Thursday, 18 December 2008

Front mech woes

On yesterday's ride my roadie wouldn't change into the small chain ring at the front, it wasn't really a problem as the ride was basically flat. So today I'm trying to fix the problem. It seems to be at the mech, basically I change at the levers, the cable goes slack but the front mech doesn't move. I've tried cleaning it, putting a bit of lube on. But no idea what to try now. Was hoping to do a long ride today, now thinking this is not likely to be on the cards.

7 comments:

  1. Is it a Tiagra? Mine did exactly the same on Tuesday. There's a pivot with a 3mm allen bolt in it, loosen that off. The mere act of trying to loosen it freed mine up, it must have been gunked up inside

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  2. Can you make the mech move with your hands - i.e shift using the lever but encourage it on its way manually? I've had the Spesh front mech seize after leaving it hungup in the garage for months after a winters use with no tlc (not saying your negelcting your bike like I would) but a good soak of WD40 around the moving parts and some manual intervention got things going again and its still going strong.

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  3. Had a good look at the photo and it looks clean as a whistle (thinks about own bike, ahem)! Try WD40 or GT85 into and around the mech (watch the rims though) rather than just lube if you haven't already.

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  4. Yes Tiagra so I'll give that a go.

    Not really moving with my hands, just about managing to force it but it's hard.

    it looks so clean as that is the first thing I did when it stopped working, if I kept on top on cleaning and maintaince I guess these things wouldn't happen, but where do you find the time!

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  5. Rusty cables or dirty/rusty housings would be my guess. A new greased cable might save the day.

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  6. probably need a new bike ;)

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  7. Well I always need a new bike, but you try living with an accountant!

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