niner_mike
New Member
Hi everyone,
In an effort to clear his garage my brother has just offered me an old hybrid bike (Marin Sausalito I believe). The indexed gears on this have never worked satifactorily, despite hours of fiddling with the adjustments and many trips to the bike shop only a few of the available ratios have ever worked without slipping/clattering horribly. My own experience of indexed gear bikes (admittedly all of the supermarket variety) has always been similar so doubt if I have either the patience or budget to rectify the problem properly. In all other respects this bike is probably way superior to anything I can afford at the moment so would love to be able to get some miles out of it.
I have a theory it should be possible to replace the existing handlebar mounted shifters with some old frame mounted shifters of the non-indexed kind that I remember on racing bikes as a teenager more than 20 years ago - presumably the indexing mechanism is in the shifters and I just need to set up accurately after finding new shifters that provide the correct amount of cable movement. I realise its a step backwards in terms of technology but since I´m accustomed to it, I´d probably prefer this setup anyway.
It will be a couple of weeks before I have a chance to see the bike and judge for myself if this is going to work. In the meantime I discovered this forum and figured it the perfect place to seek help - any advice you guys can offer would be appreciated, even if only to break the news that my idea is a hairbrained waste of time..
Many thank in advance,
In an effort to clear his garage my brother has just offered me an old hybrid bike (Marin Sausalito I believe). The indexed gears on this have never worked satifactorily, despite hours of fiddling with the adjustments and many trips to the bike shop only a few of the available ratios have ever worked without slipping/clattering horribly. My own experience of indexed gear bikes (admittedly all of the supermarket variety) has always been similar so doubt if I have either the patience or budget to rectify the problem properly. In all other respects this bike is probably way superior to anything I can afford at the moment so would love to be able to get some miles out of it.
I have a theory it should be possible to replace the existing handlebar mounted shifters with some old frame mounted shifters of the non-indexed kind that I remember on racing bikes as a teenager more than 20 years ago - presumably the indexing mechanism is in the shifters and I just need to set up accurately after finding new shifters that provide the correct amount of cable movement. I realise its a step backwards in terms of technology but since I´m accustomed to it, I´d probably prefer this setup anyway.
It will be a couple of weeks before I have a chance to see the bike and judge for myself if this is going to work. In the meantime I discovered this forum and figured it the perfect place to seek help - any advice you guys can offer would be appreciated, even if only to break the news that my idea is a hairbrained waste of time..
Many thank in advance,
My reluctance to spend much time/money trying to rectify the existing problem stems partly from the fact that from memory, this bike was bought from a well known shop (near London Bridge) and went back under warranty/complaint at least a couple of times, then already taken elsewhere for 2º/3º opinions. In the past both my dad & I who are both fairly competent mechanics have had a crack at sorting it too.