Neophyte in need of Vendetta V20 setup help...

[Winded Lowrider]

RAR...yes that seems appealing right now.

Ratz: I just tightened cable using vise grips in the small ring position. I think the pulley routing might be why things are not tight enough....

 

[Winded Lowrider]

My setup has one of those thingies but my 1994 tech brain does not know how to use it. How does that little bugger work? Obviously you turn it, but how? It won't budge using my fingers and should I loosen it to tighten it? ...loosen meaning increase the distance of the gap to tighten the cable? Looks like there is a flat surface might accept a wrench of some sort....

Sorry for my ignorance, but I've been running old tech for 10 years....

 

[Jeremy S]

My setup has one of those thingies but my 1994 tech brain does not know how to use it. How does that little bugger work? Obviously you turn it, but how? It won't budge using my fingers and should I loosen it to tighten it? ...loosen meaning increase the distance of the gap to tighten the cable? Looks like there is a flat surface might accept a wrench of some sort....

Yes, you could say "loosening" it or unscrewing the adjuster, which increases the visible gap, tightens the cable. I think you have it right. Sometimes it can be hard to turn, but mine (built into my Silvio frame) does turn by hand.

It's very hard to diagnose these issues remotely . If you have a nearby bike shop, and you are willing to put up with their inevitable distrust of the bike design, they may be able to help you.

A random thought: is the cable routed in the shifter correctly? As I recall, this can be very tricky, and typically SRAM preinstalls the shifter cables in the brifters, but maybe you had to thread them in yourself? With the cable disconnected from the derailleur, you should be able to pull it tight by hand, work the shifter lever, and feel the cable switch between its two positions.

 

[Jeremy S]

Ratz: I just tightened cable using vise grips in the small ring position.

This is how I do it, with pliers. Trying to tension for SRAM Yaw shifted to the big ring position can be tough, so I attach the cable in the small ring position.

 

[ratz]

I reserve no sympathy for people who don't use some kind of inline adjuster for their FD.

That's just envy you are showing for those of us with electric and no need for adjusters.

 

[ratz]

RAR...yes that seems appealing right now.

Ratz: I just tightened cable using vise grips in the small ring position. I think the pulley routing might be why things are not tight enough....

If it's a YAW derailleur that's the problem. It's virtually impossible to set the cable in the little ring, because the derailleur pivots. YAW is set up in big ring by using the lower limit screw to "pinch hit" for the derailleur cable at first.
Here are the official steps; Steps 2 and 6 are critical and different than traditional derailleurs. Once you figure this out, YAW is faster and easier; until you do it's maddening.

These are the instructions from Art's Cycle

Step 0: Remove the cable from the derailleur

Step 1: Adjust the height of your front derailleur so that the derailleur cage is 1-2mm above the tallest tooth of your large chain ring using the braze-on anchor.

Step 2: Turn the inner limit screw while pedaling until the chain shifts up into the large chain ring. We will come back to dial this in later.

Step 3: To properly align your SRAM Yaw Front Derailleur, line up the hash marks at the front and rear of the derailleur cage with the center of the large chain ring. Use the inner limit screw to make lateral adjustments and the anchor bolt to make rotational adjustments.

Step 4: Adjust the outer limit of the front derailleur by turning it in until you feel it bottom out and then back it off en eighth of a turn.

Step 5: Anchor the front derailleur cable by first pulling up on the cable, using the shifter to make sure the cable is the correct length for a shift into the large chain ring. Make sure the the derailleur itself is in the large chain ring as well before pulling tight and anchoring the cable with the anchor bolt.

Step 6: Use the shifter to release the cable tension by downshifting as you would for a shift into the small chain ring. Back off the inner limit screw while pedaling to shift the chain down. Also shift the rear derailleur into the largest cog and continue to back off the inner limit screw until chain noise disappears.

Step 7: Check to see that the derailleur is shifting properly and make adjustments as necessary to dial in the shifting.

Step 8: Install your chain watcher so that it is as close to the chain as possible when the chain is in the small chain ring up front and the large cog in the back without the chain watcher actually touching.

Here's the video that makes it easier to understand.

 

[Doug Kline]

Brad, I just found the pulley holder was on backwards on my new S40. Check out the photos in this other thread here to see if this is your problem. It hardly shifts at all if the pulley is mis-aligned.

http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/s40-build-notes.11777/#post-135830

 

[Winded Lowrider]

Tightening the cable super tight (for the second time) has solved the issue for now. Thanks Ratz! Looking into the in line cable tension adjuster....

Rode 25 miles today with only minor issues. From a stop I'm still very shaky getting going. A couple times I had to start, go uphill and turn sharply left within about 20 feet. That combination gets me every time. I dropped the bike on the last one, fortunately no one was coming down the trail at the time. I put some minor scratches on the crank and the skewer end....argh. Its always when there is pressure.... in an empty parking lot I can do the turns without issue, but at an intersection with oncoming cars or bikes, uh oh.

 

[RojoRacing]

Tightening the cable super tight (for the second time) has solved the issue for now. Thanks Ratz! Looking into the in line cable tension adjuster....

Rode 25 miles today with only minor issues. From a stop I'm still very shaky getting going. A couple times I had to start, go uphill and turn sharply left within about 20 feet. That combination gets me every time. I dropped the bike on the last one, fortunately no one was coming down the trail at the time. I put some minor scratches on the crank and the skewer end....argh. Its always when there is pressure.... in an empty parking lot I can do the turns without issue, but at an intersection with oncoming cars or bikes, uh oh.

Are you trying to start uphill while focusing on being smooth and controlled? If so that may be your problem for the time being and I only say for the time being because slow up hill starts later on will come easier. When I first got my V20 slow starts whether flat or uphill always caused a wobble and in general I always had minor instability while at a cruising effort. What I found very easy and stable right from the first days was hard efforts to sprint efforts where I was pedaling hard and pulling back on both bars to force stability, it felt natural to me. My first ever uphill start was on a 18% section of a climb because I stalled out from running out of steam and losing my balance. After a moment to catch my breath I got going and as soon as I got my second foot on the pedal I accelerated hard with the same pulling back on the bars method and I got going with generally good stability for a climb that steep. I don't need to pull back so hard on the bars these days to get going on a hill but I do find that the steeper the climb the easier the start will be if you treat it as a hard acceleration and not just a get rolling like normal type start. Don't get in the habit of pulling back on both bars for too long though as that'll create a hard to break habit that later on that will cause hand and arm fatigue.

To this day I still choke on the start when waiting at a long red light with lots of cars lined up next to me. It'll get easier but kind in mind it still happens to the best of us. I'd say I have a 30% of embarrassing myself with a large wobble to forced foot down stop when starting one of my big races. I try to quickly play it off with a joke to the other riders who I almost took out to ease there sudden harsh view of the oddball bike trying to clean out their front wheel. "ah shit, wait wait, that was a false start.....aaaaaand here we go with the real one "

 

[Doug Kline]

To this day I still choke on the start when waiting at a long red light with lots of cars lined up next to me.

I have one of those lights to get to the Tue/Thurs evening rides. Narrow street with a short light cycle crossing the main road which gets a long cycle. There's a hill before the light. If I hit it right and get over the hill before getting stopped I'm good. If the back up is long enough that I get stopped on the incline it is miserable. I have to try to start on a hill and keep up with the cars or all the cars behind me get stuck...for a long time. Two way traffic, too narrow to pass. After years of bike commuting, I can jack rabbit a start on my DF. When I stomp on my V20 the drive wheel just slips like crazy. I really hate that road section and hate starting on an incline around cars.

 

[Doug Kline]

A couple times I had to start, go uphill and turn sharply left within about 20 feet.

This will get better with practice. When I first had my V20, I had one of those start on an incline and turn left. I wobbled, lost my balance, and ended up with my feet on the ground with cars coming. I ran the bike forward straddling the bike then dropped all my weight hard on the seat and heard the loud crack of my brand new Thor seat

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Tightening the cable super tight (for the second time) has solved the issue for now. Thanks Ratz! Looking into the in line cable tension adjuster....

Rode 25 miles today with only minor issues. From a stop I'm still very shaky getting going. A couple times I had to start, go uphill and turn sharply left within about 20 feet. That combination gets me every time. I dropped the bike on the last one, fortunately no one was coming down the trail at the time. I put some minor scratches on the crank and the skewer end....argh. Its always when there is pressure.... in an empty parking lot I can do the turns without issue, but at an intersection with oncoming cars or bikes, uh oh.

Do you sit up when you start?

That makes all the difference in the world:

1) low speed handling is more stable when you sit up
2) you put way more weight on the front wheel when you sit up, which reduces wheelslip

 

[DavidCH]

I still only have 1x speed on my Sram Rival 22 cranks. I have a 53t QXL ring and a 22t cog that I load up when starting. I am only on flat terrain and I wobble when starting. My left hip flexor is weakened because of the loading and I hate red lights. So why do I bother? I love the front wheel configuration and don't really want to buy another carbon fibre wheel or switch out the cassette. I love catching up the local peloton hanging back a little and then scorching past them. Apart from brushing my ego. Is it good for me? Perhaps not. But I am still waiting for xshifter. As soon as that comes online, the FD gets put on and so does the jagwire.

Then it will be a different story.