Totally disenchanted with my Ultegra 9 speed

[hdavidh]

On a Bianchi Eros with Truvativ Elita cranks and ultegra 9 spd cassette and all else Ultegra I have just about given up on dialing this thing in. With the original Campy Mirage group I had no such problems due to the seemingly infinite shifting available from the Mirage shifter for the front De but I moved that entire group over to my 80' Holdsworth Mistral.
I simply cannot seem to get this dialed in! I get rub on my front De in lower gears in big ring and rub in high gears in 3rd ring when I have the triple on it so I bought a compact Truvative crank on sale and I still cannot get it set right no matter how I try. The chainline is just too "out of whack" from small ring to high gears or from big ring to low gears. Am I just expecting too much? Is it too much to ask to able to utilize all my gears without rub and noise somewhere?
The ironic thing is that my 82' Peugot 12 speed (can you tell I like steel frames?) with it's old, antiquated parts is the smooooooooothest shifting and riding bike in the bunch but I wanted something a little lighter, a little more modern, and with more gear ratios. What am I doing wrong? I cannot afford another group (like trashing all the Ultegra and buying Campy or Sram) am I missing something with that front deraileur height or(?)
Thanks. I needed to vent and ask for possible ideas...

 

[Peter@vecchios]

On a Bianchi Eros with Truvativ Elita cranks and ultegra 9 spd cassette and all else Ultegra I have just about given up on dialing this thing in. With the original Campy Mirage group I had no such problems due to the seemingly infinite shifting available from the Mirage shifter for the front De but I moved that entire group over to my 80' Holdsworth Mistral.
I simply cannot seem to get this dialed in! I get rub on my front De in lower gears in big ring and rub in high gears in 3rd ring when I have the triple on it so I bought a compact Truvative crank on sale and I still cannot get it set right no matter how I try. The chainline is just too "out of whack" from small ring to high gears or from big ring to low gears. Am I just expecting too much? Is it too much to ask to able to utilize all my gears without rub and noise somewhere?
The ironic thing is that my 82' Peugot 12 speed (can you tell I like steel frames?) with it's old, antiquated parts is the smooooooooothest shifting and riding bike in the bunch but I wanted something a little lighter, a little more modern, and with more gear ratios. What am I doing wrong? I cannot afford another group (like trashing all the Ultegra and buying Campy or Sram) am I missing something with that front deraileur height or(?)
Thanks. I needed to vent and ask for possible ideas...

FD needs to be close, CLOSE to the chain when in small ring, biggest cog and also will be in big ring and smallest cog, with a wee trim on the middle.

shimano triples and STI are finicky, particularly when compared to modern Record/Chorus and older Centaur and below.

With the compact, use a normal 9s double front der for best results, any shimano road double FD.

As an aside, 7900 comes w/o trim whatsoever(no triple either), I guess shimano hasn't learned, we'll see how it works, and see if it's 10s or 11s

 

[alfeng]

FWIW. I actually prefer to use Shimano's 6503 front derailleur regardless of the crankset WITH a 9-speed Shimano chain & Shimano 9-speed cassettes/derailleurs because I am apparently indifferent to the difference in shifting performance that others perceive ... BUT, my shifters are Campagnolo (something for everyone who has ANY problems with their Shimano shifters to consider) AND/OR I may just be oblivious to what others perceive to be drivetrain noises. I do have/use 6500 front derailleurs, and some others, too.