Need help with front derailleur setup

TomYoung said:

Hi all:

I'm working on my daughter's Fuji Absolute road bike. It has a Shimano
Tiagra FD-443 (8 Speed) derailleur, a RPM Road triple crankset, and a
Shimano Rapid Fire SL-R440 front shifter.

Lucky girl! That's a nice bike. And you're a nice dad. :-)

Quoted message said:

And I'm having a hell of a
time getting this setup to work properly.

The problem seems to be in the front shifter. It's a "click" type
shifter, and seems to have 4 "clicks" in its upshift range. The
problem is that the click points are not evenly spaced; the first 3
clicks each require a fairly short throw of the thumb shifter (shifting
up to bigger chainrings) while the last click requires a *huge* throw
of the thumb shifter to reach it. If I set up the front derailleur
cable as I normally would - with just a small amount of tension on the
cable - then I can't make the throw up to the last click before I hit
the cage limiter. Leaving a bunch of slack in the cable gives me
enough "room" to make that last long throw up to the big chainring, but
messes up the low end of the cage movement: at times the first "click"
won't suceed in moving the chain up to the middle ring. Too, it seems
like there's only 3 clicks from the big ring down to the small ring,
missing out on any trim adjustment of the middle ring.

Anybody have "the book" on how to set up this shifter/derailleur combo?

TIA.

Tom Young

Sounds like typical "tricky" triple front mech set up. Couple points I
checked rhight off the bat:

1. Shimano says your Tiagra FD-4403 front derailleur is compatible with
the SL-R440 shift lever. (I'm assuming your FD-443 is a typo.)
Reference:
http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/media/cycling/techdocs/en/bikecomponents/FD/SI-5EW0B_v1_m56577569830538505.pdf
or http://tinyurl.com/zxuqx

2. The RPM crank of course isn't on Shimano's approved list, but I'd
tentatively expect it not to be the main problem.

You're right to start with the book -- get the basics right from the
start and the adjustment should go easier at the end. Here's a link to
Shimano's Service Instructions for your shift lever:
http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/media/cycling/techdocs/en/bikecomponents/SL/SI-6FK0A_v1_m56577569830555609.pdf
or http://tinyurl.com/es9vo
Especially

Good luck!

Thanks for the link to the service instructions. I'd found these
earlier and, unfortunately, there's nothing there that's helping. I've
set up triples before and the thing that's throwing a monkey wrench in
here is the *huge* throw needed to get up to the big chainring.

I think I need a full day to play around with this thing - including
lots of test rides - to see if I can't dial it in better.

At first I thought that the shifter might be defective but a mechanic
at the shop where we purchased the bike confirms that the only way
they've got this setup to work is to leave *lots* and *lots* of slack
in the cable. Doesn't seem right, somehow.

(The FD-443 is correct: FD-4403 is Tiagra, while FD-443 is part of
Shimano's "flat bar" road group. Confusing, isn't it?)