Campy 9-Speed Rear Derailleur Problem

awoehler said:

Looking on input to solve a gearing problem.

My wife "laid down" in the parking lot on sunday, parts side down, and since then has had problem with her rear derailleur. It is a Campagnolo 9-speed Mirage long cage. There are no visible signs of impact on the derailleur, yet in the middle of the cassette, it will jump two gears at a time, up or down. All the rest of the shifting is fine.

On inspection, the cage of the rear derailleur appears to be just slightly crooked, but I don't know what it looked like before she went down. The chain will engage the cog, and the rub against the next cog just enough to engage and skip into the next gear. If I adjust the cable tension, the shifting will clear up in that particular area, but will then skip gears at another area of the cassette.

Was the cage bent? Derailleur hanger bent? The spring tension thrown off? Is it exposing a wear problem near the most popular gear on her bicycle and needs a new cassette/chain?

Maybe either or both. A LBS can check hanger alignment....Learn to measure a chain for weear as per Sheldon Brown at www.harriscyclery.com rather than guessing.

awoehler said:

Looking on input to solve a gearing problem.

My wife "laid down" in the parking lot on sunday, parts side down, and since then has had problem with her rear derailleur. It is a Campagnolo 9-speed Mirage long cage. There are no visible signs of impact on the derailleur, yet in the middle of the cassette, it will jump two gears at a time, up or down. All the rest of the shifting is fine.

On inspection, the cage of the rear derailleur appears to be just slightly crooked, but I don't know what it looked like before she went down. The chain will engage the cog, and the rub against the next cog just enough to engage and skip into the next gear. If I adjust the cable tension, the shifting will clear up in that particular area, but will then skip gears at another area of the cassette.

Was the cage bent? Derailleur hanger bent? The spring tension thrown off? Is it exposing a wear problem near the most popular gear on her bicycle and needs a new cassette/chain?

Before you get complicated answer this question : can you adjust for the shifts up to be fine but the down poor and vice versa ?
if so then change the cable and the covers before worring about damage .
cables and covers should be changed every year or two , depending on usage and worn ones cause a shift that´s inpossible to adjust .

There is a small possibility that the shifter lever is worn and needs rebuilding but try replacing the cable / cover first as it´s easy and cheap and you should even be able to do it at home with a bit of patience - though replacing the bar tape can try the patience of a saint .

el Inglés said:

Before you get complicated answer this question : can you adjust for the shifts up to be fine but the down poor and vice versa ?
if so then change the cable and the covers before worring about damage .
cables and covers should be changed every year or two , depending on usage and worn ones cause a shift that´s inpossible to adjust .

There is a small possibility that the shifter lever is worn and needs rebuilding but try replacing the cable / cover first as it´s easy and cheap and you should even be able to do it at home with a bit of patience - though replacing the bar tape can try the patience of a saint .

Skips the gears going both up and down, and was working perfect until she fell in the parking lot. In an earlier life, I was a bike mechanic, so I messed with it for quite a while last night trying all kinds of things... I didn't even consider the hanger being bent until someone brought it up. I don't have any frame tools, but my local bike shop says the hanger is a $10 fix, 10-15 minutes.

I hope it's just a bent hanger.

el Inglés said:

Before you get complicated answer this question : can you adjust for the shifts up to be fine but the down poor and vice versa ?
if so then change the cable and the covers before worring about damage .
cables and covers should be changed every year or two , depending on usage and worn ones cause a shift that´s inpossible to adjust .

There is a small possibility that the shifter lever is worn and needs rebuilding but try replacing the cable / cover first as it´s easy and cheap and you should even be able to do it at home with a bit of patience - though replacing the bar tape can try the patience of a saint .

What nonsense...If it worked before the crash,suddenly the cables/casing/shift lever have gone TU? 🙄

awoehler said:

Skips the gears going both up and down, and was working perfect until she fell in the parking lot. In an earlier life, I was a bike mechanic, so I messed with it for quite a while last night trying all kinds of things... I didn't even consider the hanger being bent until someone brought it up. I don't have any frame tools, but my local bike shop says the hanger is a $10 fix, 10-15 minutes.

I hope it's just a bent hanger.

if the covers are more than a year old change them anyway as you´ll have to soon and as you´ll be changeing the bar tape it makes sence to do everything at the same time ( did you know that it´s easy to change the levercovers at the same time ? Did the whole job on a record about 6 weeks ago - it´s fiddly but not difficult .

don´t see how it can be a bent hanger unless it´s the hanger that the rear mech mounts to and if that´s replaceable it´s a 5 min job with two allen keys and that includes washing your hands but it takes a hell of a bang to bend one of those and you´d see a lot of scraps on the body of the mech ( you could try taking your´s off and checking if it´s straight , if not bend straight in a vice and see if it works better , but you will need to raplace it as ali only bends once so it´s an all or nothing test .

boudreaux said:

What nonsense...If it worked before the crash,suddenly the cables/casing/shift lever have gone TU? 🙄

if TU stands for "[censored] Up", then I say LOL.