should avoid "cross-chaining" between the front and the back. Generally speaking this means that if you are using the left-most cog on the front (known as the granny ring), then you should avoid using the rightmost cog(s) on the rear. And vice-versa: When you're on the rightmost cog on the front, avoid using the leftmost cogs on the rear.

Cross-chaining leads to increased wear on the whole drivetrain and does often cause skipping under high loads.

But you're saying, "I've lost gears", right? Not really. If we number both the front and back cogs from left to right, then running on cog 1 at the front and cog 7 at the back is roughly the same as running cog 2 at the front and cog 3 at the back, in most cases.

Traditionally (in Ireland anyway), we talk about bikes in terms of 21/24/27/30 gears. This is number of possible combinations of gears on the bike, but does not accurately reflect the number of usable and distinct gears on the bike. There are unusable gears (due to cross-chaining) and there are also duplicated gears. A "30-speed" bike will have 30 combinations but probably something like 15 or 18 distinct and usable combinations.

In your case, I wouldn't be very quick to blame cross-chaining on skipping gears, it could be part of the problem or it may not be the problem at all. It's hard to say without seeing it. If you recently had your bike serviced, then I'd be willing to guess that they replaced the gear cables. These stretch over time (especially when new) and your rear derailleur will need tweaking for the first 500km or so to keep it shifting smooth.

yop

I get you, thanks for that.

I have to put my hands up and say I didn't know about what you are saying and I would a dog for going from top to bottom cogs on the bag for both the small and big cog on the front.

I got the cassette and chain replaced there 2 weeks ago so maybe i need to get it looked at? Can I adjust it myself?

Ok so just to clarify, when I am in the spinning gears on the small cog on the front, once I move up say 4 gears (its an 8 geared back) I should move to the big cog on the front for the next 4 gears?

Thanks very much.

seamus

If you've 8 at the back and 3 at the front (these are called chainrings), then you should realistically only use 6 cogs at the back per chainring.

So for the leftmost chainring (the granny ring), use the 6 leftmost cogs, i.e. don't use the smallest two. For the middle chainring, use the middle 6 cogs and for the rightmost chainring (known as the big ring) use the 6 smallest cogs on the back.

If you have only two chainrings, then you can use 7 cogs at the back for each chainring, though you should try to restrict yourself to 6 to minimise wear.

Yes, you could adjust your derailleur yourself but it can be daunting if you've never seen it before.

You can have a look here, but I take no responsibility for damage done
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-helpreadhowto.asp?id=64

Any competent bike shop can perform this adjustment in less than five minutes.

yop

Thanks very much Seamus.