Front derailleur installation and adjustment

[Andy Somnifac]

New member here, and I'm experiencing a issue hopefully someone might be able to push me in the right direction.

I'm new to the hobby, and have purchased a Fuji Newest 3.0 that's a couple years old, but was virtually unridden. I wasn't happy with the way the front derailleur was shifting, and a friend of mine provided me a with a Shimano Tiagra Triple front derailleur that he has sitting unused.

I went to install the derailleur, and have run into a problem. I have the derailleur installed, and adjusted so that it shifts onto the inner and outer gears, but while attempt to adjust the tension so it shifts to the center gear I end up with the cable so tight that I can't shift without a huge effort on the shifter mechanism, to the point of being unshiftable while riding.

The procedure I'm using is:

1. Mount the clamp on the frame and align the derailleur, adjusting the height and angle relative to the largest gear.
2. Adjust the inner limit screw that the derailleur is aligned with the inner gear.
3. Ensure that the shifter has been set back to its index that corresponds to the smallest gear, undo the cable restraint on the derailleur and locking it down on the cable, while putting light pressure on the cable so that it is not too tight, but not flopping around either.
4. This is where I seem to get lost. I can run the derailleur through the gears while moving the pedals with my hand and get it to shift to the largest gear, but the cable is pretty tight when I get there. If I shift back to the middle gear and attempt to adjust the barrel adjuster on the cable, I just end up with the cable being ridiculously tight.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I seem to be doing wrong?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[randochap]

Try here.

 

[Andy Somnifac]

Yeah, done lots of searching. Been to Park Tools, have Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Repair. Even attempting to follow them, I'm running into issues, hence my post here.

Thank you for the suggestion though.

 

[alfeng]

With SHIMANO shifters & front derailleurs, the 'speed' has to match (including the chain) ... so, if the Tiagra front derailleur is a 9-speed (AFAIK, Tiagra can't be a 10-speed ... or, 8-speed, for that matter) and your Fuji has a 10-speed shifter, then you'll never get it right ...

So, presuming the Fuji has 10-speed shifters & the cassette on the rear is a 10-speed + the chain is a 10-speed, you'll have to get an Ultegra/6603 or 105/5603 front derailleur (both are 10-speed front derailleurs) to resolve your bike's current drivetrain problem.

 

[Andy Somnifac]

Got it working. Don't know what I missed, but I kept at it and it shifts well now.

As for the components on the bike, it has an 8 speed cassette w/ Sora shifters (not mine, just the same ones).

 

[Peter@vecchios]

With SHIMANO shifters & front derailleurs, the 'speed' has to match (including the chain) ... so, if the Tiagra front derailleur is a 9-speed (AFAIK, Tiagra can't be a 10-speed ... or, 8-speed, for that matter) and your Fuji has a 10-speed shifter, then you'll never get it right ...

So, presuming the Fuji has 10-speed shifters & the cassette on the rear is a 10-speed + the chain is a 10-speed, you'll have to get an Ultegra/6603 or 105/5603 front derailleur (both are 10-speed front derailleurs) to resolve your bike's current drivetrain problem.

Sorry, disaggree. 10s shimano shifters will shift a so called '9s' front road derailleur just fine but the opposite is not true. A 9s STI set will not shift a '10s' front derailleur..it won't travel far enough.

 

[alfeng]

Sorry, disaggree. 10s shimano shifters will shift a so called '9s' front road derailleur just fine but the opposite is not true. A 9s STI set will not shift a '10s' front derailleur..it won't travel far enough.

Okay ...

Regardless of how bold I may-or-may-not be to mix various unauthorized derailleurs (front & rear!) with my Campagnolo shifters, my past experience setting-up-and-maintaining the indexing for a triple with Shimano STI shifters & derailleurs would probably have me timidly maintaining the prescribed front derailleur & chain for any particular pair of Shimano shifters; so, that's why it's my wussy recommendation for others!