fixed my shifting problems!

which may sound mundane to some, but since I've been struggling on and off with this bike for months, I'm elated.

The rear shifting has just been strange, shifting all over the place at times, working fine other times. A month or two ago I found out that there was a pivot point on the rear derailleur that was stuck, got it moving again and things improved. Then yesterday it finally dawned on me that my bike was consistently shifting very slowly to the smallest cog or two in back, or lately, not at all. Figured something was sticking and the cable needed replacing. Lo and behold - the plate underneath the bottom bracket, where the cable runs, had a v-shaped gouge in it from the cable digging into it. The gouge slowed the cable, and stopped it from releasing the derailleur completely. So out with the power drill to re-shape it into something u-shaped and cable-friendly :)

At this point I had to replace the cable anyway because it was too frayed at the end to re-thread. Turns out the cable has been quietly disintegrating all the way up inside the shifter lever... I could pull out all but 5 strands of wire. Trying to push the end of the cable back through the shifter lever with a gadzillion frayed edges of cable in the way was a real PITA :eek:

Anyways. I don't know which problem came first, but they probably all reinforced each other. Pivot point is now re-greased, cable replaced, plate reshaped, and the shifting is precise, and perfect! I'm waaaaay pleased :D And next time I'll know to look a bit further than just the rear derailleur itself.

Good job!

I seem to remember having shifting problems on my mid-80s bike, and it turned out there was a tiny hole that was a cable guide that was unnoticed when the cable was installed. Putting the cable through the hole made such a difference.

I don't do any of my bike repairs, mostly because I like hanging out in the lbs, but also because it's like you have to be a detective, or a scientist, to figure a lot of things out. What always seems like it should be easy, like where that annoying little ping is coming from, requires FBI-like analysis. :rolleyes:

Well done, lph!

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Originally Posted by redrhodie

I don't do any of my bike repairs, mostly because I like hanging out in the lbs, but also because it's like you have to be a detective, or a scientist, to figure a lot of things out. What always seems like it should be easy, like where that annoying little ping is coming from, requires FBI-like analysis. :rolleyes:

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See, to me, that aspect of it is fun. Now, if I weren't mechanically inept, it would be even more fun.

I now have a sloppy rear brake to diagnose and fix :rolleyes: I have to push the brake lever back a little after using it, it doesn't spring completely back by itself.

Actually, I'm pretty sure of the problem there, I just don't want to fix it :rolleyes: Part of it is I have cable housing running the whole way to weatherproof it, which means the cable+housing is ziptied to the frame instead of running through cable stops. I think that makes the rear brake a bit spongy. The other part is that the one brake arm is just getting a bit sloppy from age. It's a standard mtb v-brake, and the long metal spring won't stay completely put in its groove, but sort of slides into the gap next to it, which makes the brake arm sluggish and slow to return.

The joys of riding old bikes. Am now perusing a local forum looking for used v-brakes...

Re: strange pings. I took me months of fretting about the regular pinging sound I heard whenever I rode in a certain gear, before I noticed that my foot was hitting the end of the front derailleur wire (*ping!* *ping!*) with every revolution... :D

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Originally Posted by lph

Re: strange pings. I took me months of fretting about the regular pinging sound I heard whenever I rode in a certain gear, before I noticed that my foot was hitting the end of the front derailleur wire (*ping!* *ping!*) with every revolution... :D

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That is too funny! I would have never figured that out.

I find that whenever I hear a ping, it won't do it at the lbs. They think I'm a nut, hearing "imaginary" pings. :rolleyes: It's always been something, though. Once one of the pawls inside my hub was in backward. Talk about hard to figure that one out! It took some sleuthing.