Damage to shifters

Lord Chambers said:

I bought a bike recently on Ebay, and it was shipped cross country. My brother basically put it all together for me, and tuned things so that they'd work.

However, if I were on my lower chainring, and in the smallest back gear (the configuration which makes the chain stretch as far diagonally as possible) I could hear a little rattle as the chain would rub against the front deraileur.

I read about tuning at parktool.comparktool.comOpen ↗ and suffice to say I messed up the gearing so that on some gears the rear deraileur seemed undecided. It'd drop down and come back up on the same gear repeatedly, but only on certain gears. Not all of them.

I got my brother to look at it again, and he's gotten it pretty much back to before I messed it up, but now there's another issue. When I shift the front deraileur over, I have to take two attempts at it. Before I could just push my shifter as deep as it'd go, and it'd push up onto the big chainring. Then, I could pop it off with one press of the downshifter. Now, I have to push the shifter as deep as it'll go, and that starts the shifting, but if I don't take another stroke at it the chain stays in limbo between rings. The same double-take is needed to downshift.

Obviously having a perfect tune is ideal, but I'm okay with things as they are. My question is, is this type of issue going to cause bigger problems if not corrected? Is anything wearing out if I have to shift twice to make one move on the chainring?

Well,you shouldn't be riding in the small/small or big/big to begin with. ...Go back to parttool.com and learn to set up a front derailer correctly. You, the shifter and the bike will have a nice warm fuzzy.

Lord Chambers said:

When I shift the front deraileur over, I have to take two attempts at it.

Sounds to me you have too much slack in the cable. Make sure the shifter is in the lowest setting before you attach the cable.

SDL said:

Sounds to me you have too much slack in the cable. Make sure the shifter is in the lowest setting before you attach the cable.

Lowest meaning requiring the least force to peddal? Sounds good. I'll look into it.

For now though, could this be causing any damage? I doubt it since there are no abnormal sounds or vibrations. It's just kinda like someone toned down the sensitivity on my shifter so the same motion makes less movement occur on actual deraileur.

SDL said:

Sounds to me you have too much slack in the cable. Make sure the shifter is in the lowest setting before you attach the cable.

Put the chain on the bottom chain ring and on the largest gear on the cluster. Then adjust the little screw with an L above it so the front Derailler is just touching the chain then backit off about 1/4 of a turn maybe 1/2. Then adjust your cable tension, not overly tight but close, that should just about do it. It doesn't make any difference any who, you aren't going to damage anything, just your wrist from shifting twice as much.😎

Lord Chambers said:

Lowest meaning requiring the least force to peddal? Sounds good. I'll look into it.

For now though, could this be causing any damage? I doubt it since there are no abnormal sounds or vibrations. It's just kinda like someone toned down the sensitivity on my shifter so the same motion makes less movement occur on actual deraileur.

Yeah, make sure you shift down so that both the derailler and the shifter won't go anymore and check the cable tension. It it is flopping around there's your problem.

leestevens said:

Put the chain on the bottom chain ring and on the largest gear on the cluster. Then adjust the little screw with an L above it so the front Derailler is just touching the chain then backit off about 1/4 of a turn maybe 1/2. Then adjust your cable tension, not overly tight but close, that should just about do it. It doesn't make any difference any who, you aren't going to damage anything, just your wrist from shifting twice as much.😎

If he plays with that screw he will be ajusting the travel of the derailler not the cable tension. Then he'll be in real trouble.