I’ve been looking around on bike sites about this, but I’ve not really found a solution to my problem. So I’ll ask here incase someone knows about such things.

My rather old (20 years pretty much) bike - which is in pretty good nick - has developed a problem with the gears on the pedal crank. The problem is this - if I change UP to the large cog, more often than not, the chain won’t take and is pulled right down to the lowest gear on the cluster. It seems that the chain guide just jumps right down. Sometimes it does take, but it may be two or three goes (with a need to change up to the middle cog before trying again).

If I do get it on the top gear, and I change down, it *should* click down to the middle cog, but it jumps right down to the bottom cog again. This is not how it’s meant to work.

One the handlebar, there are two levers. The one that moves the gears up tightens the cable, and is a physical “winding up” kind of lever. The one that changes down is a flick switch that just clicks the gears down. I am wondering if there is something in the mechanism that is not catching the cable as it clicks down.

I have tried a few things - most notably pulling a lot of slack out of the cable, and adjusting the chain guide (I watched a few YouTube vids on the subject - it’s a case of aligning the chain guide with the inner and outer cogs). This has actually removed a rattle (the chain guide was out of line by the looks of things), but it’s not solved my gear changing problem.

So, any ideas here? Would it be the mechanism by the gears that could be out of kilter, or would it be a problem in the controls on the handlebar? I’d like to see if I can solve the problem myself before wheeling it into a shop for someone to look at it properly (if truth be know, the bike could do with a strip down service - which is beyond my skills, but a brake and gear service may be necessary).

Sounds like the indexing on the handlebar mechanism is at fault. They aren't effectively serviceable though replacements aren't a lot of money.


http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram ... -prod41153

Is that the sort of thing?

I think it’s the mechanism that’s given up as well. It seems that it‘s not catching as the gears drop back down. I expect I’ll have to have both changed as I expect the other side will be equally work inside. I’ll have to take the thing to a bike shop and see what they think and can do for it.

If you can get indexed gears. It makes gear changing so much easier, it takes the guess work out.


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Could be the changer, how badly stretched is the cable? That would be the cheapest and easiest to replace. Also, how old is the chain? If they are both relatively old, I'd replace both at the same time as repairing/replacing the gear selector.