Thread: Rear derailleur problems after road trip

Drove 250 miles each way (Bay -> tahoe -> bay) with the bike on the roof this weekend. After I got back home, I noticed the rear derailleur is now really hesitant to shift to smaller gears even though it seems to be adjusted correctly. Seems like there's now just a lot more friction somewhere in the cable or derailleur.

There was no problem after driving up to tahoe, and the only difference on the drive home was that there were really strong headwinds, maybe 40-50 mph, that probably kicked up a lot of dust. I'm wondering if the wind/dust from riding on a roof rack can gum up the derailleur or cable? If so, what should I do on future road trips - derailleur condom?

This happened to me once before with another bike after driving from vancouver to SF.

To fix it, should I just clean the derailleur cage, and squirt some light lube into the cable housing?

with almost anything

take apart, clean, lube, put back together.


might be rain/sand/ grit in the cables and housing.

nice to replace them a few times a year anyways.

Davep,

lilke mtnlion said, clean it lube it. An easy way to clean rear cable housing is to shift the rear der all the way up (biggest rear gear in a normally sprung rear der.) then release all the tension without pedaling. This gives you the slack to take the housing out of the cable stops without loosening bolts. I usually run a rag w/degreaser over the cable to clean it, then the same with some tri-flo (so wax based stuff for this) then a few drops into the housing ends. Slide it around and reinstall. It is possible you could have gotten some grit into the der. linkage, but very unlikely. Always check for cable friction first.