Oops. Help needed. Gear indexing.

G1032

Shifting up the cassette was poor the last few rides.

Watched some youtube videos and tried to fix last night before expected spin this morning. Fixed to a point - everything was OK except couldn't change into smallest cog on back. No big deal.

Too icy this morning to cycle so I thought I'd give this indexing craic a proper go/ total overhaul. Now I'm totally lost and have no gears working right!!!!

What I've done:

With rear derailleur cable disconnected I set the lower and higher limits.
Wound in lower limit screw fully.
Manually moved derailleur up the cassette and wound out lower limit screw until chain shifted into biggest cog.
Wound in high limit screw fully
Wound out high limit screw until chain shifted nicely into smallest cog.

So far so good.

Now to index.........Problems started here:
Manually moved derailleur into second smallest cog.
Wound rear barrel adjuster in fully and then out about a turn and a half
Reconnected cable.
Rotated pedals and chain moved into smallest cog as expected. But now I can't shift back up through the gears. It's as if the lower limit is set to the small cogs!!!

Tried everything again and getting same results!!!

I'd appreciate some help or some links to the best videos available. Probably won't be cycling tomorrow so I have time to fix this but I really need a proper step by step guide to start this from scratch.

Thanks for reading if you've got this far!! Hope someone can help:)

tl:dr - how do I fix my gear indexing!!!!

Unknown Soldier

G1032 wrote: »

Shifting up the cassette was poor the last few rides.

Watched some youtube videos and tried to fix last night before expected spin this morning. Fixed to a point - everything was OK except couldn't change into smallest cog on back. No big deal.

Too icy this morning to cycle so I thought I'd give this indexing craic a proper go/ total overhaul. Now I'm totally lost and have no gears working right!!!!

What I've done:

With rear derailleur cable disconnected I set the lower and higher limits.
Wound in lower limit screw fully.
Manually moved derailleur up the cassette and wound out lower limit screw until chain shifted into biggest cog.
Wound in high limit screw fully
Wound out high limit screw until chain shifted nicely into smallest cog.

So far so good.

Now to index.........Problems started here:
Manually moved derailleur into second smallest cog.
Wound rear barrel adjuster in fully and then out about a turn and a half
Reconnected cable.
Rotated pedals and chain moved into smallest cog as expected. But now I can't shift back up through the gears. It's as if the lower limit is set to the small cogs!!!

Tried everything again and getting same results!!!

I'd appreciate some help or some links to the best videos available. Probably won't be cycling tomorrow so I have time to fix this but I really need a proper step by step guide to start this from scratch.

Thanks for reading if you've got this far!! Hope someone can help:)

tl:dr - how do I fix my gear indexing!!!!

You seem to be doing it OK?

I do the following...


Firstly, all the limit screws do is set the furthest points the RD can move. To stop the chain coming off or the RD hitting your spokes.


Put the FD on the Large ring and the RD in the smallest.

Release the RD cable and turn the Rear Barrel adjuster full in clockwise and then two turns anti clockwise.

Take up the tension on the cable and attach/tighten it again (You don't have to "tug" the life out of it.)

Put it in 5th and use the barrel to adjust. I'd go anti clockwise until it changes gear, then you know to go clockwise to the point where you can't hear it clipping the 4th gear.

You might need to tweak it when out on the road as it can differ slightly when cycling versus on a stand etc.

Your issue sound strange though Did you "retension" the cable when it was in the smallest cog?

I used the following.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQncKmddahk

browsing

You may have taken too little slack out of the cable. If you move it up into the biggest cog u can manage and then shift down to the smallest cog, can you click the shifter any more, as in if there were more gears? if so, you should start seeing more and more slack in the cable as you keep 'shifting' down tithe shifter, even though you're already in the smallest cog. sorry if this is too obvious. If this is the problem, put it in the third or forth cog before you pull the cable taught and tighten it.

torydiver

Have a look at some videos on YouTube....
loads on it for indexing gears....

G1032

Thanks for the replies. Went at it again and seems to be working. 95 % anyway.
I think the mistake I made might have been setting the high limit without having the shifter all the way to the highest gear!!

Good learning experience anyway and I'll know for the next time I guess

G1032

Did another small bit of fine tuning and indexing seems to be bang on. Thanks for the help.

noc231073

G1032 wrote: »

Did another small bit of fine tuning and indexing seems to be bang on. Thanks for the help.

I was going to say that if your rear derailuer hanger is out of alinement you will never get the shifting correct ...
If you are getting problem again check your hanger alinement... You probably haven't got the tool .. But your lbs should .. Or depending on where you are I do it for u but your probably miles away ... Iam south Carlow ...

G1032

noc231073 wrote: »

I was going to say that if your rear derailuer hanger is out of alinement you will never get the shifting correct ...
If you are getting problem again check your hanger alinement... You probably haven't got the tool .. But your lbs should .. Or depending on where you are I do it for u but your probably miles away ... Iam south Carlow ...

Thanks for the tip and the offer!
Up in Mayo!! Working well again now and I know how to do it for again. Glad I didn't cave and bring it to LBS because this is the kind of thing I should have learned properly years ago.

Xpro

This video helped me a lot. Hadn't had a bother since.

G1032

Xpro wrote: »

This video helped me a lot. Hadn't had a bother since.

That's the best video I've seen. Thanks.