Gear Changing

[Onthedrops]

Some of you may have read that I went out for a night ride tonight. A short spin, mainly trying to get used to my new TB3
A complete newbie to road cycling and have never used the combi brake lever/shifters before.

My question, which I hope some of you may be able to answer is:

When changing gear, do you flick the lever over and hold until the change is made? I was just flicking across and found that the gears didn't seem to be meshing properly. Found the chain to be slipping now and again, especially when pressure put on the pedals. On the small front ring and large rear - no problem. Small front and drop it down one on the back - clickety clickety CLANG, clickety clickety clickety clickety CLANG! Frightened the hell out of me. Best description I can give!

The bike is brand new and has done very little mileage so don't suspect cable stretch as yet. Could it be that the derailleur requires setting up better? A bit clueless at the moment

 

[paulw1969]

difficult to tell from what you have said...........are the shifters Tiagra?............however i suspect you might not be dropping the pedal pressure enough when changing. Its a good idea to slacken off the pedals a little when changing up or down. Either that or you are simply not shifting completely with the inner changer on the right hand (if Tiagra) can take a little getting used to pushing this one over far enough...or a little tweak may be required get the bike off the floor so you can turn the pedals and try tweaking the adjuster nut on the cable where it meets the rear derailier a quarter to half turn might make the difference...not sure how much this will help

 

[Sittingduck]

If you're trying to shift up to a higher sprocket (harder to pedal and smaller cog) and it doesn't go straight in. Try turning the barrel adjuster where the cable goes into the rear mech. Try it a quarter turn clockwise and test again. FWFW, if you're running big front chainring and largest 1 or 2 sprockets at the back... that's a dodgy diagonal chainline and you may get chain rub on the front mech.

 

[Onthedrops]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I tried to keep the chain as straight as possible, hence small front ring/large rear was ok. Kept on small front and changed down to 2nd largest rear and click click clang! No great offset chainline there. Baffled!

 

[Sittingduck]

Tweak the rear mech - if no joy then you can always put it back into the original position.

 

[mark st1]

Get Di2

 

[Peteaud]

I would say it wants a tweak to set it up 100%

Either as above via a barrel adjuster or nip into a lbs and ask.

It might be worth getting an lbs to give it a once over.

 

[Rob3rt]

Re-index your gears, easy job, lots of youtube videos to help.

 

[screenman]

When you flicked and held did it work properly, if yes then you have your answer.

 

[Brommyboy]

I helps enormously to change the gear as your foot comes to the top of the stroke. At this point pressure is released and the change should be almost silent. Make only one gear change at a time.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I helps enormously to change the gear as your foot comes to the top of the stroke.

Is your other foot not coming to the bottom of the other stroke, or does that not matter, because the pressure is off on the up stroke.

Make only one gear change at a time.

Why ?

 

[Rob3rt]

The point at which you should shift to get the smoothest shifting is not just down to the tension on the chain, with regards to front shifting it is to do with the placement of the pins that pick up the chain and the tooth profiling.

Is your other foot not coming to the bottom of the other stroke, or does that not matter, because the pressure is off on the up stroke.


Why ?

It doesn't matter about your other foot, when one foot is at the top, the other is at the bottom, and vice versa, this is still the point of minimal tension in the chain as this is when it is most difficult to generate power, it is known as the dead spot and is the very reason products like Rotor Q-rings exist.

As for shifting one gear at a time, so you make sure the chain engages properly, however the reality is that you may need to shift more than one cog at a time.

 

[Lanzecki]

The Triban 3 has Shimano 2300.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Sounds to me like it is a couple of things
one: the gears have not been set up correctly - we had that on one of out T3s with my front derailuer actually being too low on the stay and physically catching the top of the teeth on the larger front ring when the bike was on the middle ring
two: the chain may be too long (or it could be the spring in the rear derailuer is not strong enough) - on both of our bikes this has been the case, though we have only shortened it on my husband's bike which was slipping in the lower gears way more than mine does.

I have also found that the STI levers have 2 clicks in them. Usually but not always 2 clicks changes 2 gears, but sometimes it only changes 1 gear, so I usually push the lever half way and hold, wait for the responce from the bike and see if anything happens, before releasing or continuing all the way over - though this only occurs for me in the rear derailuer set, so right hand lever. On the left hand lever with only 2 changes available it is a all the way over and hold until I get a responce from the bike... I will say I do not know if it is meant to be that way becuase this is the first road bike I have had with STI levers... my old road bike was a 3 gear thing with a lever mid stay which was on the wrong side for someone left handed!

 

[Lanzecki]

The rear lever (from memory) on Shimano 2300's will allow for changing up to 3 gears with the push of the lever. The first click should give one gear, and so on. Pushing enough for a 3 gear change is quite a long movement and too much for me (on my Ultegrara chainset). The down shift (thumb shifter) will allow for one gear with every press.

While in theory a well setup system will change 3 gears at a time it needs to be perfectly setup. As was said above, chain length, etc will affect this.

Cable tension on a new cable will drift in short order and require adjusting frequently until the cable's fully stretched. Just having the bike sitting there and the cable will stretch.

There is an argument here for pre-stretching cables I guess. Does any one do that?

I agree with the idea of changing one gear at a time at least until you get used to the way the lever's work. I used to accidentally apply the brakes if I tried to change more then one gear at a time.

Personally, unless you are able to do it yourself, I'd get it into an LBS. For a few £ they'll set it up. Most likely it's just cable stretch as we should be able to assume that the manufacturer has set it up before it left the factory. Re-indexing it shouldn't bee needed, but the LBS will tell you if it needs it.

I'd suggest putting the gears on to the lowest gear (rear casette) and seeing if the gear cable is loose (flapping around). It should be just tight enough to allow the chain to drop to the low gear, but not too loose to release the tension.

You'll find this out over time though. You'll soon know if it needs tightening once it's etup correctly. Every shift up or down should be usually smooth with little noise or jumping. That said even the really expensive chainset's are not perfect. It's not natural for a chain to be de-railed so a new chain will be harder to de-rail then a chain with a few miles on it.