Giant FCR 1

Mick said:

Also the front derailleur has 'over' derailled three times now, throwing the
chain on to the bottom bracket. and giving slight scratches into the
bargain. The lbs has adjusted once but it still derailled once since.
The bike is a medium frame and I am 14 stone or a little bit less after a
25miler.!!
Has anyone else experienced the same probs? Did I read that gearing should
be set by a special alignment tool?

It sounds like it hasnt been set up properly.To someone experienced, it is
a 5 minute job - 2 grub screws and the shifter cable neeed adjusting.There
is the slight possibilty that the derailler is not aligned straight,
but again, this is a 2 minute job - loosen 1 screw/bolt, and jiggle it
around.
Alan.

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"A.Lee" <alan@darkroom.+.com> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mick said:

Also the front derailleur has 'over' derailled three times now, throwing

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

chain on to the bottom bracket. and giving slight scratches into the
bargain. The lbs has adjusted once but it still derailled once since.
The bike is a medium frame and I am 14 stone or a little bit less after

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

25miler.!!
Has anyone else experienced the same probs? Did I read that gearing

should

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

be set by a special alignment tool?

It sounds like it hasnt been set up properly.To someone experienced, it is
a 5 minute job - 2 grub screws and the shifter cable neeed adjusting.There
is the slight possibilty that the derailler is not aligned straight,
but again, this is a 2 minute job - loosen 1 screw/bolt, and jiggle it
around.
Alan.

Hate to say this but last year a friend of mine had the same problem with
the same components on the same bike. Basically his LBS buggered him about
and nothing seemed to work until he lost patience and swapped the mech.
Best bet is to return to the shop where you bought it from and very
politely, but firmly, point out that you should not be experiencing these
problems with a new bike and insist that they fix it or fit replacement
parts. Most LBS's are pretty reasonable places but there's always the odd
one. If you stand your ground they'll understand that they need to put it
right.

I agree with the above comments, assuming it's not a duff part, it ain't too
much of a job I don't think.

Nice bike too!!

Cheers

L

Thanks for your comments. I am rather hoping that the LBS will be reasonable
and fix it for me..I've done so much ' counter thumping ' in the past I
don't really want to go through this again......... and this shouldn't
happen with a £500 bike...When I bought the bike I couldn't take it away
that day cos it had to be checked........So when I go to collect it the
promised ' thrown in ' extras are not fitted or forgotten about and now
this..........I can but hope
Mick

in message <[email hidden]>, Mick

(') said:

The running gear sounds like a bag of nails it really does. I guess
it's the crankset difficult for a non mechanic like me to
judge......Almost the same noise you used to get when the cotter pin
needed tightening all those years ago.
Also the front derailleur has 'over' derailled three times now,
throwing the chain on to the bottom bracket. and giving slight
scratches into the bargain. The lbs has adjusted once but it still
derailled once since. The bike is a medium frame and I am 14 stone or
a little bit less after a 25miler.!!

It sounds like all one problem to me. The problem with STI is that you
can't trim the front deraileur. This means that the deraileur is likely
to rub on the edge of the chain in some gear combinations even when
perfectly adjusted, and there's nothing you can do about it. But if
it's throwing the chain off then its definitely not perfectly adjusted,
and is probably rubbing on the chain all the time.

New cables do stretch - that's part of *why* bike shops ask you to bring
it back after a few weeks - but if its been rattling like that from new
someone in the shop didn't do their job properly.

Quoted message said:

Has anyone else experienced the same probs? Did I read that gearing
should be set by a special alignment tool?

No, it's childishly easy.
<URL:http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_frontderailleur.shtml>

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; in faecibus sapiens rheum propagabit

Simon Brooke [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

It sounds like all one problem to me. The problem with STI is that you
can't trim the front deraileur.

The higher-end Shimano stuff has a "trim" which if you can ever get the
damn thing set up properly, is reasonable. And Campag seem to have a
multi-position front shifter as their solution.

Quoted message said:

No, it's childishly easy.
<URL:http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_frontderailleur.shtml>

Hmm. I like the trick with the penny. I may have to attack the Giant
again and get this sorted once and for all.

Jon

thanks again for your input....The man from the LBS took it out for a little
ride and stated it's like a creaking noise near the bottom bracket....But
these noises can be hard to trace.....Sometimes the sealed unit is fitted '
dry ' and this can cause it.... Sounds convincing to me.
Simon,that adjusting derailleur site is excellent...ta

Mick

Hello again.

Sorry to come back to the group but the problem has not been sorted... I
have now ridden my lovely Giant FCR 1 for 230 miles and 190 of them have
been with this creaking noise. This is a cause of embarrassment and utter
disappointment. The LBS has 1) taken out the bb/ cleaned/greased and
replaced it....with a note stating " one cup was loose " and 2) replaced the
bb with a " better quality one " and again noted one of the cups was loose.

I manage to do about 1/2mile from the LBS and the noise returns.
I have looked at the cup and it doesn't seem as though it has tightened up
completely to the frame. i.e. you can get a fingernail between frame and
cup.

I am wondering whether there has been damage to the bb thread on the
assembly track. I also see there's alot of welding around this
area.......Do frames suffer from unseen cracks?

This noise shouldn't happen with a £500 bike which has Alu 6061 frame and
Shimano Tiagra components.......or should it?

My twelve year old Claud Butler Pagan MTB is very quiet in comparison.

Should I be thinking Sale of Goods Act now?

Thanks for your help.

Mick

Your bike shop hasn't set it up properly. I think it would be reasonable to ask them to touch up any damage to the paintwork as it is due to their negligence.

Tiagra is near the lower end of Shimano's Road-Racing range but should still perform perfectly well. If the tension on the front derailleur is set properly it should operate perfectly in all gear combinations (except perhaps the extremes of innerchainring-outercog and outerchainring-innercog which you shouldn't use anyway)

Ian

Simon Brooke said:

New cables do stretch - that's part of *why* bike shops ask you to bring
it back after a few weeks -

They don't really stretch (not so much as you would notice). A good mechanic will stress the cable to make sure that all housings are fully bedded-in and that the anchor bolt is fully tightened.

They ask you to bring it back after a few weeks because they know they have not taken adequate care over the setup and they are covering themselves

Ian