Tuning Gears: A Perfect Science?

[jsaipe]

How come your gears are perfect when your bike has been serviced in your LBS / shed / garage, but the minute you're on the road, there's always some additional fine tuning to do, a derailleur rattling etc etc.
Scientific answer or just sod's law?

 

[Globalti]

The answer is to learn to listen to your bike and adjust it when it needs adjstment, not hand it to somebody in the hope they can reverse the neglect. Bikes are robust structures with quite delicate systems attached and they need to be maintained, unlike modern cars which need their fluids and filters changed from time to time.

 

[Smokin Joe]

There's always a slight difference between what you get after adjusting gears on the workstand and what you get under load when you are riding the bike.

 

[Crandoggler]

1000 miles without any adjustment.

 

[mjr]

Bikes are robust structures with quite delicate systems attached and they need to be maintained, unlike modern cars which need their fluids and filters changed from time to time.

It's strange that modern cars are requiring less frequent maintenance and modern road bikes seem to require more frequent. My 1983 bike doesn't vary enough between workstand and under load to require adjustment... another benefit of fewer speeds at the back and friction shifters?

Roadsters are of course immune, with hub gear shifting not affected by load in that way.

 

[Smokin Joe]

It's strange that modern cars are requiring less frequent maintenance and modern road bikes seem to require more frequent. My 1983 bike doesn't vary enough between workstand and under load to require adjustment... another benefit of fewer speeds at the back and friction shifters?

Roadsters are of course immune, with hub gear shifting not affected by load in that way.

You're comparing apples with pears. Friction requires no adjustment (If you call a quarter turn of the barrel adjustment) because they do not shift into the optimum position with one flick of the lever.

 

[Dogtrousers]

You're comparing apples with pears. Friction requires no adjustment (If you call a quarter turn of the barrel adjustment) because they do not shift into the optimum position with one flick of the lever.

Mine do.

 

[Drago]

Indeed. With olde friction gears one effectively adjusted the system every time one changed gear, so to go from that to needing only to adjust every few months or year is astonishing forward progress, not a retrograde step.

 

[mjr]

You're comparing apples with pears. Friction requires no adjustment (If you call a quarter turn of the barrel adjustment) because they do not shift into the optimum position with one flick of the lever.

They seem to - or at least, more often than many indexed bikes in the real world where people don't tweak them as often as the CC fettle-fetishists. So what if it's comparing apples and pears? Both fruits are available, so why bother trying to make an apple pie with pears?

 

[screenman]

It's strange that modern cars are requiring less frequent maintenance and modern road bikes seem to require more frequent. My 1983 bike doesn't vary enough between workstand and under load to require adjustment... another benefit of fewer speeds at the back and friction shifters?

Roadsters are of course immune, with hub gear shifting not affected by load in that way.

But who wants to live back in the days of black and white tv.

 

[Dogtrousers]

But who wants to live back in the days of black and white tv.

I have no idea. What does that have to do with the price of apples (or indeed pears).

I like friction shifters. I do like indexed derailleurs too. And hub gears. I have bikes with each of these. I like apples (but not fluffy sqidgy ones) and I like pears too (but not gritty, grainy ones)

As Walt Whitman said - I am large, I contain multitudes.

But back on topic. I hardly ever have to tweak my indexed gears anyway, and that's the bike I ride the most.

 

[screenman]

Funny enough I seldom have to tweak mine on a ride either, my post was about the 1983 bike owner. I appreciate everyone desires different things and have different tastes, in my mind that does not make them wrong.

 

[snorri]

It's strange that modern cars are requiring less frequent maintenance and modern road bikes seem to require more frequent.

I think the problem arises because people in this country tend to place more emphasis on performance than on low maintenance when purchasing a bicycle.

 

[flyingfish]

It's my other halts brakes that drive me insane. I end up fiddling with them after each ride

 

[cyberknight]

There's always a slight difference between what you get after adjusting gears on the workstand and what you get under load when you are riding the bike.

What he said .