I basically don't know anything about bike maintenence, so hopefully my question has some easy answer. I have a low end mountain bike with what I take to be low-end shimano components. The left thumb shifter won't shift anymore. The problem seams that there is way to much play in the shifter; I depress the button almost as far as it will go before I feel any resistance, and consequently the cable is pulled hardly at all and will not move the derailleur nearly far enough to shift. This is when trying to shift from the middle to the big cog. Shifting to the small cog is equally impossible; shifter gives no resistance at any point and the cable is not pulled at all. So I am stuck in middle gear. Which is not so bad, really, but I'd to be able to shift. So if there so screw I can adjust to fix this, that' d be great! If the best advice is "replace the low end components," i won't be surprised, but I can't really afford to upgrade my bike. So I'm hoping there's something I can do myself. Thanks for any help!
I basically don't know anything about bike maintenence, so hopefully my question has some easy answer. I have a low end mountain bike with what I take to be low-end shimano components. The left thumb shifter won't shift anymore. The problem seams that there is way to much play in the shifter; I depress the button almost as far as it will go before I feel any resistance, and consequently the cable is pulled hardly at all and will not move the derailleur nearly far enough to shift. This is when trying to shift from the middle to the big cog. Shifting to the small cog is equally impossible; shifter gives no resistance at any point and the cable is not pulled at all. So I am stuck in middle gear. Which is not so bad, really, but I'd to be able to shift. So if there so screw I can adjust to fix this, that' d be great! If the best advice is "replace the low end components," i won't be surprised, but I can't really afford to upgrade my bike. So I'm hoping there's something I can do myself. Thanks for any help!
Dennis O'Dea
If the bike is older there is a good chance the grease inside the shifter has gummed up so that the springs inside will not be able to overcome the resistance that the grease is producing. I would spray a light penitrating oil into the shifter mechanism and work the shift lever back and forth. This should free up the shifter but sometimes it requires that you take the cover off the shifter and lube the paws that are stiff and will not spring back then work them back and forth by hand. Good luck!
I basically don't know anything about bike maintenence, so hopefully my question has some easy answer. I have a low end mountain bike with what I take to be low-end shimano components. The left thumb shifter won't shift anymore. The problem seams that there is way to much play in the shifter; I depress the button almost as far as it will go before I feel any resistance, and consequently the cable is pulled hardly at all and will not move the derailleur nearly far enough to shift. This is when trying to shift from the middle to the big cog. Shifting to the small cog is equally impossible; shifter gives no resistance at any point and the cable is not pulled at all. So I am stuck in middle gear. Which is not so bad, really, but I'd to be able to shift. So if there so screw I can adjust to fix this, that' d be great! If the best advice is "replace the low end components," i won't be surprised, but I can't really afford to upgrade my bike. So I'm hoping there's something I can do myself. Thanks for any help!
Dennis O'Dea
Could be shifter is gummed up, the inner wire is fraying or somehow, the inner wire has slipped from the FD attach point, getting really loose. Go to a decent bike shop-have them look at it, it's what they do.
I basically don't know anything about bike maintenence, so hopefully my question has some easy answer. I have a low end mountain bike with what I take to be low-end shimano components. The left thumb shifter won't shift anymore. The problem seams that there is way to much play in the shifter; I depress the button almost as far as it will go before I feel any resistance, and consequently the cable is pulled hardly at all and will not move the derailleur nearly far enough to shift. This is when trying to shift from the middle to the big cog. Shifting to the small cog is equally impossible; shifter gives no resistance at any point and the cable is not pulled at all. So I am stuck in middle gear. Which is not so bad, really, but I'd to be able to shift. So if there so screw I can adjust to fix this, that' d be great! If the best advice is "replace the low end components," i won't be surprised, but I can't really afford to upgrade my bike. So I'm hoping there's something I can do myself. Thanks for any help!
There's alot of info there, so read through it once before you try to adjust anything, just to get familiar with the terms and where the various adjusment points actually are.
