Cycling UK Forum

It may be a silly question but does worn jockey wheels affect gear changes? I've noticed my gears are slower to change, especially going to a lower gear. I've tried cable adjustment but it's not made a lot of difference. I can get new jockey wheels for around £10 but as I'm on a really tight budget I don't want to buy them if they're not the cause of the slow shifting. Any thoughts would be welcome.

francovendee wrote:It may be a silly question but does worn jockey wheels affect gear changes?

yes they do....

The top jockey pulley usually needs to have a small amount of float in it, but once worn the teeth don't hold the chain and/or the pulley bushing lets the whole thing flop about and the gearchange goes bad.

There are lots of other things that can make the shifting bad, but worn pulleys won't help any.

You can get basic jockey pulleys for less than £10 BTW.

edit: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=885 '8spd' but will keep you moving anyway. £3.99 posted.

cheers

Jockey wheels need to be ok - especially the top one, but it will have some play in the bearing. It's only when the play gets to much that you could get problems.

My Campag rear mechs have different jockey wheels top and bottom, and the top one has to be fitted the correct way round as it's "directional". How much difference this makes, I dunno.

Jockey wheels wouldn't be my first choice to be looked at if I had poor shifting, and if the jockey wheels are worn, it would only be the top one that would make any difference to the gear changing.

francovendee wrote:It may be a silly question but does worn jockey wheels affect gear changes? I've noticed my gears are slower to change, especially going to a lower gear. I've tried cable adjustment but it's not made a lot of difference. I can get new jockey wheels for around £10 but as I'm on a really tight budget I don't want to buy them if they're not the cause of the slow shifting. Any thoughts would be welcome.

I have to ask,what brought you to the conclusion that it could be the jockey wheels?
As Mick says it wouldn't be my first thought if the gear change was slow.After checking adjustment(which you've already done)I'd check the chain for overall wear and particular sideways "slop".

rehon2. The chain and sprockets are newish, about 3 months old but the shape of the jockey wheel teeth have become very pointed. I hadn't thought about play in the bearing. I'll take a look and see if it's loose.

Ditto the above comments about the jockey not being the first ports of call. On my MTB the top one is spikey and the bottom doesn't have any teeth any more.. still shifts fine.

If your gear changes are slow make sure your cable is clean and free running in the outer sheath. I was suffering from sloppy changes somtime last year and I changed the cable, sorted the old one was sticking in the outer.

Malc

cycling is all about efficiency so if its not cleaned,lubed or replaced at some point then its not going to be as efficient as it could be!

Picky point of the day:-
Derailleurs only have one jockey wheel, the upper one. The lower one is correctly called the tension wheel.

Steve Kish wrote:Picky point of the day:-
Derailleurs only have one jockey wheel, the upper one. The lower one is correctly called the tension wheel.

When the jockey wheel and the tension wheel are both worn, stingy people like myself will swap them over so the play in the tensioning wheel makes it act like a jockey wheel with its built in play.

Though I always wear out the deraileur links and pins long before the pulley wheels on my bikes.

Success! I had a look at the play in the jockey wheel and it was very wobbly. fitted a new set and now the gear change is vastly improved. Thanks for the advice.
Meic, I did take a look at the links and pins of the deraileur, not exctly sure what I was looking for but there didn't seem to be much looseness, not as far as I could tell. Is there a way of determining when it's worn?

francovendee wrote:Success! I had a look at the play in the jockey wheel and it was very wobbly. fitted a new set and now the gear change is vastly improved.

Glad to hear it!

I did take a look at the links and pins of the deraileur, not exctly sure what I was looking for but there didn't seem to be much looseness, not as far as I could tell. Is there a way of determining when it's worn?

Worn links/pins are checked by twisting the mech against itself in the opposing plane to which the parallelogram operates,if you get my meaning,if its worn you'll feel a bit play or looseness in the links/pins.I leettle bit of play is acceptable but if its very sloppy with lots of play it could affect gearchanging.