Won't shift on first try

[Kelly728]

That's common. The bike will behave differently under load. Do you have a trainer? Sometimes I will work on tuning with my bike set up on the trainer with light resistance (enough that I can still hand pedal, but not so little that it's freely spinning).

Because you are getting stuck shifting in EITHER direction, it's probably a cable issue instead of a FD adjustment. Try lubing the cable well under the BB with any oily cleaning lube like Prolink. Lube/clean the shifter with WD-40. Have you always had this problem? How old are your cables? You might need new ones.

I do have trainer (very recent purchase) which is how I discovered that I could shift it by hand pedaling. I will try cleaning everything to see if that helps. I purchased the bike new in February so that shouldn't be the issue.

[tctrek]

I do have trainer (very recent purchase) which is how I discovered that I could shift it by hand pedaling. I will try cleaning everything to see if that helps. I purchased the bike new in February so that shouldn't be the issue.

My LBS always asks me to come back within 90 days of purchase so that they can give it the once-over -- check out all the alignments and tweak stuff that has loosened up or shifted since it was new.

[aicabsolut]

Well cables don't last forever. There are a lot of factors involved in cable wear. If you've always had the problem with shifting, then it's probably not that the cables have suddenly died. But today I was out for a 50mi ride. Around mile 40, I had trouble shifting in either direction in the rear. It would take 2 or 3 tries each time. Being pretty sure that the cable was near toast, I quit shifting the rear until I reached the shop, which was conveniently located about 2 mi from the end of my ride. I asked them to replace the cable. When they pulled it out, the end inside the shifter was shredded and would have snapped soon.

More commonly, you will get some gunk (from your bottles or the road) near the cable stops under the BB or grunge and dirt down in the shifter. Too much friction means poor shifting, and it will seem worse under load.

It could also be that your shop didn't tune it well from the start, which might mean a combination of things like a too loose cable and a too tight lower limit screw.

[Kelly728]

I am going through a cleaning overhaul this week. I must admit that I haven't been very adamant about bike maintenance, considering I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'm learning!

I recall having a few shifting issues in the beginning, took it into the shop for my warranty tune-up but at that point I got injured and my ability to test out the shifting was limited. It is really hard to say when I starting seeing these issues, especially with my flat routes.

If the cleaning doesn't help, off to finding an LBS that I can whine to about my shifting woes.

[OakLeaf]

Just for reference, how many miles do you usually get out of a shifter cable (particularly the rear)? Is yearly replacement enough regardless of mileage?

[aicabsolut]

I usually get one season. That was close to a full year at first. By upping my mileage and racing, the past 2 years, I've put on new cables at the end of March and had to replace the rear cable in the fall. Last year, I made it till October. This year, August. I've done more tough climbing this season, which probably has to do with it because of more shifting and more shifting up under heavier loads. I've put over 2000 miles on with this cable.

I think some of it depends on your drive train. Shimano shifters are pretty notorious for eating cables. I'd been told that I'd get a lot more life out of Dura Ace cables than standard Shimano, because they are thicker. So far with the rear, that hasn't been true for me.

At any rate, I think that it's pretty good practice to change cables at least yearly if not 2x a year.

[HillSlugger]

I usually get one season. That was close to a full year at first. By upping my mileage and racing, the past 2 years, I've put on new cables at the end of March and had to replace the rear cable in the fall. Last year, I made it till October. This year, August. I've done more tough climbing this season, which probably has to do with it because of more shifting and more shifting up under heavier loads. I've put over 2000 miles on with this cable.

I think some of it depends on your drive train. Shimano shifters are pretty notorious for eating cables. I'd been told that I'd get a lot more life out of Dura Ace cables than standard Shimano, because they are thicker. So far with the rear, that hasn't been true for me.

At any rate, I think that it's pretty good practice to change cables at least yearly if not 2x a year.

Do you have to replace the bar tape each time to replace the housing underneath?