Clarebabes

Can someone help me please. I really don't want to pay Halfrauds to fix it!! And I will need it to get to work....

Anyway, the problem I have is my rear gear is stuck on the smallest cog and won't move. (Technical language eh? ) No matter how much I fiddle with it, it still stays stuck.

So, can anyone help me please? They are Shimano 21 speed if that helps. The bike is not top of the range by any stretch of the imagination, but still £250 and 2 years old approx.

TIA
Clare

lightwave693

sounds like the cable has either snapped or the nut sercuring the cable to derailer is loose.can u move the derailer by hand? move the gear selector lever and look at the cable and the derailer and see if u can spot any movement.... pretty easy to fix

good luck
Rich

Clarebabes

Cheers Rich,

I don't understand what you're saying, but the cable is loose and I can pull it out of the casing quite a way if that's what you mean.

How do I fix it?

Iwan

If it's on the smallest cog the cable will be quite loose, the question is "how" loose is it? (it needs tension on the cable to get it to move up to the bigger cogs)

It's a bot hard to guess whats wrong without seeing it, can you post a pic?

Failing that have you got any friends who can look at it for you?

Clarebabes

Are you presuming that I'm a useless female?? Are you implying male friends?

LOL

Erm, my next door neighbour is bike mad, but I hate putting on people.

I'll try and post a pic, but do you reckon increasing the tension would work?

lightwave693

cable will be slack when on smallest cog, look at the derailer, the part with the 2 small cogs where the chain runs, on that there will be a nut and a clamp type thing where the cable runs, see if that nut is loose, if so grab the cable after the nut, should only be a short length or cable, pull it and tighten the nut... 8 or 10mm nut size i think...

Clarebabes

OK, that makes sense now. I'll have a look tomorrow.

Cheers guys. Will let you know what happens.

Clare

scud8

iTrader: (1)

The Park Tools web site is always good for this kind of stuff (except that you can do most jobs with half the tools they say you need!). See http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64.

Iwan

No I wasn't implying you were useless, just that I know from experience that mountain bike gears can be fiddly to set up. I built several bikes of my own from scratch and used to set up the gears on my friends bikes. I would have offered to look at yours if you'd lived remotely close to me.

It's often best to find someone who know's what they're doing, then ask them to show you how the gears work so you can fix/adjust them next time.

Edit: If your neighbour knows about bikes then no harm in asking (assuming you get on with them), they will likely be able to sudd the problem in seconds as there isn't much to go wrong on them.

Clarebabes

It's OK Iwan. I asked a bloke at work - I cycled in today - and he said to take it to a shop as it looks like the cables are twisted and the tension is strange.

I fiddled with the screws this morning and managed to get 2 more gears out of the rear! Cool! Doesn't really matter for my journey to work - not too many mountains from my house to work! It's only 4 miles and takes as long on the bike as it does by car. Was great overtaking loads of traffic this morning!