Barrel adjuster on rear derailleur vs frame?

[MattDB]

Hi,
Probably a simple one.
Touch wood, adjusting the gears on my current road bike has always been pretty straightforward - though my sora rear derailleur seems to take quite a lot of tweaking.

I've just been watching some videos on indexing and wondered: After going on a maintenance course I've always used the barrel adjusters on the frame rather than on the rear derailleur - these both just adjust cable tension right? So both do exactly the same thing?

 

[Citius]

The barrel adjuster on the downtube is slightly easier to reach while you are riding...

 

[roadrash]

yes theyn both do the same

 

[MattDB]

Thanks guys

 

[mjr]

Not all bikes have DT adjusters, so not so many instructions suggest them.

 

[Slioch]

As above. They both do the same job. What I tend to do is to use the adjuster at the derailleur when I'm setting it up at home, leaving the adjuster on the downtube with plenty of "play" for tweaking things when on the move.