First few rides

[Mark1978]

Hi there,

After buying my bike last week, i've had a few opportunities to go out on it and i'm really enjoying it. Saturday morning i went out and did 3.5 miles in the morning and 5.5 miles in the afternoon, Sunday and Monday I did an 8 mile route each day and yesterday I did 10 miles (well nearly - I took an accidental shortcut which disappointingly brought me home in 9.5 miles). I surprised myself that I've managed to do that much without any real after effects, but I am putting that down to doing quite a bit of work on the cross trainer for a few weeks prior to starting on the bike. Im averaging about 14-15mph with a max of 20mph yesterday as i came over a bridge.

A couple of things i've found.

• The front disk brakes on the bike have started rubbing when not engaged and they do seem a bit slow to engage when I pull the lever. I think that might require some servicing, as well as....
• I'm unable to get the bike to stay in it's lowest gear, it kind of hops on an off the next highest on the rear gearing. Not that im using the lowest gear much - I live in the fens so the biggest hills are the potholes in the road.

Other than that, im loving being out and about

 

[Dogtrousers]

Congrats on that. 14 mph is quite brisk. What kind of bike (and what gears) does it have?

Can't help with the brakes but the gearing could be one of two things, both of which would require some fine tweaking. It could be the limit screw on the rear mech stopping the mechanism going far enough to properly engage first, or it could be the indexing. As it's just first I'd guess at the former. I'd be loth to advise what to do without knowing a bit more about the bike (and your appetite for fiddling) because (a) if you slacken the limit screw off too much it could be potentially dangerous (and put the mech into the spokes) and (b) if you fiddle with the indexing without really having to you could create an unnecessary headache for yourself trying to get it right again.

 

[Cycleops]

Great, congratulations. The limit screws on the rear derailleur just need adjusting. There are two of them, side by side, the one closest to the wheel usually controls the travel onto the largest cog, the other one the smallest cog.

 

[Mark1978]

Congrats on that. 14 mph is quite brisk. What kind of bike (and what gears) does it have?

Its a GT Transeo 3.0 2013 model. Shimano SLM-360 8spd Rapid Fire derailleur/ Shimano HG31 8spd cassette 11-32.

I'll have a look at the limit screws. Im quite partial to a bit of fiddling and im hoping to learn to service the bike myself at some point (it doesnt help that i live in the middle of nowhere and the nearest bike store is tens of miles away)

 

[MikeW-71]

If it used to stay on the lowest gear, and now it doesn't, it most likely just needs a tweak of the cable tension on the rear mech.

 

[Mark1978]

If it used to stay on the lowest gear, and now it doesn't, it most likely just needs a tweak of the cable tension on the rear mech.

Thanks, couldn't be sure, as it's second hand and it's been doing it since I purchased it. I'll start by adjusting the screw a bit, and if that doesnt sort it, I might have to investigate cable tension.

 

[Old Plodder]

To re align disc brake, loosen off the clamp bolts, apply brake & re tighten bolts whilst holding the brake on, release brake, that should have it centred again. (If they take a while to come on, likely the pads need renewing.)
Stops screws usually have markings of Lo & Hi to indicate which screw does which, but if you put the bike in the gear you want adjusted, just look at which screw is up against the mech. (Likely it is only a bit of cable stretch, so try the inline adjusters first.)