Trouble shifting shimano?

Chris Dorn said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of the
left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to reach
without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard when
shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no experience
with Campy. Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

With a smaller, closer shift lever and the ratcheting friction type
shifter, where she can click it once, return to center, click it again,
etc, Campagnolo left/front shifter is much more forgiving for those with
small hands.

Quoted message said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of the
left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to reach
without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard when shifting
into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no experience with Campy.
Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

Check this page on our website- http://www.chainreaction.com/shifting.htm

Sometimes people mistake having to push the lever hard to shift with what's
really required... not so much pressure, but rather holding it in place for
a bit. STI takes a bit of time to "catch" the chain and move it up. It's not
the same technique as the rear derailleur, where you can quickly blip it and
expect the chain to move from cog-to-cog.

When a bike is brand new, the chain will be a bit stiffer and will often
make the more-difficult upshift on the front without so much trouble. But it
doesn't take long for it to become looser and require a bit of help.
Remember, it's not how hard you push, but rather that you hold it in place
for a bit.

Also, make sure the cable is running freely. Check where it goes under the
bottom bracket; a bit of grease there might help.

Also, remember that Shimano does have a women's shifter available, with a
smaller, easier-to-use lever. An expensive option, but for some they work a
lot better, and I'm sure she could try one out on a bike at the shop that
has them.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Chris Dorn said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of the
left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to reach
without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard when
shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no experience
with Campy. Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

Hi, have you checked the shifter, to make sure it is functioning
properly? When I road tested my LeMond, I couldn't shift on to the big
ring. I was concerned that it was just that hard to do. I have some
problems with my hands, the left missing two fingers and the two
remaining are webbed together. Well the LBS mechanic, checked it and
said it wasn't right. They replaced the cable and I had no problem
after that.

So, you might want to start by optimizing what you have, before
spending a lot on new Campy levers.

Life is Good!
Jeff

"Chris Dorn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of the
left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to reach
without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard when shifting
into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no experience with Campy.
Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

One other thing that no one has mentioned is to check that the chainrings
match. (53B goes with 39B, and 53A goes with 42A -- typical road bike
examples) You can certainly use unmatched rings or rings without modified
teeth, but there should be some improvement when using a matched set.

In addition to what Mike said about pushing the lever, make sure she is
easing up on the pedals when shifting to a bigger ring.

--Art

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of
the left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to
reach without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard
when shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no
experience with Campy. Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

Check this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/shifting.htm
Sometimes people mistake having to push the lever hard to shift with
what's really required... not so much pressure, but rather holding it
in place for a bit. STI takes a bit of time to "catch" the chain and
move it up. It's not the same technique as the rear derailleur, where
you can quickly blip it and expect the chain to move from cog-to-cog.

Almost every entry-level road bike that goes out at my shop comes back with
"the front clatters" explicitly because they don't hold it in. Shimano
really needs to have a little tag on the left shifter explaining this.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

"Phil, Squid-in-Training" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of
the left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to
reach without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard
when shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no
experience with Campy. Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

Check this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/shifting.htm
Sometimes people mistake having to push the lever hard to shift with
what's really required... not so much pressure, but rather holding it
in place for a bit. STI takes a bit of time to "catch" the chain and
move it up. It's not the same technique as the rear derailleur, where
you can quickly blip it and expect the chain to move from cog-to-cog.

Almost every entry-level road bike that goes out at my shop comes back
with "the front clatters" explicitly because they don't hold it in.
Shimano really needs to have a little tag on the left shifter explaining
this.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Is it different with Campy, and why?

Another thing that is not obvious about the left Shim lever is that a half
swing of the lever will trim the front der to stop noise in a bad
combination such as big ring, big cog.

--Art

Quoted message said:

Almost every entry-level road bike that goes out at my shop comes back
with "the front clatters" explicitly because they don't hold it in.
Shimano really needs to have a little tag on the left shifter explaining
this.

Which is why I put up that web page. You might think it's because I'm
incredibly altruistic and want to make the world a better place for cycling,
but the real reason is because, with something on-line that I can point to,
they're more likely to believe me when I tell them that something's not
defective, but they need to use it a bit differently.

Same thing for this page- www.ChainReaction.com/chainrings.htm I got enough
phone calls from people over the years regarding their "defective" brand-new
bike with missing chainring teeth... who absolutely would not believe me
when I told them that's the way it was made... that putting up the stuff on
the 'web became a way to keep my sanity.

The amazing thing is that people will believe virtually ANYTHING they read
on the 'web, the problem being that you can do a web search and support just
about any conclusion you've already reached.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com

Chris Dorn said:

My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw of the
left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long enough to reach
without causing her to swerve because she is pushing so hard when
shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be easier? I have no experience
with Campy. Just looking for some help or ideas.
Chris

The Ergo may be shifted in a couple of short passes in
succession rather than one long hard-to-reach motion

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Thanks all for your suggestions. I think I will give her a little time
to see if she can develop the technique for shifting STI's. If she
cannot then I will look into Ergos, they seem like a good alternative.
Chris

Chris Dorn said:

Thanks all for your suggestions. I think I will give her a little time
to see if she can develop the technique for shifting STI's. If she
cannot then I will look into Ergos, they seem like a good alternative.
Chris

don't rule out bar-cons
--
---
Marten

Phil said:

Almost every entry-level road bike that goes out at my shop comes back with
"the front clatters" explicitly because they don't hold it in. Shimano
really needs to have a little tag on the left shifter explaining this.

Or design a front shifter that works better. We just got our first
Ultegra 10s triple and 'smooth running' is NOT how I would describe the
front der/triple. It is on the level of finnicky of the DA triple. I'm
sure the DA 10s triple won't be any better.

Qui Si Parla Campagnolo said:

Or design a front shifter that works better. We just got our first
Ultegra 10s triple and 'smooth running' is NOT how I would describe
the front der/triple. It is on the level of finnicky of the DA
triple. I'm sure the DA 10s triple won't be any better.

A fellow club member has been through at least three sets of DA shifters in a
year. He just went to Campy in disgust.

Matt O.

Quoted message said:

A fellow club member has been through at least three sets of DA shifters
in a
year. He just went to Campy in disgust.

Matt O.

But then there's a guy like me, with first-generation (pre-flight-deck)
9-speed D/A shifters, the ones that are supposedly the worst, and they've
gone through multiple frames, gosh-awful weather (I ride no-matter-what) and
40k+ miles and still work fine.

Not to say that we haven't seen problems with some, but there are quite a
few people who have never had issues, and of those who have, some are
definitely related to crashing on them. Yeah, I'd like to see a tougher
design, but failures in the field are not as common as some reading these
threads would be led to believe.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

A fellow club member has been through at least three sets of DA
shifters in a
year. He just went to Campy in disgust.

Quoted message said:

But then there's a guy like me, with first-generation
(pre-flight-deck) 9-speed D/A shifters, the ones that are supposedly
the worst, and they've gone through multiple frames, gosh-awful
weather (I ride no-matter-what) and 40k+ miles and still work fine.

Not to say that we haven't seen problems with some, but there are
quite a few people who have never had issues, and of those who have,
some are definitely related to crashing on them. Yeah, I'd like to
see a tougher design, but failures in the field are not as common as
some reading these threads would be led to believe.

Mike, this isn't rocket science. That any of these fail spontaneously, as they
do, is completely unacceptable -- especially when they charge as much for them
as they do.

One thing I would never do is buy these parts secondhand. If it breaks you're
really SOL.

Matt O.

Art M said:

"Phil, Squid-in-Training" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

> My wife just started cycling and is having trouble with the throw
> of the left lever (front derailleur), her hands are not long
> enough to reach without causing her to swerve because she is
> pushing so hard when shifting into the big ring. Would Campy be
> easier? I have no experience with Campy. Just looking for some
> help or ideas. Chris

Check this page on our website-
http://www.chainreaction.com/shifting.htm
Sometimes people mistake having to push the lever hard to shift with
what's really required... not so much pressure, but rather holding
it in place for a bit. STI takes a bit of time to "catch" the chain
and move it up. It's not the same technique as the rear derailleur,
where you can quickly blip it and expect the chain to move from
cog-to-cog.

Almost every entry-level road bike that goes out at my shop comes
back with "the front clatters" explicitly because they don't hold it
in. Shimano really needs to have a little tag on the left shifter
explaining this.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Is it different with Campy, and why?

Another thing that is not obvious about the left Shim lever is that a
half swing of the lever will trim the front der to stop noise in a bad
combination such as big ring, big cog.

Entry-level road bikes have Sora shifters, which don't have a trim function.
These are probably 50% of the road bikes we sell.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Quoted message said:

Mike, this isn't rocket science. That any of these fail
spontaneously, as they do, is completely unacceptable -- especially
when they charge as much for them as they do.

One thing I would never do is buy these parts secondhand. If it
breaks you're really SOL.

One of the joys of downtube shifters... cheap, reliable, and light! Not
that I'll be winning any crits with them...

http://plaza.ufl.edu/phillee/rbt/gt.jpg (my bike)

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

But then there's a guy like me, with first-generation

(pre-flight-deck)

Quoted message said:

9-speed D/A shifters, the ones that are supposedly the worst, and

they've

Quoted message said:

gone through multiple frames, gosh-awful weather (I ride

no-matter-what) and

Quoted message said:

40k+ miles and still work fine.

It is my understanding that the pre-flight deck DA 7700 STI shifters
are actually more reliable than the later ones with the flite deck
internals. I have them on two bikes and have never had a moment's
trouble with either set.

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

But then there's a guy like me, with first-generation

(pre-flight-deck)

Quoted message said:

9-speed D/A shifters, the ones that are supposedly the worst, and

they've

Quoted message said:

gone through multiple frames, gosh-awful weather (I ride

no-matter-what) and

Quoted message said:

40k+ miles and still work fine.

It is my understanding that the pre-flight deck DA 7700 STI shifters
are actually more reliable than the later ones with the flite deck
internals. I have them on two bikes and have never had a moment's
trouble with either set.

Quoted message said:

Mike, this isn't rocket science. That any of these fail spontaneously, as
they
do, is completely unacceptable -- especially when they charge as much for
them
as they do.

It's extraordinarily rare that they fail "spontaneously." They're either DOA
when new (which, I'll agree, isn't acceptable, but at least it's spotted
before it leaves the shop) or they fail because a crash shoved the lever
against the handlebar, bending it outward a bit. That can often cause
failure; typically the customer says no, that never happened, and points to
a lack of external damage to the lever as proof. But then you look at the
handlebar and see the area where the lever smashed against the tape...

Quoted message said:

One thing I would never do is buy these parts secondhand. If it breaks

you're

Quoted message said:

really SOL.

No argument there.

Quoted message said:

Matt O.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"Matt O'Toole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

A fellow club member has been through at least three sets of DA
shifters in a
year. He just went to Campy in disgust.

Quoted message said:

But then there's a guy like me, with first-generation
(pre-flight-deck) 9-speed D/A shifters, the ones that are supposedly
the worst, and they've gone through multiple frames, gosh-awful
weather (I ride no-matter-what) and 40k+ miles and still work fine.

Not to say that we haven't seen problems with some, but there are
quite a few people who have never had issues, and of those who have,
some are definitely related to crashing on them. Yeah, I'd like to
see a tougher design, but failures in the field are not as common as
some reading these threads would be led to believe.

Mike, this isn't rocket science. That any of these fail spontaneously, as
they
do, is completely unacceptable -- especially when they charge as much for
them
as they do.

One thing I would never do is buy these parts secondhand. If it breaks
you're
really SOL.

Matt O.