Message from discussion
New front chain rings - not able to use small one
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From: Peter Scandrett <prgs-use...@scandrett.net>
Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling
Subject: New front chain rings - not able to use small one
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:21:43 +0000
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Hi
Please forgive my terminology here as I think I might end up describing
things wrongly but I hope it's clear. I'm after a bit of advice please.
I have a ~12 year old Raleigh 'Jackal' bike, technically a mountain bike
but in practice I don't use it on mountains(!) but just towpaths/tracks,
that sort of thing. The front cogs (chain rings?) were horribly bent and
needed replacing so a few weeks ago I took the bike into my LBS
(localish, anyway, in Chorlton, Manchester) to have it looked at/bashed
back to shape/a new one fitted, and also to check over the gear
mechanisms etc. I got a quote over the phone for a new front ring set
and some pedals ("they look seized" - they were actually new a year or
so ago but who was I to argue? They were cheap and I was on the end of
the phone). I'd asked for new front cogs that were the same as the old
ones - mainly because I was comfortable with them.
When I picked it up the other day they'd fitted some bright silver
Shimano cog/pedal arm (crank?) combination which I wasn't overly keen on
(as the rest of the bike is black and red) but I went with it; when I
picked it up I was in two minds to formally comment on it (other than me
just saying "Hmm, silver") but I decided not to worry; they'd fitted it,
cleaned up the rear gear mechanism and looked it over so I was happy
enough. On reflection I wish I'd said I didn't like the silver colour of
the front unit but in the great scheme of things it's not the end of the
world.
Anyway, that's all by the by and largely irrelevant. I decided to go out
on my bike today as for the first time in ages a) me being not
completely ill and tired, b) it being a nice day (albeit cold) and c) me
not being at work all coincided.
To cut a long story short, I discovered that the front gear wouldn't
shift onto the smallest cog. I ended up standing in the middle of a
frozen field which, although it wasn't entirely unpleasant in the sun,
was cold - and all I had with me were my emergecny tools to try to fix
the problem. I rang a friend because I knew enough about the gear system
to try to adjust the two screws on top (the end stops?) but needed to
know which one did what and which way to turn them - only able to turn a
screw 1/4 turn at a time using my multitool meant I wanted to know what
I was supposed to be doing.
The practical upshot of all this and half an hour of me standing around
trying to sort this out is that I took the end stop screw out completely
(ie so there /was/ no artificial end stop small-cog-wards) and still the
chain wouldn't shift onto the smallest ring. In the process I'd managed
to stop it shifting to the larger cog too, so I gave up and went home
after only a couple of miles :-( I've since got it working on the large
one again.
So - can I have some advice please? Do I need to bend the gear arm thing
so that it will push the chain onto the smallest cog (I was reluctant to
do this on the ride and still would rather not)? Have the rings been put
on the bottom bracket(?) too close to the frame so it can't shift to the
small one? What else might have changed that I can fix (and how)?
For what it's worth, the gear cable and control thing on the handlebar
seem to be fine and it seems to be an adjustment thing at the pedal end.
I must admit that I'm not terribly impressed with the LBS in question;
they're OK, I suppose, but nothing to write home about. They replaced my
bottom bracket and chain last year without mishap (but wouldn't give me
my old chain back when I asked them - I wanted it because it had a quick
link but also because I wanted to clean it up and use it for something
completely different); this time I sort of assumed that when a LBS
replaced the chain ring unit they'd adjust the gear mechanism to go with
it but evidently not - is this normal? I didn't explicitly specify that
I wanted it to be done so I suppose it's my fault.
Sorry that's a bit long and it may seem I'm asking for my hand to be
held but I've had a look at http://www.sheldonbrown.com/ too and I'm
just a bit unsure on how to fix this as I've tried to fix it by
adjusting the stops as he recommends and just run out of movement on the
arm thing as the frame gets in the way.
Any thoughts please?
Many thanks
Peter
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