Replacing parts before they fail

[Tim Hall]

The hi limit screw, IME, won't get you far enough in for a decent compromise. One gear, maybe two. When this happened to me a few years ago I used the limit screw and struggled home on a rather high geared two speed. Fortunately it was a flat ride.

But I've read of a really cunning way: Take the cable out, seat the nipple in the cable stop on the frame and feed the remaining cable into the mech. This should enable you to shove the derailleur to a mid-cassette position and tighten down the cable grip screw thingy. And also have a load of extra cable hanging out the back of your mech which you will have to coil up. There may even be a fine tuning barrel adjuster there to twiddle to get it perfect. (I've never actually done this, just read about it).

This does depend on the cable not having broken at the nipple end. I have read of people, in such circumstances, locking the busted end of the cable under a bottle cage bolt.

 

[ayceejay]

Is this the old 'if it and broke don't fix it' mantra again?
My landlord thinks like that, I warned him of a dangerous tree that he looked at and shrugged. When it fell through the roof he fixed it.

 

[Mr Celine]

My front derailleur cable snapped failed last week 6 miles into a ride. It was new last winter and had only done about 1500 miles.
I have a triple so was stuck on the granny ring - I couldn't be bothered faffing around with the limit screws and tying the cable onto the bottle cage was going to scratch the frame. I rode home BMX style - frantic pedaling up to 15 mph then coast and repeat.

The cable hadn't snapped or broken, it had pulled out of the nipple.