My Gears Are Pretty F**ked.

[Dwarf Shortage]

I got a M.A.D. Phase 1.2 on Monday, or Tuesday, I can't even remember, and I love it, no problems until now. (Apart from my calves, no, I'm not a farmer, I've grazed my legs on the back wheel while it's been spinning, so while you're reading this, if you could throw down some links for some shin guards that protect your calves aswell, it would be greatly appreciated )

Anyway, I was trying to pivot up a bench this morning, and I may have f**ked the rear derailleur, 'cause now my gears are messed up, and whenever I change gear, sometimes it doesn't, or it goes all spazzy, and if it's near the top or bottom end of the "gear spectrum", i.e. 1, 2 or 7, 8, it doesn't change at all, and when I go into gear 8, the chain goes off the cog, and grinds against the rear bit of the actual frame.

I'm hopeless with gears as I've rode BMX for the past 4+ years, when I traded a Digi-vice for a bright orange mountain bike (An actual f**king digi-vice, like a Poke-dex, but for Digi-mon. I'm not even kidding, I got it for like £4, got bored of it then my mate found it and told me he'd swap me his bike for it... Then I found out why, as I was bombing down a hill, and it literally fell apart.) and before that all my life I've rode BMX, so Me + Gears = Fail.

So don't leave out any suggestion to dumb, as I've not tried anything apart from actually lifting the chain back onto a higher gear. I may have even done that wrong.

As far as I know, the bike is entirely factory, any other information you need I will gladly try to supply

Oh, and try to refrain from leaving "Change it to a single speed." comments, as I may order one soon anyway

Thanks for reading

Edited June 18, 2010 by Ninja Manatee

[TrialsMan Dan]

Check your mech hanger is'nt bent

[bikeperson45]

Probably just bent, either the hanger or the derailleur (spelling?) just bend it back to place and adjust. You'll be doing this a lot learning from my experience so single speed is the way to go

[Revolver]

Gears are tricksy things. To set them you need to hold the derallieur against its spring, set the shifter to match the gear the derallieur is hovering over in that position, and then tighten the cable holding bolt. Adjust the adjuster screws to stop the chain from going over the top of the bigger ring or off the side of the smallest ring, and that should do it.

Or, if you're not a gear fan, go for singlespeed.

[Alex Dark]

Best possible advice....take the rear cassette shite off, park tool do a tool for this. Thread on a Tensile FFW ( available for as little as £10 second hand ). Then make a spoke tensioner.

Voila, saved maybe 300 grams, 3x the engagement points, better chain tension and looks massively better

[Dwarf Shortage]

I've managed to snap my mech hanger in half, so I'll probably take it to a bike shop tomorrow, see how much they're selling new mech hangers, and get it sorted by them while I'm there.

Btw, Alex Dark, could you post a video of what you're on about doing or anything to help create an image in my head, I don't grasp much of what you said, I've literally been riding 3/4 days

[Revolver]

take the rear cassette shite off, park tool do a tool for this. Thread on a Tensile FFW ( available for as little as £10 second hand ). Then make a spoke tensioner.

Whaaaaat?

There's some bits missing, such as, getting a fixed rear hub and building it to the current rim.

[Ben John-Hynes]

Gears are tricksy things. To set them you need to hold the derallieur against its spring, set the shifter to match the gear the derallieur is hovering over in that position

Bollocks. Plus the worlds worst advice.

Whaaaaat?

There's some bits missing, such as, getting a fixed rear hub and building it to the current rim.

Unless the freewheel/cassette is already a screw on one(which I tihnk it is). Then it'll be fine.

[Revolver]

Bollocks. Plus the worlds worst advice.

Well, we've already covered looking at the gear hanger to see if it's f**ked... so what to do when the gears don't work after the hanger is sorted...?

And gears are pretty fiddly, firstly when you don't understand them, and secondly when you have to hold the derallieur, pull the cable tight AND do up the bolt at the same time.

Weird how it'd come with a screw on cassette-freewheel, not many people make them, they're usually dirt cheap which is another way of saying shite. And to put it on a trials bike where you need a good drivetrain...

Your move

[Ben John-Hynes]

1) And gears are pretty fiddly, firstly when you don't understand them, and secondly when you have to hold the derallieur, pull the cable tight AND do up the bolt at the same time.

2) Weird how it'd come with a screw on cassette-freewheel, not many people make them, they're usually dirt cheap which is another way of saying shite. And to put it on a trials bike where you need a good drivetrain...

Your move

1) Do the bottom limit screw 1st so you don't have to hold the mech

2) Yeah, they're shit. But I'd imagine it's cheaper for them to make as they can use any shit generic MTB wheel and whack it straight on.

[Revolver]

1) Do the bottom limit screw 1st so you don't have to hold the mech

2) Yeah, they're shit. But I'd imagine it's cheaper for them to make as they can use any shit generic MTB wheel and whack it straight on.

1 - I've never had a mech that's limiting screws were long enough to hold it all the way against it's springs.

Possibly because I've never had expensive mechs, but otherwise Fair point though if the mech allows it.

2 - Lol, reassuring quality eh?

[Dwarf Shortage]

I took it out again, and just figured out which gears were which and kind of adapted to it..

Then snapped my mech hanger

So I went and got a new mech hanger, and my Dad sorted it