Derailleur Adjustment – Basic Tune Up

[TwoWheelsDC]

@SlowPoke 119990 wrote:

I need to get my derailleurs adjusted – new bike with about 100 miles, so simple adjustment to correct for cable stretch. Any ideas on a bike shop that will do for cheap – just a basic adjustment or tune up rather than a full tune up that may cost $60 or $80? Until I get a new repair stand, I can’t do a proper job by myself.

If you bought from a local shop, they should do it for free…if not, most shops should do it for like $15-$20 (if that). Frankly, I’d just go to whichever shop was closest or most convenient, since prices tend to not vary dramatically from shop to shop in such a small area. Bikenetic is always good, but Revolution and Freshbikes are good too. I know people like Papillon, but I don’t have personal experience there. The only place I wouldn’t take my bike is Big Wheel Bikes, just based on experiences I’ve had in every shop of theirs I’ve been in….YMMV.

[hozn]

Or you could spend a few minutes reading and save yourself $15 and putting yourself in the service queue. Derailleur adjustments are really pretty straightforward.

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/rear-derailler-adjustments-derailleur

[KLizotte]

I’d be really careful if you don’t know what you are doing. I once tried to tighten the cable myself on the rear derailleur and overtightened it. When I went to ride it the cable snapped! Ouch.

[hozn]

There are definitely some jobs that I would recommend leaving to the shop — e.g. facing the bb shell, cutting the steerer tube — but derailleur adjustment really is pretty straightforward if you have patience and just carefully check the shifting over the whole cassette range (or the two rings in front). Likely in this case all that is needed is a few CCW turns of the barrel adjuster.

You do want to be careful to check the limit screws. What you don’t want happening is a L limit screw that isn’t sufficiently dialed in allowing you to shift off of the big cog into the spokes. OTOH, the OP probably still has the pie plate installed, so little risk of any real damage.

I actually find adjusting the front derailleur trickier to get right, maximizing usable range w/o rubbing.

[trailrunner]

@KLizotte 119998 wrote:

I’d be really careful if you don’t know what you are doing. I once tried to tighten the cable myself on the rear derailleur and overtightened it. When I went to ride it the cable snapped! Ouch.

You broke the cable? I’m having trouble envisioning a scenario where that could happen. The only thing I can think of is that you had the DR against the limit screw, and forced a shift so hard that you broke the cable; even in that scenario, I would think that you would break the shifter or pull the cable from the clamping bolt long before you snapped a cable. Unless the cable was old and rusted, that would take a lot of force to snap a cable.

Or maybe I need to visit the gym more often? 😮

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