Front Derailleur or/and shifter issue

Shifting from the smaller to larger chainrings with the front derailleur ALWAYS involves a longer push of the thumb lever than shifting between gears on the rear derailleur. It takes a bit more muscle, too. Shifting from the larger chain rings to the smaller is more like the rear end shifting- a short snap of the trigger is all it takes.

This behavior is a function of the mechanical design of indexed, rapid-fire shifters, and the work being done by the derailleur. When you move the front chain from a smaller to a larger chainring, you are adding maybe 10 teeth to the chain's path. The rear derailleur shifts typically add only 1 or 2 teeth per shift point. I would not expect any large differences between Deore, LX/XT shifters.

Downshifting on rapid fire shifters, front or rear, is simply a trigger pull that releases the pawl inside the shifter and allows the cable "drum" inside the shifter to be rotated to the next smaller gear where the pawl catches and stops the drum again. It works like a rachet wrench. The spring in the derailleur pulls the cable.

You can see how the shifters work by removing the cosmetic covers and watching what happens when you shift up and down. Do this with the bike on a work stand- not during a ride!

TD

First things first -- if this is a new bike, the gears WILL need an adjustment after a hundred or two kilometres. New cables have an initial stretch-in period which makes the gear system lose tension. Once this initial stretch is adjusted for, you should need to do only very occasional minor adjustments until the cables are shot.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by brogers
Q1) * Is this normal for front derailleurs?
Q1) * Is this an issue with the standard Deore derailleurs
Q1) * is it an issue with only having standard deore shifters?

Yeah, front derailleurs are a lot more clunky than the rear ones, because they have to shift the chain so much more.

The reason why front down-shifts and rear up-shifts are so easy is because they are just releasing spring tension in the derailleur. For front up-shifts and rear down-shifts, you actually have to supply the force to move the chain with your thumb.

Quoted post said:

For Q2
Q2) * is it an issue with only having standard deore shifters? would LX/Xt shifters help with the long stroke required to change up a gear?

You can help the front upshift by holding the lever down until the shift is completed. (When you do this, it'll actually move the derailleur a bit over its position, to ensure the shift proceeds cleanly, then when you let go it'll return to its 'proper' new position.)

Well-adjusted Deore stuff should shift just fine. It always helps to perform the shifting when the drivetrain isn't under load; e.g. shift for the hills just before you get to them, so you don't have to do a last minute "oh [censored]" shift when you're grinding up the ascent.