triple ring front derailleur

Quoted message said:

I have heard how tough it is to adjust a triple-chainring
front derailleur. How about some tips from you guys and
gals about what you have found to be especially important
in properly setting up the triple. Gary (Ultegra triple
FD, DA RD)

The biggest thing you have to get over is that you do *not*
remove all the slack from the cable when it's in the small
front chainring. Correctly adjusted, it's likely to be a
bit loose.

But the general procedure would be-

#1: Set the derailleur up so that it's about 1-2mm above
# the height of the
large chainring, when moved out to that position (when the
derailleur's extended as it would be when the chain is in
the large chainring).

#2: Angle the derailleur so that the tail end (the part
# facing towards the
rear of the bike) is angled every-so-slightly away from
being parallel to the chainring.

#3: Try shifting it. You should be able to fairly easily
# move it onto the
largest chainring. If you cannot, it could be either too-
tight a cable or the outward extension adjustment (one of
the two derailleur adjustment screws) needs to be backed
off a bit.

#4: Shift to the middle chainring, and adjust cable tension
# (using the
barrel adjustment on the downtube cable stop, up near the
top of the downtube) so that the "trim" adjustment allows
you to clear the chain when it's in both the largest and
smallest rear cogs. Then confirm that it still shifts nicely
into the largest chainring up front, which does *not* have a
trim adjustment.

The smallest chainring probably won't be a problem, unless
you need to fine-tune the extent of inward travel of the
derailleur. Use the adjustment screw for this, *not* cable
tension. As previously mentioned, the cable will probably be
slightly slack.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

Gary said:

I have heard how tough it is to adjust a triple-chainring
front derailleur. How about some tips from you guys and
gals about what you have found to be especially important
in properly setting up the triple. Gary (Ultegra triple
FD, DA RD)

Piece of cake when used with friction downtube levers

Gary <[email hidden]> wrote in news:1063703lsnatte6
@corp.supernews.com:

Quoted message said:

I have heard how tough it is to adjust a triple-chainring
front derailleur. How about some tips from you guys and
gals about what you have found to be especially important
in properly setting up the triple. Gary (Ultegra triple
FD, DA RD)

The official installation/adjustment instructions on
bike.shimano.combike.shimano.comOpen ↗ are pretty good.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Mike Jacoubowsk
> I have heard how tough it is to adjust a triple-chainring

Quoted message said:

front derailleur. How about some tips from you guys and
gals about what you have found to be especially important
in properly setting up the triple. Gary (Ultegra triple
FD, DA RD)

The biggest thing you have to get over is that you do *not*
remove all the slack from the cable when it's in the small
front chainring. Correctly adjusted, it's likely to be a
bit loose.

But the general procedure would be-

#1: Set the derailleur up so that it's about 1-2mm above
# the height of the
large chainring, when moved out to that position (when the
derailleur's extended as it would be when the chain is in
the large chainring).

#2: Angle the derailleur so that the tail end (the part
# facing towards the
rear of the bike) is angled every-so-slightly away from
being parallel to the chainring.

#3: Try shifting it. You should be able to fairly easily
# move it onto the
largest chainring. If you cannot, it could be either too-
tight a cable or the outward extension adjustment (one of
the two derailleur adjustment screws) needs to be backed
off a bit.

#4: Shift to the middle chainring, and adjust cable tension
# (using the
barrel adjustment on the downtube cable stop, up near the
top of the downtube) so that the "trim" adjustment allows
you to clear the chain when it's in both the largest and
smallest rear cogs. Then confirm that it still shifts nicely
into the largest chainring up front, which does *not* have a
trim adjustment.

The smallest chainring probably won't be a problem, unless
you need to fine-tune the extent of inward travel of the
derailleur. Use the adjustment screw for this, *not* cable
tension. As previously mentioned, the cable will probably be
slightly slack.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

Mikes steps are great. If you want some illustrations, look:
http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html
http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_frontderailleur.shtml
and the Shimano instructions from their site or with their products.
Make sure the housing is properly cut and end finished.
All the adjusting in the world won't get the job done unless your cables and housings are taken care of. Sheldon Brown's instructions and illustrations are very helpful:
http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html
Lastly, as Mike reminded you twice, cable slack when in the small chain ring is expected.
If your adjustments still result in the chain overshooting the small chain ring, look at:
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/drive.html#jumpstop

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The biggest thing you have to get over is that you do
*not* remove all the slack from the cable when it's in the
small front chainring. Correctly adjusted, it's likely to
be a bit loose.

But the general procedure would be-

#1: Set the derailleur up so that it's about 1-2mm above
# the height of the
large chainring, when moved out to that position (when the
derailleur's extended as it would be when the chain is in
the large chainring).

#2: Angle the derailleur so that the tail end (the part
# facing towards the
rear of the bike) is angled every-so-slightly away from
being parallel to the chainring.

#3: Try shifting it. You should be able to fairly easily
# move it onto the
largest chainring. If you cannot, it could be either too-
tight a cable or the outward extension adjustment (one of
the two derailleur adjustment screws) needs to be backed
off a bit.

#4: Shift to the middle chainring, and adjust cable
# tension (using the
barrel adjustment on the downtube cable stop, up near the
top of the downtube) so that the "trim" adjustment allows
you to clear the chain when it's in both the largest and
smallest rear cogs. Then confirm that it still shifts
nicely into the largest chainring up front, which does
*not* have a trim adjustment.

The smallest chainring probably won't be a problem, unless
you need to fine-tune the extent of inward travel of the
derailleur. Use the adjustment screw for this, *not* cable
tension. As previously mentioned, the cable will probably
be slightly slack.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

Mike, although I would think that these instructions are
valid for all Shimano road FDs and STI index shifters, were
your comments exclusive of the Dura-Ace ST-7703 shifters?
The reason I ask, is that the DA shifters allow trimming in
all three chainrings.

I also have a question, after installing new cables, do you
find that the one to the FD seems to need more readjustment,
due to stretching, than the RD cable? I was discussing this
today, it seems to me that there is more tension applied to
the front, when upshifting, then there is to the rear when
downshifting. Does that make sense?

Life is Good! Jeff

I'd say installation consists getting the cage to show up
just over the outer ring (height), getting the cage parallel
or not to the chain (angle relative to chainline), getting
it clamped on tightly, and getting the cable connected.

Then tweaking consists of iterating. There were if this
do that instructions in my Shimano book. Inner and outer
are set by screw stops, but the middle position, and
that position only, is defined by the shifter cable
adjusting barrel position, at least on an indexer, which
would have such a barrel. You can start with the screw
stops a ways out. You'll be overshifting, but at least
not forcing the cable.

I found moving the cogs on the crankset helped my unusual
24/35/51 set. You use shim washers (spacers) for this and it
can be an integral part of setting up the FD. The above
process of iteration will not converge if the cog spacing
and FD cage swing angle aren't correlated correctly. Not
that there is an angle in degrees for each and A=B, but it's
a working relationship.

So to iterate, you shift, analyze, decide, adjust, jot down,
repeat. You can use the "jot down" step if you want to make
sure the process is converging, not oscillating around an
unstable center. _Usually_ it converges and frequently you
don't need it, but it's the nut and it helps.

Oh, and before all this shift to middle/middle and check
your chain line if you have 21 or 27 speeds. For 24 speeds,
I don't know where you shift to check the line. Get that
right before even attaching the FD. All depends on it.

Yours,

Doug Goncz ( ftp://users.aol.com/DGoncz/ )

My physics project at NVCC: Google Groups, then
"dgoncz" and some of: ultracapacitor bicycle
fluorescent flywheel inverter

4-1-9 Fraud
secretservice.govelectronic evidence.shtmlOpen ↗

Gary said:

I have heard how tough it is to adjust a triple-chainring
front derailleur. How about some tips from you guys and
gals about what you have found to be especially important
in properly setting up the triple. Gary (Ultegra triple
FD, DA RD)

With any make/model/system, angle of derailleur is most
crucial. Experiment to optimise it.

~PB

Quoted message said:

Mike, although I would think that these instructions are
valid for all Shimano road FDs and STI index shifters,
were your comments exclusive of the Dura-Ace ST-7703
shifters? The reason I ask, is that the DA shifters allow
trimming in all three chainrings.

No real difference in setup, except that, if your cable
tension is too tight, you lose the "trim" function in the
largest chainring (whereas with the other Shimano triples,
if the cable's too tight you'll have trouble getting the
derailleur to hold in the largest chainring).

Quoted message said:

I also have a question, after installing new cables, do
you find that the one to the FD seems to need more
readjustment, due to stretching, than the RD cable? I was
discussing this today, it seems to me that there is more
tension applied to the front, when upshifting, then there
is to the rear when downshifting. Does that make sense?

I don't think it's cable stretching that causes the
problems, but rather housing compression (and the ferrules
on the end of the housing settling in on the housing).
Either way it tends to be the front derailleur where this is
more of an issue, because the front derailleur has more
pressure applied to it to make it shift. Front derailleurs
are rather crude devices compared to the rear shifting
mechanism, since it's using brute force to shove the chain
on the "tensioned" side of the drivetrain. The rear
derailleur operates initially on part of the chain that has
little tension, and the upper jockey wheel, which does move
against components under tension, but has mechanisms that
position it optimally for whatever gear it's in.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

"Jeff Starr" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The biggest thing you have to get over is that you do
*not* remove all

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

slack from the cable when it's in the small front
chainring. Correctly adjusted, it's likely to be a bit
loose.

But the general procedure would be-

#1: Set the derailleur up so that it's about 1-2mm
# above the height of

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

large chainring, when moved out to that position (when
the derailleur's extended as it would be when the chain
is in the large chainring).

#2: Angle the derailleur so that the tail end (the part
# facing towards

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

rear of the bike) is angled every-so-slightly away from
being parallel

to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the chainring.

#3: Try shifting it. You should be able to fairly
# easily move it onto

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

largest chainring. If you cannot, it could be either too-
tight a cable

or

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the outward extension adjustment (one of the two
derailleur adjustment screws) needs to be backed off
a bit.

#4: Shift to the middle chainring, and adjust cable
# tension (using the
barrel adjustment on the downtube cable stop, up near
the top of the downtube) so that the "trim" adjustment
allows you to clear the chain

when

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

it's in both the largest and smallest rear cogs. Then
confirm that it

still

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

shifts nicely into the largest chainring up front, which
does *not* have

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

trim adjustment.

The smallest chainring probably won't be a problem,
unless you need to fine-tune the extent of inward travel
of the derailleur. Use the

adjustment

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

screw for this, *not* cable tension. As previously
mentioned, the cable will probably be slightly slack.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

Mike, although I would think that these instructions are
valid for all Shimano road FDs and STI index shifters,
were your comments exclusive of the Dura-Ace ST-7703
shifters? The reason I ask, is that the DA shifters allow
trimming in all three chainrings.

I also have a question, after installing new cables, do
you find that the one to the FD seems to need more
readjustment, due to stretching, than the RD cable? I was
discussing this today, it seems to me that there is more
tension applied to the front, when upshifting, then there
is to the rear when downshifting. Does that make sense?

Life is Good! Jeff