SRAM shifting issues.

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yo vanilla

Senior Member
Location
WI, USA
Mabye this will help... I had shifting problems going into the smallest rear cog this summer. It would stick or hang for a few pedal rotations and finally bang in. New or new-ish components, clean and lubed, and despite lots and lots of adjustments, I couldn't solve it. It always shifted fine while adjusting in the garage, yet as soon as I was on the road, nope. Then one day I loosened the cable to lube the section going into the shifter and found a small kink in the cable right where it would enter the cable sheath. Shifting to the small gear loosened the cable enough for that kink to hit the sheath. Took me forever to figure it out.
 

Clayeewing

New Member
Stumbled on this thread and very helpful but not sure if for me yet: Apex 2X10, right out of the box poor shifting: sticky, slow, one cog in the middle would (and does) over shift when down shifting and moves 2 cogs and sits there for up to 8-10 revs before dropping back to correct cog. Does better on the big ring, and about equally poor shifting up or down. I tried everything I could, have taken it to 3 bike shop mechanics, the first of which said der hanger bent so we replaced it and didn't do a thing. Bought new SRAM PC 1091R chain after about 1,500 miles and it now shifts worse. Even with wet lube (Prolink) is still feels dry. That's the rear, the front--also right out of the box--about half the time the lever when upshifting makes no clicking (pawl) sounds and the chains moves right into place but drops back to the small ring. I'll shift again and this time hear the pawls engage and it works. Downshifting works every time.
My 27 year old Campy Record 8-speed shifts better than this (ok, it's still well maintained Campy and it's still jewel-like), as does my XT on my mountain bike. I'm going to try the cable route, but if anyone has some more insight please lay it on me. I'm used to great and this has been Huffy territory.
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
I'm going to try the cable route, but if anyone has some more insight please lay it on me.
:welcome:
I think that replacement of outers as well inners is the first step, and the one most likely to be effective.
No grease on the kinkless inners. Careful 'opening up' of the outer 'ends' after neat cut.
Unscrew the 'H' screw on the FD a quarter to get the up-shift complete, with click, every time.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
looking back through this thread i have to go with sticky cable as mentioned , my sram is having similar issues , i can shift but its a bit slow and cant get the smallest cog as the cable isnt releasing but i can move the mech by hand and the cable is loose .Its been 3 years since it was recabled and it worked perfectly at the time .
 

beardedwarbler

Active Member
Also going to necromancy this thread - with mine it wasn't (just) a stuck cable at least. Even with the cable visibly slacked off, even with the cable *removed*, it wouldn't shift from largest cog.

Applied some oil to the pivots and now it does, but I've destroyed an inner cable in the process, so I'll need to order and fit (PITA on these shifters) a new one.

Still don't really understand that as shifting performance on other cogs was.. *okay*. Not great, otherwise I would've left it, and it seems impossible with SRAM to get good performance across the whole cassette.

I measured the chain gap at 9 mm, incidentally. Came from the shop that way with the B screw almost entirely backed out.

Not that happy, I may not be the best wrench but every tiny niggle with these drivetrains seems to snowball into complete unusability.
 
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