Tricks & Techniques Archives

It’s common for newbies to have a little trouble understanding how to comfortably and efficiently make use of their bike gears. You need to understand that you can’t avoid using your bike’s gears when it comes to cycling faster. The gears have been put in place so that you can ride easily in various environments. Keep on reading to learn more about how to adjust the bike gear shifter. How to Adjust Your Bike Gear Shifter There are a couple of steps that you need to take when you’re trying to adjust the bike gear shifter: 1. Raise Your Bike Before you start making adjustments to the gear shifter (or any other adjustments), it’s important that you raise the bike. Even when you want to clean the gears and chains, you need to lift the bike to a certain point with the help of a bike stand. Those who don’t have a bike stand can flip the bike on its head so that it rests properly on the handlebars and it can be worked on. 2. Locate the Derailleurs What are the derailleurs on your bike? The derailleurs are basically responsible for holding the bike chain in place and shifting bicycle gear. There are two derailleurs on the bike depending if you have a men's or women's bike. One is fixed behind the bike’s cassette and the smaller one is close to the pedal. You should check both to ensure that they’re properly adjusted. 3. Check the Gears It’s necessary to identify any shifting errors in each of the gears on your two seater bikes. To do this, you need to test each gear by turning the pedals with your hand. The test should start by first observing the cassette’s derailleur before checking the other derailleur. If you observe any chain falling out of place on the derailleurs, that indicates a shifting error in that gear. 4. Inspect the Cable Adjuster To adequately adjust the gears and fix shifting errors, you need to check the cable adjusters. Cable adjusters are nut-like in shape and are usually located on the cables going to the derailleurs. There are basically two cable adjusters. The first is on the handlebars and the other can be found attached to the derailleur’s end. 5. Deal with the Gear That Has Issues You need to carry out this procedure to identify which gear is faulty. To do this, you need to test each Shimano gear by turning the pedals with your hand. You can identify a faulty gear by the following: a stuck chain, skipping gears, gear inability to stay engaged. When these are identified in any gear, you should fix it as soon as possible. 6. Switch to a Lower Gear To efficiently adjust the bike’s gears, you need to be able to switch chains to a lower gear. You will need to carefully rotate the adjuster in an anti-clockwise direction so that the chains enter the right gear. 7. Tighten the Cable Adjuster To fix shift glitches, you need to make the cable adjuster tighter. You can do this by turning the adjuster in a clockwise direction with a torque wrench for bikes. This should place the chain back in the rightful position. 8. Shift Between Gears If you want to know that the adjustments you made are good, you should switch between gears and observe the position of the chains after using grease for bike bearings because as long as the chains stay in position while shifting gears, the adjustments you made are alright. To further test the quality of the adjustments made, you need to take the bike out on a ride. This is because your weight can still affect the alignment of chains and gears. If any faults develop again, you need to take the bike back for readjustment. After following these tips on how to adjust the bike gear shifter and everything is rightfully in place, you can confidently take your bike out and enjoy a nice ride. How to Replace a Bent Rear Derailleur Hanger The derailleur hanger is specially created and put in place to break in an accident in order to protect the derailleur and bike frame from extensive damage You need to keep in mind that there are high chances of your derailleur bending or breaking in even the slightest of crashes and accidents. It’s important that you always carry an extra one with you whenever you’re setting out for a biking trip. Also, take the proper replacement tools with you. Most times, any hanger will work well with other derailleurs. You still need to get proper specifics based on the manufacturer’s guidelines. You should also leave the hanger on in a situation where it was bent from an accident. Trying to bend it back into position will only lead to the hanger breaking. You can deal with this by readjusting the back-derailleur limits. With all this said, you just need to follow the given guidelines on how to adjust a bike gear shifter and wear proper cycling shorts so you can have a nice time riding your bike.