Gear Question

[Organist]

This is a very basic question. I've just bought a new bike after years of not riding! I seem to remember years ago that the advice was to leave derailleur gears in the highest gear when not in use. Is this still the case I've have Shimano Sora changers.

Thank you

Anthony

[Jdsk]

Welcome.

I wouldn't give that another thought.

Have fun

Jonathan

[Vorpal]

I live on a hill & store my bikes set to the easiest gear.

[Cugel]

I'll disagree with the others.

It can weaken the tension spring of a rear derailleur if you leave it in a fully-wound state for most of the time (i.e. in your bike shed). The worse-case scenario is that being in the fully-wound state puts a lot more pressure on the spring anchor points, so those eventually give way and you have no spring tension at all in the derailleur anymore.

Happily (or not, depending on your rear derailleur model) the less expensive rear derailleurs are more strongly built than the top-class ones that cost loadsadosh. The less expensive ones tend to use the steel in copious amounts whilst the sooper-doopers tend to use the minimum of some exotic alloy. The latter give up the most easily when under constant maximum tension.

Examples from experience: I've seen two Dura-Ace rear mechs fail early because their owners never bothered to take the chain off the big rear cog or the large chainwheel when they thrust their bike into the bike shed after a ride. Mind, those same owners also tended to avoid the bike cleaning and maintenance, so degradation from high tension would be aided and abetted by slow inner rot.

And it takes about 4 seconds to put your bike into small-small; or no extra time at all if you do it as you roll up to the bike shed. Ditto putting it into a lower gear before beginning a ride (the 4 seconds bit, at least).

Cugel

[Barrowman]

What Cugel said.

[Jodel]

What Barrowman said

[531colin]

Ask 3 cyclists......get 37 opinions......
.....I just leave mine in whatever gear I've left it in, if you see what I mean.
Of course when I started, ordinary people couldn't afford Campag. which were the only parallelogram gears you saw, so you all had the Benelux/Simplex type, where slack cable was bottom gear. I think then we were supposed to leave them in bottom gear, but nobody I knew bothered.

[Vantage]

What 531colin said.
Over time you'll find a gear you like to set off in and chances are, you'll leave it in that gear (or one close to it) automatically at the end of each ride.

Can't say I've ever seen or heard of a tension spring or its anchors failing due to being left in a high gear. Not in 35+ years of cycling and not in the 5+ years I've been leaving my own gears in that state.

[peetee]

Don't worry about it.
I have Shimano gear mechs that have been on my bike for over 30 years and are left sitting in tension half-way up the cassette. They were not used at all for over eight years.
They still work perfectly.

[bgnukem]

Ditto the above, I leave my bikes in a suitable gear to set off, usually halfway along the cassette.

I've left bikes like that for literally years and then ridden them normally with no issues.

The idea of a spring, derailleur or otherwise, is that the steel remains within it's elastic strain range and does not reach the yield point, therefore it should keep working fine as a spring as long as the tension does not cause yield, e.g. through operating beyond design parameters / normal range of movement for a rear mech. Also assuming the spring does not corrode, of course.

[axel_knutt]

The idea of a spring, derailleur or otherwise, is that the steel remains within it's elastic strain range and does not reach the yield point, therefore it should keep working fine as a spring as long as the tension does not cause yield

Materials creep. ie. When loaded below the elastic limit, over the long term they accumulate strain under a continuously applied stress (or conversely, lose stress under a continuously applied strain).

I've never given it any consideration on derailleurs though, or had any problem.

[foxyrider]

used to do it - when i was constantly changing wheels and before that when friction d/t levers were the way it was.

It wasn't worry over mech springs rather it was concern over cable degradation that prompted leaving the gears in small/small. Of course, once everything went indexed thoughts of cable slippage went out the window and i've never given it a thought since!

[wirral_cyclist]

Of course, once everything went indexed thoughts of cable slippage went out the window and i've never given it a thought since!

Indexing rather proved the need for tense/slack for cable care a fallacy, the summer bike came off the wall and straight into use after months of idle time, and the winter bike did the same - except their cables had probably had a harder life.

Mind you my shimano 7000? RH shifter needs a new cable every year or two because of the tight routing, and I'm certain no amount of care can help there! I carry a choccy block to get a 2 speed option to somewhere I can deploy the spare easily.

[francovendee]

Don't bother, leave it in a gear that's the correct one for starting off.