Gear shift problems on a Verenti Substance

[fausto99]

A friend of mine has very recently bought a Verenti Substance 105 (2016) http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-substance-105-2016/ . His previous bike was a 1950s Rudge, so he is fairly new to these new-fangled derailleur thingies!

He phoned me to say he could not get the chain to go onto big ring at the front. He had slightly more success when I explained that the brake lever was the also the upshift control, but all was clearly still not right so I went round today with bike stand and tools.

To cut a long story short, I could not get the front derailleur adjusted to my satisfaction. There seemed to be not enough cable movement however far the levers were actuated. If I got it to shift onto the big ring then the inner part of the cage would touch the inside edge of the chain, when it was on the small ring. If I got some clearance at the inner position it would not shift onto the big ring. I went backwards and forwards with end stops, cable end fixing and outer cable barrel adjusters but could only just get it barely acceptable.

I noted that both gear cables are inner and outer for their whole length. There are no bare sections and only one frame "braze on" end stop; the one near the front mech., but surely new 105 shifters, mech and Jagwire cables should work OK on a bike that's only a few weeks old!

Any one else own one of these bikes and had similar problems?

[531colin]

Bearing in mind cautionary tales about grandmothers and eggs.........
....have you found all the "trim" positions on the shifter?
...has the bike been assembled either with the F. mech. too high above the chainwheels or a funny angle to the chain, or with the cable the wrong side of the pinchbolt?

[fausto99]

Hello Granson ,
The bottom of the front of the cage is 1.5-2mm above the top of the teeth on the big ring when fully out.
The cage is parallel to both chainwheels
There is an arrow printed on the fr mech pointing to which way the cable should approach the pinch bolt. The cable follows this arrow.

[keyboardmonkey]

Since it's not been explicitly mentioned - have you tried unclamping the pinch bolt then pressing the smaller lever behind the brake lever lots of times before refastening the pinch bolt and starting again? Best wishes.

[fausto99]

No. I hadn't come across that initialization instruction before. Where did you come across it?
With a 2 chainring 105 setup how many clicks should there be between the two front changer positions?

[531colin]

I think there will be one "shift" click, and a "trim" click for each chainring.....but I'm prepared to be wrong!

[foxyrider]

I think there will be one "shift" click, and a "trim" click for each chainring.....but I'm prepared to be wrong!

Which equates to three positions of the mech. It does sound like a cable set up issue. It's always a good move to fully release any shifter before setting the cables up - it's very easy to get it wrong!

[cycleruk]

With a 2 chainring 105 setup how many clicks should there be between the two front changer positions?

3 clicks from initial small ring position :-

1st click = small ring trim.
2nd click = move from small to large ring.
3rd click = big ring trim.

You should find with a hard push on either lever that you can bypass the trims and move all the way either up or down.
If on the big ring, a hard push on the little paddle will go all the way to back to the little ring start. So a gentler push is required to re-trim the big ring for the bigger rear sprockets.

I did have a Shimano 600 though that had 4 clicks.

[fausto99]

Many thanks for all the hints. I'll disconnect the cable and start again from scratch.

On the club run today a clubman had the very same bike. He said it worked straight out of the box for him. I tried the front changer with the rear wheel off the ground and it took 3 clicks with either lever to shift both ways, sweet as you like. I couldn't see any probs.