DIY bike repair gearshift

Turn the cable adjusting screw a quarter turn counterclockwise. If shifting does not improve, check that the casters rotate freely and that the top moves from side to side.

Loosen the derailleur cable and adjust the screw “H” until the ruler is clamped between the wheels just outside of the smallest carriage gear.

Tighten the cable and line up the wheels with the smallest gear by turning the adjusting screw counterclockwise.

We clean and lubricate
A new rear derailleur is expensive, keep it clean and lubricated. Raise the rear wheel and turn; if a squeak or knock is heard, dirt has entered the mechanism. Remove the wheel from the bike and place it on the workbench with the carriage facing up. Turn the gears counterclockwise and you will see that the outer part of the carriage rotates and the inner part is stationary. Wrap a rag around the carriage over the spokes and apply a mixture of oil and silicone grease between the rotating and stationary parts of the carriage (see picture below). Distribute the mixture over the mechanism by rotating the gears. When it goes inside, lubricate the carriage with light oil.

Surprisingly, the rear derailleur with its adjustment remains obscure and incomprehensible to most of us, while it only has three screws for adjustment! So let's see what they are responsible for.
Of the tools you will need

Bicycle repair kit or Phillips and flat head screwdrivers. A little lube.

First, flip the switch to the largest sprocket. This will help you adjust the chain spacing and the slower speed limiter.

Use a small screwdriver to adjust.

If the distance between the sprocket and the roller is too large, the speed will not change accurately. To decrease it, turn the screw counterclockwise.

Setting Up Bike Derailleurs (Beginner's Guide)

So, let's continue our series of articles for beginners. Recall that in previous articles we looked at how to take care of your bike and the correct gear shifting on the move. In this article, I would like to make a quick guide to self-tuning or even complete customization of the bike after purchase.

There are many reasons:

- You bought a bicycle in an online store, and the sellers just did their job poorly

- During transportation, the shift cables were naturally pulled

- It's just time for the planned tune after a certain mileage

Opinions on how to set up a bike and where to start differ, many say that you must first set up the front derailleur, and then the rear, others vice versa. The essence of this does not change, but it is really recommended to first adjust the rear derailleur in order to more correctly adjust the front.

Bicycle Rear Derailleur Setting

First, we'll look at the design of the switch itself:

– screw "H" this is the stop screw for high gears or simply the smallest sprocket at the back

– screw "L" this is the stop screw for low gears or for the largest chainring at the back

- a plastic screw (the cable jacket usually rests there) is called an adjusting drum, it serves to "tighten" the cable or, as they say, for fine adjustment of the cable tension.

On more modern switches there is also a switch tension adjustment screw, but we will not consider it, since it is generally not needed in setting.

Tuning mechanism

one.Switching the rear derailleur to the smallest star

2. Unscrew the rear derailleur cable clamp screw and loosen the cable

3. Install the chain on the front derailleur on the middle sprocket (click the left coin on the steering wheel)

4. We spin the pedals on the weight, if the flail falls off the stars, it means that the screw marked "H" must be tightened by 1-2 turns, if after that the chain has fallen into place, but at the same time it tries to switch independently to the next gear - we unscrew this screw 0.5-1 turn

5. The essence of this method consists in the fact that when the rear derailleur cable is unscrewed, use the screw "H" so that the rear derailleur and the smallest sprocket in front are absolutely in line, it is easy to check, just look at the transmission from the rear from the side of the stars.

6. If everything is ok, then move on - we tighten the cable by hand and tighten the bolt to fix the tension

7. Try it - click the rear derailleur shift knob 1 speed up, if the switch is correct, click further to the largest sprocket, if not, then pull the cable with an “adjusting drum”. We unscrew the drum by 1 turn, try if ok, continue to click further, if it does not switch another +1 turn.

8. So, we got to the largest star in the back, but when switching, 2 situations can arise:

a) the chain falls off for a large star - then it is necessary to tighten the adjusting screw "L" by 1-2 turns

b) it is not possible to switch to the largest star in the back, the shift knob does not click or the switch itself simply does not switch - then the bolt marked "L" should be unscrewed by 1-2 turns.

That's all we have set up the rear derailleur of the bike. All adjustments with bolts "H" and "L" are carried out slowly, you should unscrew / tighten no more than 1 turn at a time, maybe even 0.5 turn, in order to set the switch as correctly and quickly as possible. Moving on ...

Front derailleur setting

When adjusting the front derailleur, there are nuances that depend on the derailleur itself (foot width) and transmission (6/7/8 or more speeds). We take a look at the most popular Shimano Tourney FD-TX50 and Shimano Acera FD-M360 derailleurs.

Tuning mechanism

1. Switch to the smallest star in the front and the largest star in the back.

2. Unscrew the front derailleur cable

3. Adjust the switch frame with the screw "L" so that when installing the switch, the inner part of its frame (the one closer to the bike, when viewed from above) does not touch the chain - tighten if the distance to the chain is more than 3 mm or unscrew if less.

4. After that, we pull the front derailleur cable, but not tightly, so that when you tighten the cable tension screw so that the cable is slightly relaxed (dangling in the horizontal plane by about 1-1.5 cm)

5. Switch to the middle star and start checking - install the second star behind, that is, not the smallest one, but the next one. We check - if the chain touches the outer frame of the switch, then we stretch the cable, on the shift knob we have the same plastic bolt as on the rear derailleur, unscrew it 1-2 turns, so that the distance of the chain from the outer frame of the switch is 3-4 mm.

6. Go to setting the largest sprocket - switch the rear derailleur to the smallest sprocket and watch. If you switched without problems, then we do not turn anything, if it did not switch, that is, there was a click, but the switch did not switch, then we unscrew the screw "H" by 1-2 turns, if it switched and the chain slept, then we tighten this screw by 1-2 turns ... We check further - the distance to the outer frame should be no more than 3 mm when turning on the smallest star from behind. If everything is ok, then you did everything perfectly.

The bike derailleur setting is complete and now you can proudly sit down and ride your iron horse with pleasure.There are tons of setup videos, the best of all is at this link:

Ride with pleasure!

the rear derailleur (caliper) in your article is not fully tuned, it is also necessary to set the gap between the chain guide rollers and the stars on the cassette so that these same rollers do not cling to the stars, for this there is a special screw in your figure tension regulator.

I agree with you, but as I wrote in the article, we will not consider it, since the article is for beginners and in most cases the problem with this screw has already been solved during the initial setup, in rare cases it occurs, although in my memory it can a couple of times in It was like that for 5 years.

Here is what I wrote in an article about this: "On more modern switches there is also a switch tension adjustment screw, but we will not consider it, since it is generally not needed in setting."

I just one turn more often meet the fact that the rollers run on the stars. I don't know how who and what sets it up, everyone has their own religion in this direction, but how I was taught: first we set the gaps, then we turn the screws of the upper and lower caliper stops, and only then we set up the chain switching itself by the stars.

There are tons of setup videos, the best of all is at this link:

This is exactly the option we are considering. clearly, simply and clearly.

A very common problem faced by cyclists is the rear derailleur not working properly. Today we will try to figure out how to set it up from scratch or adjust if the settings are lost.

This article is suitable for adjusting all shimano, sram, campagnolo, microshift and other derailleurs, no matter how many speeds you have on your bike, ranging from 2 to 11 speed sprockets on the rear wheel.

The tools you may need are a Phillips screwdriver and possibly a 10 or 8 hex key or wrench depending on the switch. It is also very convenient to carry out work on a special bike rack, but you can also cope without it.

1. Lack of maintenance. Most often, when buying a bike, the derailleur works well and flawlessly, but after the season of operation, you can replace the deterioration in performance or even the chain jumping off the extreme sprockets. In 70% of cases, setting the rear derailleur helps, but sometimes this does not help either, then the cable and shirt should be replaced, as they become clogged with dirt and interfere with the smooth running of the cable in the shirt. Usually bike maintenance is done once a year, in which the switch settings are turned on.

Sometimes, to save money, they lubricate the cable with grease or any other lubricant and it turns out to improve the work for a while, but later the lubricant attracts dust and the work deteriorates again, so you will have to do this procedure more often than you would like.

2. Wear of the switch itself. Everything breaks down someday, and the derailleur on a bike is no exception. Most often, the parallelogram axes of the switch wear out, due to which a small backlash is formed, which does not allow the switching to be adjusted correctly.

3. Worn derailleur sprockets. Over time, the plastic sprockets wear out due to which the chain no longer holds on to them, which leads to poor operation of the derailleur. Also, the sprocket axles can wear out and the sprocket will wobble unnecessarily on the axle, which leads to poor shifting.

4. Curve cock or the switch itself. When you fall or hit something with the switch, the cock will most often bend (break), since it is made specially from a weaker alloy than the switch itself (to keep the more expensive part intact). The curvature does not allow the chains to stand up straight, which reduces the efforts to adjust the crossover to zero. Read how to straighten a cock with your hands.

5. Cable problems. Sometimes, during installation or when dropped, the cable can be strongly bent, after which the place of the bend will prevent the smooth movement of the cable in the shirt.In this case, its replacement is required.

It also happens that the cable gets loose (that's why you should use the ends of the cables) and subsequently one of the thin threads begins to separate from the main bundle, as a result, interferes with the normal movement of the cable in the shirt. Sometimes one thread in the cable can break and also prevent it from working normally, here you can isolate it from the main bundle along the entire length of the cable. But the best option would be to replace the cable with a new one.

If a new cable was installed, then sometimes after a certain number of kilometers (about 100 km), you can notice a deterioration in switching - this is due to the fact that the cable is slightly stretched. In this case, the cable tension bolt will need to be slightly tightened.

Important! If you have at least one of the 5 problems, it will not be possible to adjust the switch perfectly!

After we have eliminated all 5 possible problems with the rear derailleur, we can begin to configure it. I took a bike with a shimano rear derailleur and divided the whole setup into 8 steps:

1. On the shifter, fold to the highest speed (which corresponds to the smallest star on the block of led stars). We pedal so that the chain is on a small star. (now you understand why it is so convenient to work with the rack)

I do not show numbers on the shifter, but believe me the position of the indicator is on the "number" 9. Which corresponds to the smallest star on the cassette.

When adjusting the rear derailleur on the sprockets (front) the chain is best positioned where you use it most. This is usually the central star on a 3-star system.

2. Loosen the hexagon or the bolt that holds the cable.

3. We screw it all the way, and then we return one turn back all the adjusting thumbs of the cable tension, which are located on the switch and on the shifter (sometimes there is only one adjustment screw on bicycles, most often it is on the switch, less often on the shifter).

In my case, the cable tension regulator is located only on the shifter. The photo shows how I spin the lamb.

4. Pull the cable by hand (you don't need to pull with all your might, the main thing is that it does not sag and be stretched along its entire length) and tighten the bolt holding the cable.

5. Align the center of the switch foot rollers with the center of the smallest star on the bike. Some remove the chain for stages 5 and 6 to fine tune them. I don’t see the need for this, you can not shoot, especially if you have a switch that is not of the top level, such as a shimano tourney, acera or alivio.

Actually, all this movement of the switch occurs using the adjusting screws with the letters "H" and "L".

The selector foot position adjusting screws look like this.

Turn the screw “H” with a screwdriver until the centers of the rollers on the foot of the switch and the small star coincide and proceed to the next step.

In the photo, I showed a red line, along which you can see that the switch roller is under a small star on the cassette, which means that the extreme position is set correctly.

6. Switch the shifter to the lowest speed (number 1), which corresponds to the largest trailing star. We twist the pedals so that the chain goes to the extreme sprocket. And also align the center of the presser foot rollers with the center of the largest sprocket. All this alignment takes place using the "L" screw.

On the shifter, there is an indicator for switching the speed to number 1, if there are no numbers to the most extreme position, which should correspond to the largest star on the cassette.

Essentially, the "H" and "L" screws act as end stops for your derailleur, which keeps the chain from flying off while moving and keeps you alive.

We expose the extreme position of the switch foot so that the switch does not hit the spokes of the wheel. By aligning the axes of the largest sprocket on the cassette and the axis of the derailleur foot.

7. We drop again at the highest speed. Don't forget to pedal 🙂 The chain should be on the smallest sprocket. Next, we switch to one speed and turn the pedals, if the chain does not jump or does not jump right away, then you need to slightly unscrew the adjusting screw that adjusts the cable tension (it turns out we are tightening the cable).

Then again we check and switch from the highest speed to one step lower (if the 8-speed cassette, then from 8 to 7 speed), if the switch happened immediately, congratulations you set the switch! You can check the remaining speeds will also easily and clearly switch both up and down!

The chain should jump to the adjacent speed. In my case, this is a 9 speed cassette. I switch from 9 to 8.

8. Adjust the distance from the largest sprocket to the derailleur roller. This distance should be about 4 mm, if the distance is greater, the switching clarity will be reduced. The adjusting screw on the switch is responsible for adjusting this gap. By unscrewing the screw, the distance decreases, screwing it in increases. the tuning is done on the largest star corresponding to the number 1 on your shifter.

Question: But what if I unscrew the adjusting screw to the end, and the chain still does not switch to 1 speed lower?
Answer: Most likely, you pulled the cable poorly by hand from step 4, or you did it with insufficiently tightened cable tension adjusting screws from step 3, and it is also possible that you did not pull the cable at the highest speed on the shifter described in step 1.

Question: I got to stage 7, but the chain was not on the smallest star why?
Answer: You may have pulled the cable too tight by hand in step 4, in which case try to loosen the cable tension slightly with the adjusting screw. If the chain still does not go to the smallest sprocket, repeat steps 1 to 4.

Share your experience with setting switches in the comments.

Having clocked many kilometers on a bicycle, I was convinced that a branded derailleur is much more important for a comfortable ride than stylish grips or leather Brooks. But it's not enough just to get Shimano or Sram, the quality of installation and setup is important.

The rear derailleur mechanism throws the chain over the cassette stars, allowing you to lower or increase gears (for reference, it was invented by the Italian Tullio Campagnolo back in 1950). This device also keeps the chain taut. Since the invention, many varieties have been created. A little about the main, most characteristic features.

• Manufacturing material. From steel to carbon. The entry-level models are equipped with steel, and not always of good quality, and plastic. In the right hands, these switches even work sometimes. Models of the middle category are in most cases made using aluminum. The most expensive models can boast not only precision in work, but also titanium, carbon or composite in the composition.
• Frame size. In theory, everything is simple - the longer the frame, the more gears you can select. However, one cannot say so categorically, since someone will prefer a short frame that is not afraid of stones, while others are interested in greater comfort in switching. And everyone is right in their own way.

You can still describe in detail the action of the spring or the options for the location of the cable for a long time. However, many good articles have been written on this topic. I will only note that there is not much difference from which side the cable enters the switch. So, now about the interesting.

Having at our disposal a "mediocre Auchan bike" with a noname-firm rear derailleur, there is always a desire to "bring it to mind." After installing a wheel with a reinforced rim and a Shimanov ratchet, the switch took on a life of its own, working the way it wanted, depending on the phases of the moon and some other complex Chinese conventions.The setting helped for a couple of kilometers, after which he stopped acting again, throwing the chain over the star or even sabotaging the movement process. Had to go back to the bike shop and get a new rear derailleur. The choice fell on Shimano TX - I was very tempted by the incredible discounts.

Reference: The Shimano Tourney TX is the entry-level model, although the exterior design suggests a higher class.

And putting something more serious on an inexpensive bike, used only for riding exclusively on asphalt, is pointless. Switching range was important, however, as the city is teeming with hills, hillocks and hills.

So, replacing the rear derailleur starts with removing the old noname from the frame - it's time for Shimano. The link of the chain is revealed. If this is not the case, then you must use the squeeze.

The old switch is unscrewed and removed, and a new one is hung in its place and screwed to the "cock" - a protruding triangle with a hole in the frame. It is worth tightening well, but without undue enthusiasm.

We put the bike chain on the smallest star. Visually, the roller and the small star should be in the same line. The small star is the highest speed, therefore we adjust the position of the roller with the screw H -

Note: the letter H is an abbreviation for high gear, that is, top gear.

The next step is to insure against the possibility of the chain hitting the spokes, which is likely if the derailleur goes past the largest sprocket. To do this, you need to move the switch to the largest sprocket, carefully and without unnecessary effort. In no case behind the roller, the mount of which is very easy to bend.

The adjusting screw fixes the position of the switch exactly so that it is opposite the large sprocket. Going behind it is fraught with the loss of knitting needles and good mood. If the switch is too tight, there will be no lower gear.

Queue for the cable - he should walk freely in a shirt. We check the progress and the absence of creases. On this switch model, you can see the place for the cable to pass. We put the chain on the smallest sprocket, tighten the cable to remove the slack, fix it. Thus, installing the rear derailleur and adjusting it are two integral, complementary processes.

Now check the operation of the entire mechanism. There should be no pronounced clicking sounds when pedaling from the rear derailleur side. Switching up and down must be accurate, without skipping and delays. And even if everything fell into place, it works accurately, quietly and without delay - for the first trip it is worth taking a screwdriver with you. Working with a load may well require minor adjustments.

Note that you will have to face such a concept as "preventive maintenance of the switch", regardless of its price category. As the rollers, which are consumables, wear out, their timely replacement will be required.