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Help! Need to adjust my deraileur ASAP

573 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  glockglade 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys I'm new to the forum here so be gentle, I have a 2008 Giant Yukon FX and I love it to death. The only problem is that I don't like paying 30 bucks every two weeks to have the gears adjusted. In particular my 2nd gear is usually the problem. Its an 8 speed and all the other gears seem to work fine, but 2nd gear makes a clicking sound and with enough torque on it will go into 3rd gear. How do I adjust #2 without screwing up the rest of the gears.
Thanks Jason
 
#2 ·
If you really want to learn how to adjust the derailleurs it would help you to buy a bike repair book or go to parktools.com. This would be especially useful to you if you are new to MTBing and wrenching your own rig. You'll learn a lot about your bike and save some money in the mean time since you'll know what "problems" you can fix on your own. "Zen and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenace by Lennard Zinn is about as user freindly a bike repair book as you will find; I highly recommend buying it.

Shifting problems can be caused by a lot of different things but they are usually caused by cable stretch or misalligned derailleurs. Cable strech will happen over time as you use the bike. Misalligned deraileurs are usually caused by dropping the bike or running into something. I would start with both of these sections in the parktools.com website. For the most part, both of these adjustments can be done with a set of allen wrenches and some channel locks. If you bent one of the derailleurs or the rear hanger you are going to need new parts.

Before you start that, I have to ask one question. It may seem obvious to you so please don't take it wrongly if you are already aware of this concept. Do you have your bike on the inside/small cog in the front when you are on the second cog in the rear? The reason I ask this is chainline issues. Some people don't realize that their bike is designed to only use certain gears in the rear with certain gears in the front due to chain cross. The inside/small cog in the front should only be used with the six inside/top cogs in the rear. The middle cog in the front is only for use in the middle six rear cogs. The outside/large cog in the front is only for use with the outside/bottom six cogs in the rear. You can get away with using the ones outside that range but you will be crossing your chain from in to out so much that you will automatically have problems.
 
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