How to tune/adjust a rear Shimano Derailleur January 3, 2009 By RL Policar 14 Watch it in HD. Related posts: Learn How to bunny hop! On the trail repair Lunch time, I don’t need food, I just need my bike! Bicycle Tire Chains Post navigation Previous PostPrevious Sette RazzoNext PostNext KHS DH200 First Impression
Great job as always RL.
Quick question: Because the bike will many times act differently on a bike stand than it does when mounted, what would you suggest to a person that perhaps is running into shifting problems when they are on the trail? (after they have adjusted it in the stand)
BTW – troubles occur most frequently when climbing on a full suspension bike
Thanks Jay,
I’d suggest riding on a flat street, go through your gears and fine tune it with the adjuster barrel on the shifter pod. But make sure that you only do half turns so you can dial it in just right.
Don’t forget to adjust high/low limit screws and “B” tension screw(if applicable). BEFORE adjusting cable tension. If you don’t do those first, the rest is meaningless.
You only need to touch those if your chain jumps the cog and into the spokes or if your chain is on the small cog and its really rubbing bad on the pulley/ or the derailleur is pulling towards the drop out.
Check the Park Tool repair database…H and L and B-tension screws get adjusted first. THEN, the indexing adjustment. If H and L are off, no amount of cable tension tinkering is going to get you good shifting!
As I mentioned, you don’t have to. It worked just fine in the video.
Just get an Osobike, then you don’t have to worry about adjusting your derailer.
But an Oso bike isn’t a mountain bike…
Yeah, I’d like to see one of you guys tackle Southridge on an OSO. Ha ha!
Great video. Wanted to know if there is an adjustment I can make to get the chain to rotate freely backwards. All the gears seem to shift smoothly going forward, but chain will slack up when pedaling counterclockwise. Does this mean I need a new derailer or possibly a new chain? Thanks!
Shimano Derailer, new bike, 6 Speed, rear wheel locks when I try to move backwards. Rear wheel makes dragging when you move forward. Any suggestions?
This is awesome. As always thanks for all the tech tips…keep em coming…
How do I set cable tensioN and whAt is proper tension?
Crcle,
You adjust the tension by turning the adjuster barrels on the shifter or derailleur. The proper tension would be found when the gears are shifting properly. There really isn’t a set tension, you just have to make sure that it works. Each bike is different.