Diving in on my 8 to 9 upgrade

[Flatlander]

Well... the parts are in, the weekend is clear, let the destruction begin. After my rear deore
shifter bit the dust I decided to upgrade my 2001 GF from 8 to 9 speeds after realizing that digging
up 8 speed parts was not that easy. I've never worked on my bike more than adjusting **** and
installing new pedals. So, I picked up a copy of Zinn's Mt. Bike book, have a bunch of websites
bookmarked, and am ready to do some serious damage on my beloved bike. I'm going to be replacing the
following parts....

Deore shifters with XT shifter/brakelever combo Rear Cassette (not sure of make) with XT on a SRAM
hub Mystery Chain w/ SRAM PC-99

In order to complete this I picked up a few additions to my tool set. A Chain whip, and a
cog-remover-thingy.

So, to all the bike maint. guru's out there.... What should I look out for? What am I overlooking?
What should I absolutely positively NOT do? Can I cry on your shoulders after I realize I've
rendered my bike unridable and am forced to sulk into the LBS and beg for their forgiveness?

thanks,

FlatLander

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On 3 Jul 2003 07:02:08 -0700, [email protected] (flatlander) wrote:

>So, to all the bike maint. guru's out there.... What should I look out for? What am I overlooking?
>What should I absolutely positively NOT do? Can I cry on your shoulders after I realize I've
>rendered my bike unridable and am forced to sulk into the LBS and beg for their forgiveness?

You might want to replace the shifter cables/housings while you're at it. The inner cables can get
frayed at the end, and if so will be a ***** to remove/move to new shifter/rethread, and the
housings could probably use a good clean at the least and replacement by plastic-lined stuff if
they're not.

Jasper

 

[Flatlander]

Jasper Janssen <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> On 3 Jul 2003 07:02:08 -0700, [email protected] (flatlander) wrote:
>
> >So, to all the bike maint. guru's out there.... What should I look out for? What am I
> >overlooking? What should I absolutely positively NOT do? Can I cry on your shoulders after I
> >realize I've rendered my bike unridable and am forced to sulk into the LBS and beg for their
> >forgiveness?
>
> You might want to replace the shifter cables/housings while you're at it. The inner cables can get
> frayed at the end, and if so will be a ***** to remove/move to new shifter/rethread, and the
> housings could probably use a good clean at the least and replacement by plastic-lined stuff if
> they're not.
>
> Jasper

Thanks for the advise Jasper. To my surprise, the XT shifter/brake levers I bought came with new
cable housing and cable. So replace them I did. Here is a report of the weekends maintenance. Keep
in mind that this is the first time I've done anything aside from fix a flat and put on new pedals
on my bike...

1) Replacement of SRAM 5.0 8-speed cassette with XT 9-speed. This went pretty darn well I must say.
Very straight forward and easy. No rocket science here.

2) Removal of Grips, old shifters, old brake levers, cabling, and cable housing. This also was
pretty easy. The grips were kind of a pain to remove, but I suppose that's a good thing. I made a
quick little diagram so I could remember how the cables were routed around the handlebars/headset
and labeled the housing pieces I removed for easy replacement.

3) Cut the new cable housing to length to match the old stuff and squeezed some lube into them. This
was not to tricky, but I was worried that I'd screw up the housing by pinching it too much.

4) Slid on new XT Shifter/Brake lever units and re-routed the new cable through the new housing.
This was pretty peice 'o cake. Added some lube along the way.

5) Broke new SRAM c99 chain to match the length of the old one. Then installed the PoweLink and
threw on to bike. This was a hell of a lot easier then I was expecting. That PowerLink is
pretty slick.

6) Connected old rear derailleure (Deore mega9) back up and adjusted
it. This was a TON easier than I anticipated. Almost no adjustment was needed at all. This was what
I was most worried about starting this whole project. I don't know why, but the rear
derailleure is a strange and mysterious peice of engineering.

7) Connected old from derailleure (Acera) back up and attempted to adjust it. This is where my
upbeat mood went south. After getting past the rear der. with little problem, I thought the fron
one would be even easier. WRONG. I shifted down to the low (small) gear and put tension on the
cable, then tightened down the anchor bolt. A quick test, CLANK CLANK CLANK. The cage was hitting
the chain on every ring. Shifted around a bit more and notice that there was too much slack on
the cable in the lowest gear. Tighten again, repeat. A bit better but still no dice. Played with
the limiters, no go. So I did what all rational humans would do, I got a beer and stared at it
for a while.

8) Time for a confidence booster. I re-attached the brake levers. Easy peasy. Back to the headache.

9) After doing some reading and fiddling I determine that A) the Zinn book and the Shimano manual
seem to have differing opinions about what "Low" and "High" mean. One says that Low is the small
ring, one says that High is. Arg. B) the probable cause of my problems are either with the cable
tension or the derailure. C) The "Top" adjuster mentioned in the Shimano manual that would seem
to fix my problem does not appear to be a feature on my Acrea der. So I do the next logical
thing... I get another beer and go inside.

So that's where I'm at. I'm going to take another stab at the front derailleure before throwing in
the towel. SO CLOSE!!! Any Ideas?

-Patrick