Front deraileur on Silvio won't stay "adjusted"

[Ted]

Hi Y'all,

Can anyone see anything wrong with the (hopefully) attached pictures (gonna try to upload 6

pictures) of FD cable routing on my Silvio - or anything else?

No, this isn't a trick question. The front deraileur on my Silvio keeps getting "out of adjustment". By that I mean it either won't shift down onto the small ring or sometimes won't shift up to the big ring. Sometimes, when down shifting, it will jump from the big ring to the small ring, slipping over and past the middle ring.

It works fine when the guys at the local bike shop have it up on the stand and rotate thru all the gears but it seems as soon as I get it out on the road, it will start acting up. For example, when I did that little mountain ride, the last mile or so was rather steep and it would not shift down onto the small ring from the middle ring - had to walk up the last 400 meters - and wouldn't ya know - they were taking pictures and videos of riders making it to the top and me being the only one walking up ... bummer ...

This past Saturday, I had intented to do a long 100-150 mile (160-240km) training ride. After only about 8 miles (13km), when down shifting, it jumped from the big ring to the small ring; then when upshifting, it would not go up to the big ring. For the rest of the 17 mile loop, the FD shifting was sporadic (the rear deraileur works perfect) so had to abort the whole training ride.

I tried doing what the LBS showed me to do a few weeks ago (I paid them for about an hour of tutorial time on how to make deraileur and brake adjustments). Even went on youtube.com to find help on FD adjustments. Right now the Silvio is at the LBS for them to work on tomorrow.

I like doing long distant things... running, bicycling, canoe/kayaking, hiking ... I gave up long distance canoe/kayaking for bicycling because bicycling, you can do anywhere. Long distance canoe/kayaking required me to drive fairly long distances to just get the boat in the water. At least there was nothing mechanical that could go wrong with a kayak ...

I need to get this front deraileur issue resolved, sooner than later because of up coming long rides in the next few weeks. As it stands right now, neither I or the local bike shop has any idea what the problem might be.

Any thoughts or ideas would truly be appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Ted

 

[Andrew 1973]

Cable Stop

Pardon my ignorance, but where is the front derailleur cable stop? That was the frst thing that caught my eye is that there doesn't appear to be a stop for the cable housing to compress against as the cable is pulled taut. Surely there is a stop, but where is it?

Also the cable should be replaced. The fact that it is frayed can affect shifting performance.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Hi Ted,
I'm not sure I

Hi Ted,

I'm not sure I understand the end of the routing. I don't expect to see the casing without it being attached to the frame (obvous to many, but cables only work when they are pulled against their casing). That being said, that might be a false lead.

Do you have a stand where you can mount the bike? (Can you shift it when it's upside down?)

Can you take a video of the bike when the front derailleur is working? When it isn't?

(Of course, all of this might not be necessary when somebody more experienced than I looks at your pictures and instantly diagnoses your problem! )

Good luck,
Charles

 

[Kim Tolhurst]

one time

Hi Ted,
Yes, this senario happened to me one time and the cause became a wearing out ratchet in the brifter. Damaged, as it turned out by my inadvertant misuse. eg, everything worked well on the stand, even for the shop man but under riding conditions same as whats happening to yours. Replaced brifter set. This may not be the case for you though.

cheers, Kim

www.cruzbiking.com.au

 

[Andrew 1973]

If it is a brifter issue, may

If it is a brifter issue, may I recommend MicroSHIFT? I have used these extensively and found they work great at a price point much lover than Shimano. Of course, you do have newer Ultegra and I can understand wanting to keep with what you have.

If you wish, I wrote up a review of my experience and you can find the link to it here:

http://andrewbaloga.com/bicycular-interests/microshift/

 

[Ted]

Silvio FD

Andrew & Charles:

You can see the cable housing and barrel adjuster attached to the boom in the first picture just up (to the right in the picture) from the cadence counter magnet. From what I understand, the cable housing that goes around the bottom bracket is just that - a "free floating" housing for the cable; the housing is not attached to anything. I'm hoping that is correct, if not, hope someone will let me know ... and what is the proper way to use it and/or route it ...

Thanks Kim. Is there anyway to tell if the brifter is damaged? What would we be looking for? Would any damage be pretty obvious or could it be some little thing that could affect the shifting? I haven't fallen with the bike or layed it down hard on its side ...

Ted

 

[John Tolhurst]

Another cause of poor

Another cause of poor shifting is having a clamp around the handlebars, with the bar tape and cables lying under the clamp. The clamp compresses the caable-housing which applies friction to the cable - producing your symptoms.

 

[Ted]

Caused by odometer "base" & Zefal mirror?

Thanks John,

The bands that hold the odometer "base" on the handlebar ARE pretty tight (and the FD cable does run under them). Ya reckon that, along with the Zefal spy mirror (which is stretched pretty tight too) and handlebar tape could cause enough compression & friction on the cable to affect its movement? On the right side, with the rear deraileur, there is just the one Zefal mirror and as I mentioned, the rear deraileur works perfect.

Maybe the whole left side needs to be reworked to see if things can't be loosened up a bit? ... try that first before anything else? ...

Ted

 

[John Tolhurst]

Handlebar tape and rubber

Handlebar tape and rubber bands found on the zefal, or the o-rings (I take it) for the odometer typically do not apply the pinch pressure needed to cause problems. But I would remove the mirror and odometer anyway for the moment. I would also check under the bar tape where the cable housing enters the brifter body. It sometimes is possible for the end of the housing to fray and gradually impale itself on the shifter body. I noticed your adjuster was screwed a way out, consistent with this problem.

The loop around the BB can be brake housing, according to Doug, while I prefer to use gear housing. Water ingress may be an issue on this cable, so I'd replace it. Try to take as many queries out of play, so that what is left must be the issue.

John

 

[Ted]

Leads to other cable questions

John,

I'll send this link to my LBS for him to read.

You mention replacing the cable housing with gear housing. Will the gear housing stop any water ingress? If not, is there a way to keep water from getting into the "free floating" housing? Also, since you didn't say anything about it, is it safe to assume that we have the cable & housing routed correctly around the bottom bracket and back to the attachment point on the FD?

Ted

 

[John Tolhurst]

The routing looks fine. There

The routing looks fine. There are special gear cable end caps that include a sort of jacket:

 

[Ted]

Thanks John

Thanks John for your prompt replies to this problem. They are truly appreciated!

Hopefully one or more of these possible solutions will solve the problem. Will make another post here when we get it resolved.

Ted

 

[Ted]

Having hard time getting "once"

This is a continuation from this thread: http://cruzbike.com/help-silvio-riders.#comment-18276 , which I'd inadvertently hijacked.

So, the local bike shop put on new FD cable housing, using a teflon coated housing around the bottom bracket.

Last weekend, everything worked fine for the first of nineteen laps, each lap being 26.5 miles/42.6km. Ten miles into the second lap, it would not shift down from big ring to middle ring. When I pushed the shift lever, there was no resistance at all. Nothing happened. Had to walk up the first big hill.

With some help at one of the rest areas around the course, was able to loosen the FD cable and get the chain set and aligned on the middle ring where it stayed until I dropped out after 12 laps due to stomach/nutrition problems.

A mechanic there at the event looked at it and said that something in the shifter was broken.

So these next questions are directed to John Tolhurst and/or Doug Burton (but I'm open to any and all suggestions and/or advise), do you have any suggestions as to how I should proceed?

I haven't yet taken anything apart or even taken it to the local bike shop. I hesitant to take it back to the LBS since they've already worked on it numerous times. However, if I take it to another bike shop (there is one down south Louisiana in Lafayette that I've considered taking it to and they have a good reputation), will they be any more knowledgeable? I could call them about it.

Any suggestions? I'm really at a loss as to what to do and/or try next ...

Thanks.

Ted

 

[mickjordan]

Shifter

I had a Shimano Ultegra triple brifter that locked up and wouldn't shift at all early in my Cruzbike experience. I sent it back to Shimano for a warranty replacement. They and others have observed that non-Shimano cables can cause problems so now I am careful only to use Shimano cables.

 

[The Blue Iris]

I often find shifting under

I often find shifting under load can be "reluctant" have you just tried unloading (pedal back half a turn then forward). Sometimes it is the simple things.

 

[The Blue Iris]

PS Looks like carbon fiber in

PS Looks like carbon fiber in the photos. Does the Silvo have CF parts?

 

[vonhazza]

Chain stay & lower rear swing

Chain stay & lower rear swing arm of the Silvio are CF.

 

[Hilry]

Brifters

Hi,

In a convoluted way broken brifters are why I ended up on the Cruzbike website.
I had Shimano RX100 brifters on one bike and was having difficulty changing the FD.
I swapped the FD and cables and chain and still couldn't fix it.

Pushing the lever wasn't having any affect, well if you did it repeatedly for a number of times it might take effect.

The guy at my LBS did try adjusting the set up and could get it working better with fine adjustments of cable routing etc, but it very soon went back to problem as you describe.

I did take the brifter apart, which is not difficult, but once apart how to make any adjustments that might fix it was not obvious.
and I ended up re-assembling it and it was much as before.
It was fairly old and I was pretty sure it was the root of the fault at that stage otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried dismantling it.

I couldn't find 7 speed brifters to replace it with and was not prepared to upgrade this particular frame entirely so got some revoshifters for it, which worked great immediately with the set up as it was. So in my case it definitely was the brifters.

But having changed to flat handlebars, getting adjusted right for my back problem was an issue again so having set off googling for handlebar stems and general bike comfort things I came accross the Cruzbike site and now all the kit from the ols bike is going on a Cruzbike frame.