Have I forgotten how to shift?

[DDH]

I have had my new Cannon for about a month now, well maybe not that long yet. Anway, I have had to learn a whole different way of shifting. My old Trek MTB had grip shifters on it, just twist the handle bar and walla, your shifted. The new bike has the shimano thumb shifter, click my finger on the right to go up on the back ring and the thumb to go down. The big front ring is the opposite, you cilck with the finger to go down and push with the thumb to go up. Well, I am having a terrible time with the chain dropping when I push with my thumb to go up from 1st to 2nd. It's driving me crazy because there is nothing wrong with the bike, DH can do it just fine while peddaling the bike with his hands and shifting the gears, LBS, same thing.
But when I get on the bike and actually ride, get a good pace going and go to shift up, probably 1/3 of the time I drop the chain, have to stop and put it back on. I'll get going again, and it will change just fine a few times.
What am I doing wrong. I have tried pushing hard and quick, I've tried pushing and keeping my thumb pushed in until I see the chain in the ring. There doesn't seem to be any ryme or reason to it.
I may be exagerating some with the amount, but today we road 17 miles and I had to stop 4 times to put my chain back on and it actually happened a couple of more times but I pushed it up to the 3rd ring real quick to see if it would pop in so I wouldn't have to stop.
Is it just a learning process with the new shifters? I hope so, because that gets really frustrating.

[light_sabe_r]

Donna, I had that EXACT same problem on my hybrid (same gear system)

You haven't got a bottle cage that when a bottle is in it, pushes down on the front derailer do you??

I did and it caused a WHOLE host of problems with my chain ring (on the large derailer.

(just a thought)

[DDH]

No my bottle cage isn't touching anything. Once you fixed that did it fix your problem? DH has adjusted it for me and the LBS that I got it from adjusted it before I took it home and made sure everything was going smooth.
I have a feeling I'm just not holding my tounge right, but haven't figured out the sweet spot to hold my tounge in. LOL

I will have DH look and make sure nothing else is pushing or touching it, but from what I can see nothing is.
My DH told me today he didn't know what was going on, because it works fine for him. I told him "fine you get on it and you ride it".
I really love this bike, but that one little thing is driving me buggy. It's not all the time, but it's seems to take a spell on a ride where it does it constantly and then I will have a ride where it may not do it at all.

[CyclChyk]

Are you perhaps shifting too "quickly"? I guess what I'm really asking is that when you shift, do you push quickly, or hold the shifter a couple of seconds before letting go??

I did not have a problem with chain coming off, but I did have a problem of not being able to shift to the big ring and it was because I wasn't holding the shifter, just pushing it and letting go. I have Shimano gears.

I hope I am explaining this in a manner that makes sense. Hope its info you can use.

[xeney]

I had that same problem on my mountain bike, and it was because I didn't realize there was sort of a knack to shifting in the front. The rear is easy, and my road bike is easy, but there is kind of a sweet spot on that front shifter. My husband could shift it find but I had all kinds of trouble until I figured out that I was not holding it hard or long enough.

I have low-end Shimano components. I have wondered if upgrading might make it less of an issue, but I think it is something I can probably just work out with some practice.

[CyclChyk]

Xeney - My Giant has Ultegra and I had a HARD time with the front gears. Same thing as you. Not long enough or hard enough. My Bianchi is 105's and so far it shifts like a dream...... so... don't know if that means Ultegra isn't much of an improvement over 105's, or that it means upgrading would just cost money and not fix the problem.

[salsabike]

Actually, your DH SHOULD get on and ride it. Or your LBS guy. Bikes behave differently when the weight of a real person is on them than when someone's shifting gears and moving the pedals by hand. Sounds like some kind of chain or derailleur adjustment might be necessary.

[Tali]

In case this is an issue, I'll mention it. I did this when I first switched to Rapid Fire shifters. You can't really shift both front and rear at once. Shift one, then the other. Once I figured this out, no more chain drop. Maybe this is waaaayy too stupid to even mention, but hey, I'm ok with admitting my own learning curve, which was STTTTEEEEEEPPP when I started biking. I have no idea how experienced you are, so no offense intended......

[CyclChyk]

totally off topic - note to TALI - I am not afraid of spiders but your avitar freaks me out!!!

[DDH]

Good heavens no I'm not offended Tali, ecspecially when someone is just trying to help. I do just shift one at a time. I don't think I would have enough cordination to try to do both at once. LOL


I'm with you CyclChyk on the spider, I'm not afraid of them either but hers does look creepy.

My shifters are ultegra and I think there is only one step up from that so I don't think upgrading is needed or the problem.

Thank you so much Salsa, I have tried to tell them the same thing. I kept mentioning that maybe it was only doing it while the weight was on there and such. I'm glad to know that I am not crazy thinking that. LOL
I think I am going to have him do that today, as long as he marks it where it belongs for me.
It reminds me of when a car has a problem and you tell the mechanic or your husband and it never does it with them. Irritates me. LOL

[SouthernBelle]

I have 105s on my Giant and have had the problem with it coming off the front. I've done 2 things that seem to have helped. 1 is to shift way up in the back before shifting up in the front.

The other is to continue pedaling until I'm positive it's off. Shifting up in the front is a little noisy sometimes so I was assuming it was slipping off. But stopping pedaling simply didn't give it the time to finish the shift so it would fall since I had stopped in mid-shift. So try pedaling a crank or 2 more and see if the chain picks up.

HTH

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

What Susan says is true- sometimes it needs a few extra round "between" gears in front before it picks itself up to the next gear. When this happens to me it's often because I've pushed the lever a bit TOO far and am overshooting the goal. I have bar end shifters, but the problem sounds similar. Try to let up on your pedalling force right as you shift- just sort of float your feet during the actual shift process- pedalling hard makes the gear/chain change more problematic.

[Tali]

Shift to off topic

I'm with you CyclChyk on the spider, I'm not afraid of them either but hers does look creepy.

Yeah, it was creepy when I saw it crawling across the kitchen floor! That darned things body was as big as my big toe!!! I think the only reason I didn't freak out was b/c we were in New Zealand at the time and I was more of the "Gee, look at this enormous spider. I've never seen one like this before" mode. But I was glad I didn't see another in the house we were living in, or anywhere else, again!

[Trekhawk]

Shift to off topic


Yeah, it was creepy when I saw it crawling across the kitchen floor! That darned things body was as big as my big toe!!! I think the only reason I didn't freak out was b/c we were in New Zealand at the time and I was more of the "Gee, look at this enormous spider. I've never seen one like this before" mode. But I was glad I didn't see another in the house we were living in, or anywhere else, again!

hhmm that does look nasty but if it was in NZ then it looks nastier than it is. No highly venomous spiders in NZ........another reason why I love the place.

[Bette]

I have had my new Cannon for about a month now, well maybe not that long yet. Anway, I have had to learn a whole different way of shifting. My old Trek MTB had grip shifters on it, just twist the handle bar and walla, your shifted. The new bike has the shimano thumb shifter, click my finger on the right to go up on the back ring and the thumb to go down. The big front ring is the opposite, you cilck with the finger to go down and push with the thumb to go up. Well, I am having a terrible time with the chain dropping when I push with my thumb to go up from 1st to 2nd. It's driving me crazy because there is nothing wrong with the bike, DH can do it just fine while peddaling the bike with his hands and shifting the gears, LBS, same thing.
But when I get on the bike and actually ride, get a good pace going and go to shift up, probably 1/3 of the time I drop the chain, have to stop and put it back on. I'll get going again, and it will change just fine a few times.
What am I doing wrong. I have tried pushing hard and quick, I've tried pushing and keeping my thumb pushed in until I see the chain in the ring. There doesn't seem to be any ryme or reason to it.
I may be exagerating some with the amount, but today we road 17 miles and I had to stop 4 times to put my chain back on and it actually happened a couple of more times but I pushed it up to the 3rd ring real quick to see if it would pop in so I wouldn't have to stop.
Is it just a learning process with the new shifters? I hope so, because that gets really frustrating.