My Gear problems

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Souljah
Hi

I was wondering if I could get any recommendations or something as to what to do before i take the bike down the shop to get loked at -

I'm a noob so pls excuse the non-technical language, pls correct me if you want too.

I have a prob with my gears - Its a 24 gear shimano set - 3x8

However i cant use the 1st and 2nd of the chain wheel sets, when I change gears on the freewheel set while in 2nd on the chain wheel the gears lock up - I guess theres something wrong with the spacing between the gears, but its pretty serious as I was peddling like hell the other day and it locked up and I flew straight over the handle bars, luckily there was no traffic to worsen the incident.

I was just wondering if any of you guys have had similar problems and what the remedy was - would it be likely that I need a new gearset? And how much do they run up to?


Also, I've been getting a squeeking from my gears from sometime now as I peddle, what is that? Just a lack of lubrication? Or something else?

Any help or advice is most appreciated.

-greg

Sounds like either a chain problem or a derailer adjustment problem. A couple of good articles to read and follow:

<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html>

<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html>

Replacing the chain may be the easiest way to start. When chains go "bad" everything in the shifting world goes "bad".
If the tools and know-how are beyond you at this time, a trip to a trusted local shop is in order.

thanks for the reply although I've sorted it out now - turns out I needed oil on the chain and the front derailer slightly adjusted - now Its as smooth as when I got it like 7 years ago.