Cable fiddling.

[kwackers]

I'm probably alone here but is anyone else a compulsive cable fiddler?

You know the thing, you spend a bit of time setting up the gears on the bike stand, every click of the lever results in a perfect gear change.

Then you're riding along and for some reason - a change in temperature, bit of grit or whatever; you click the lever and the chain simply rattles.
Before you know it you've reached forward and tweaked the cable. It's all downhill from then, no matter what you do you cant get a sweet gear change all the way through the range.

I then spend the rest of the commute trying to reason out what went wrong on each gear change and trying to tweak the cable properly, it rarely makes things better though...

[mjr]

No, I'm gradually switching all my derailleur bikes to friction shifting so I don't waste time messing with indexing

[reohn2]

I'm betting it's caused by either dry cables,TF2 red Teflon grease works wonders.
Or it's a worn chain with lots of side slop and or worn top jockey wheel on the rear mech
Once set up and if lubed regularly,I find indexed deraileurs work fine for 1000's of miles without much attention.

[Paulatic]

I’d agree with R2. I find once they’re set that’s it and never touched for years. Once they start needing adjustment then there’s something going awry with the cable.

[kwackers]

New chain & sprockets. Cable had the inners replaced - they're down for full replacement in a few months time.
Bike is doing just shy of 1000 miles a month so I suspect "months" of maintenance free especially in the current weather is a pipe dream. (The bike looks like it's been at the bottom of a river for years a week after I clean it).

[reohn2]

New chain & sprockets. Cable had the inners replaced - they're down for full replacement in a few months time.
Bike is doing just shy of 1000 miles a month so I suspect "months" of maintenance free especially in the current weather is a pipe dream. (The bike looks like it's been at the bottom of a river for years a week after I clean it).

Check the jockey wheels and the plastic guide under the BB

[Mick F]

I’d agree with R2. I find once they’re set that’s it and never touched for years. Once they start needing adjustment then there’s something going awry with the cable.

Agree too.

However, no matter how well the indexing is set up on the stand, it always needs a tweak when actually riding the bike.
I always go out on a test ride to tweak.

[gaz]

No. The commuter does not have any cable adjusters in reach and even on the stand the shifting is acceptable rather than sweet.

Just give the lever a bit more of a nudge if required, stick it on the workstand when I get fed up with nudging.