Front derailleur removal

Tony EH

ridelikeaturtle wrote: »

No, it's not normal, not if you do any hills or encounter strong headwinds.

Obviously if I'm on an incline, or facing a strong headwind, I'll drop down. But yeh, most of the time I'm 52 11. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ridelikeaturtle wrote: »

But there's no hero points for staying in the "big ring" all the time, and it's not a measure of masculinity.

I'm not looking for that?

ridelikeaturtle wrote: »

If you find yourself "grinding"

It's not ME grinding. It's the chain "grinding" against the derailleur.

ridelikeaturtle

Tony EH wrote: »

I'm not looking for that?

Sorry, no not you, but I've seen a lot of douchebags in my time who think it's a pissing contest and use "being in the big ring" as a measuring stick.

(It's a bit like guys who use the term "chicken strips" on the back tyre of your motorcycle, it's a sign they've no idea of how to go around a corner.)

magicbastarder

Tony EH wrote: »

Is that not normal?

Surely if I'm on a flat run that's where I'd be the most, no?

my own experience is that on the flat i typically find myself in 52/16; 52/11 would be far too grindy for me.
what sort of speed/cadence are you managing?

Mehaffey1

Jan Ullrich that you back?

magicbastarder

Tony EH wrote: »

It's not ME grinding. It's the chain "grinding" against the derailleur.

grinding means pushing needlessly hard at a big gear.
at a cadence of 60, which is reasonably low, you'd be doing 36km/h in 52/11 - that would be bloody hard to maintain on the flat, and drain your reserves fast.
YMMV, but doing a higher cadence in an easier gear, for the same speed, is usually the advice you'd hear; e.g. 52/15 at 80rpm will give you roughly the same speed and would generally be easier to maintain.

Tony EH

magicbastarder wrote: »

my own experience is that on the flat i typically find myself in 52/16; 52/11 would be far too grindy for me.
what sort of speed/cadence are you managing?

I have no idea.

Tony EH

magicbastarder wrote: »

grinding means pushing needlessly hard at a big gear.

OK, exchange "grinding" for "rubbing".

magicbastarder wrote: »

at a cadence of 60, which is reasonably low, you'd be doing 36km/h in 52/11 - that would be bloody hard to maintain on the flat, and drain your reserves fast.
YMMV, but doing a higher cadence in an easier gear, for the same speed, is usually the advice you'd hear; e.g. 52/15 at 80rpm will give you roughly the same speed and would generally be easier to maintain.

Look, all I know is that when I'm out cycling, I'm usually in 52/11. I know what gear I cycle in. Of course I'll gear down if I meet a rise or I'm in a string headwind, etc. Obviously, if I'm climbing Greenhills Road, I won't be doing it in a big gear.

This is all getting off the point though, which is about the chain rubbing against the derailleur on my bike and whether I should remove it or not.

tuxy

Tony EH wrote: »

Look, all I know is that when I'm out cycling, I'm usually in 52/11. I know what gear I cycle in. Of course I'll gear down if I meet a rise or I'm in a string .

People are only questioning it because 52/11 is over 50 km/h assuming your cadence is not way too low. That's a tremendous speed to be able to maintain on a road bike and faster than than top level pros who need a TT bike to hold that speed.

That said 52/11 should not cause chain rub. I've had the problem before but once I fix the problem while off the bike I can't think what would make it happen under load out on the road.

Difficult to get the camera focus but this is what my bike looks like in 52x11
You can see there is about 1mm clearance. Does your bike have that?

https://i.gyazo.com/406e11d5e4e41f1754ca0dc3557d28d3.png

Tony EH

tuxy wrote: »

Difficult to get the camera focus but this is what my bike looks like in 52x11
You can see there is about 1mm clearance. Does your bike have that?

https://i.gyazo.com/406e11d5e4e41f1754ca0dc3557d28d3.png

Yep. Clearance seems to be fine and there's no wobble or looseness in the crank.

tuxy wrote: »

That said 52/11 should not cause chain rub. I've had the problem before but once I fix the problem while off the bike I can't think what would make it happen under load out on the road.

I think I'm just going to replace the derailleur at this point.

Anyway, thanks to all for the help.

tuxy

Tony EH wrote: »

Yep. Clearance seems to be fine and there's no wobble or looseness in the crank.



I think I'm just going to replace the derailleur at this point.

If there is clearance then it's not possible for the chain to rub on the derailleur. The problem must be else where.

hesker

tuxy wrote: »

If there is clearance then it's not possible for the chain to rub on the derailleur. The problem must be else where.

Bent chainring

tuxy

hesker wrote: »

Bent chainring

Wouldn't that rub if you were to spin the crank while off the bike. From what I understand everything seems fine until there is a rider on the bike.

Tony EH

By the way. it's a 50/11. Not a 52/11.

Sorry for the misinformation, which is embarrassing. But, I'm just some guy with a bike, not an expert.

nilhg

hesker wrote: »

Bent chainring

Or lose chainring bolt, may only become obvious when under full load and not while up on the bikestand.

magicbastarder

tuxy wrote: »

People are only questioning it because 52/11 is over 50 km/h assuming your cadence is not way too low. That's a tremendous speed to be able to maintain on a road bike and faster than than top level pros who need a TT bike to hold that speed.

i know it's not the answer to the question you asked - but i'll repeat what tuxy said. unless you've legs like tree trunks, staying in 50/11 most of the time is creating unnecessary work for yourself. unless you are incredibly fit, i would regard the defaulting to this gear as being an issue you need to address before dealing with chain rub in that gear.

i'm reasonably fit and genuinely could not remember the last time i was in that gear - and i'm including descents i've hit over 60km/h on.

cletus

The engineers bluing is a great idea, or if you can't get that, a blue Sharpie should work in a pinch. Very easy to see then where (if at all) the derailleur is rubbing

Mehaffey1

Cones on the back wheel could be at fault but would be obvious pedalled on a stand.

Tony EH

magicbastarder wrote: »

i know it's not the answer to the question you asked - but i'll repeat what tuxy said. unless you've legs like tree trunks, staying in 50/11 most of the time is creating unnecessary work for yourself. unless you are incredibly fit, i would regard the defaulting to this gear as being an issue you need to address before dealing with chain rub in that gear.

i'm reasonably fit and genuinely could not remember the last time i was in that gear - and i'm including descents i've hit over 60km/h on.

Look, I don't disbelieve you, honestly, and no, I am not "incredibly fit" either. Far from it I can tell you.

But as soon as I have a good momentum going, I switch into the highest gear I can, whether that's just my half hour cycle to work or longer runs at the weekend. Perhaps I'm being woefully inefficient and doing it all wrong.

Maybe it's because I don't do very long runs perhaps? I don't know. As I said, I'm just a guy with a bike. I'm not looking for kudos here or trying to big myself up, I'm too long in the tooth for nonsense like that. I just wanted to see if anyone could enlighten me as to what the issue was with the derailleur.

In any case, a buddy of mine is coming over later and we're going to take it off. That should let me know whether the derailleur is the actual problem or not.

ridelikeaturtle

Two sets of eyes are better than one, good chance one of you will see something the other didn't.

Tony EH

Right so, the end of this drama was all so very simple. My buddy came over this morning, took off the old derailleur and fixed a new one of the same type he whipped off of his Giant that he doesn't use any more. The rubbing noise has now gone. Happy bleedin days. All done in 30 minutes too. It would have took me hours so I was glad to let him have at it.

Now, with that done, I decided to head off on a cycle with my now silent silent bike. So I headed out on the N81 towards Russborough House.

So yeah, maybe I'm not in the 50/11 as often as I think . So perhaps it's my daily commute to work where I usually sprint that's giving me that impression. In fairness, though, that trip to Blessington involves some deceptively steep inclines.

What I do know, is that when I am in the 50/11, it is gloriously silent and not distracting me any more.

One thing I will say, that ride out to Blessington is a divil for having to avoid catseyes and there are really shitty sections of road that are terribly uncomfortable to ride on.

Anyway, it was around three hours, there and back again to Dublin. I have no idea it that's good or not...and I'm sunburnt.

ridelikeaturtle

Are you running 25c tyres? If not, that's an option, you can run lower pressures, makes a noticeable difference.

Tony EH

No, 700x35's.

tuxy

A giant contend has clearance for 35mm?

magicbastarder

Giant say it can take some 32mm tyres. But that will be cautious.

Tony EH

tuxy wrote: »

A giant contend has clearance for 35mm?

Bah :rolleyes:

Sorry, 700x25's.

I've just checked.

tuxy

35's might work well on that Blessington road, it really is awful.

Tony EH

tuxy wrote: »

35's might work well on that Blessington road, it really is awful.

It really is atrocious in parts. I'd hate to be doing it on a week day with serious traffic as well.

In fairness to a lot of the motorists they were very cool about slowing down and giving space to cyclists, of which there were a lot about this afternoon.

ridelikeaturtle

If you're already running 25's, maybe 28's? Depending on the current psi you're running, maybe try a little lower?

It could be worse, e.g. if you were running 23's at 120psi!

tuxy

ridelikeaturtle wrote: »

If you're already running 25's, maybe 28's? Depending on the current psi you're running, maybe try a little lower?

It could be worse, e.g. if you were running 23's at 120psi!

Do you think psi should be calculated by the width written on the tyre or by actual width?

I have 25mm Continental Grand Prix 5000 on wide rims and the actual width is 28.3mm!

A 23mm Continental Grand Prix 4000 II comes out as 26.8mm on the same rims.

Tony EH

ridelikeaturtle wrote: »

If you're already running 25's, maybe 28's? Depending on the current psi you're running, maybe try a little lower?

It could be worse, e.g. if you were running 23's at 120psi!

I'll look into it turtle, but I think it wouldn't matter too much on those stretches of road like some parts of the N81.

On the smoother parts, which is the majority, it's a far more comfortable ride. But there are long areas where there is a rough top layer if you know what I mean (I'm sure you do).

I haven't done a run out to Blessington in quite a while and I'd totally forgot about the roughness of the road in places.

Wasn't there something about dedicated cycle lanes on the N81 talked about a few years ago?