Thread: Pissing-me-off Derraileur noise

When I change gears there are loud clicks, sometimes a crunching noise from my rear derraileur (XT).

It also feels jerky and doesn't shift as smoothly as when it was new. Setup is 3 months old and gets about 30 miles per week of rough-riding. The only maintenance I do is spraying it with teflon oil.

How do I fix it? Thanks!

you have stretched the cables (normal for new bikes) bring it to where you bought it and get the to do a new bike tune (should be free).

ride a single speed. no gears, no derailleur, just one f@#king speed. easy maintenance also. i ride one exclusively on all my tahoe rides.

Originally posted by lph
you have stretched the cables (normal for new bikes) bring it to where you bought it and get the to do a new bike tune (should be free).

Learn how to do this yourself and save a bunch of money in the long run.

Originally posted by lph
you have stretched the cables (normal for new bikes) bring it to where you bought it and get the to do a new bike tune (should be free).

Interestingly it is a combination of slight cable stretch and a groove wearing into the interior of the housing that causes this problem. The groove wears on the inside of any loops or bends and thus shortens the effective length of the housing. Nonetheless the solution is to increase the cable tension by turning the tension adjusters out which effectively increases the housing length thereby making up for its stretching and grooving. There are numerous sites that have bike tuning info.
you might try these:
Mike T tuning page
Utah Mountain Biking
Those are great references for the long term for now I'd just take it into the shop and they should be able to adjust that easily and for free.

Thanks guys!

UT Dave- great site. Looks like I found exactly what I'm looking for....

http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/rshf-tun.htm

I agree with the cable stretch assessmet. Shift/brake cables are like guitar strings, when new they will stretch. I'd also argue that if all you've done is spray your chain with a teflon lube, you should properly clean your chain and rear cogs. Grime and clooected crap in the cogs and chain links will cause noisy shifting/grinding.

Degrease the chain, rinse it well and apply the teflon lube. That should help a lot in the shifting speed and quiteness.

Originally posted by snow_slider
I agree with the cable stretch assessmet. Shift/brake cables are like guitar strings, when new they will stretch. I'd also argue that if all you've done is spray your chain with a teflon lube, you should properly clean your chain and rear cogs. Grime and clooected crap in the cogs and chain links will cause noisy shifting/grinding.

Degrease the chain, rinse it well and apply the teflon lube. That should help a lot in the shifting speed and quiteness.

What....throwing the bike in the back of my truck and going through a car-wash doesn't cut it?

I'll check the grime too. My last few rides have been through mud.

You probably don't need to adjust the limit screws so I'd leave those alone. Just start with the cable tension and that should take care of it. Here is another cool site you might like.
Pete Fagerlin mtb site