Help : Chain rubbing FD

limerickman said:

...as an older ex-competitive cyclist, it is embarrasing
having to ask this but....

Well, imagine how I feel then. I have been riding and maintaining bikes for over 50 years, but I don't have an answer for you. It is obviously an adjustment problem, but you have already tried that.

Guess it is time to visit the LBS, assuming you can stand the embarrassment.

gruppo said:

Well, imagine how I feel then. I have been riding and maintaining bikes for over 50 years, but I don't have an answer for you. It is obviously an adjustment problem, but you have already tried that.

Guess it is time to visit the LBS, assuming you can stand the embarrassment.

Well before doing so - maybe if you could list a few suggestions, you never know I might have missed something obvious.
Appreciate it - Lim

limerickman said:

Well before doing so - maybe if you could list a few suggestions, you never know I might have missed something obvious.
Appreciate it - Lim

It's weird that the chain rubs the FD in the middle ring. It's something that usually happens at the extremes in the big and small rings (as I'm sure you're aware. Does Mirage use an indexed front shifter so you can't "feather" the FD to eliminate the rubbing? Dumb question but are you sure the noise is from the chain rubbung the FD? Maybe it something to do with the 40 tooth ring itself? There are others here that will be better able to answer this than I am (boudreaux?). I don't have much experience with triples.

meehs said:

It's weird that the chain rubs the FD in the middle ring. It's something that usually happens at the extremes in the big and small rings (as I'm sure you're aware. Does Mirage use an indexed front shifter so you can't "feather" the FD to eliminate the rubbing? Dumb question but are you sure the noise is from the chain rubbung the FD? Maybe it something to do with the 40 tooth ring itself? There are others here that will be better able to answer this than I am (boudreaux?). I don't have much experience with triples.

Good question, Meehs.

I put the bike up on the stand and rotated the pedal and the chain appears
to slightly gaise the guard on the FD.
(it's only a slight sound when I rotate the pedals when the bike is on the stand - when rotate it while sitting on the bike, it is far louder as there is more force being applied than when I rotate the pedal with my hand).

I checked the FD and it can't be feathered as you suggest.
In fact I checked the front FD and it is aligned correctly (no sign of it being damaged in a crash)

Yes, normally if there is an issue with the chain rubbing the FD, it happens when you use the higher/lower chainring.
In my case it works perfectly - except when I shift in to the middle chainring.

This one has me stumped, Meehs.
But thanks for the suggestion - as I said it is probably something very obvious and I have simply missed it !

limerickman said:

I've been in this game a long time and believe me it kills me
having to ask this question but I have no choice, I cannot come up with a solution.

I have come in to possession of a bike.
Bianchi San Remo to be exact.
It has Campy Mirage components,
30/40/50 crank, Shimano Acera cantis, Mavic MA-2 wheels.
13-29 rear cassette.

It is a good bike - good for touring.

I have one problem though - when I select 40x13-29, there is a
noise from the the guard on the front derailleur.
I have tried everything to adjust it so that the chain stops rubbing the
FD.
But still this noise 9rubbing noise) persists as soon as I select the 40.
There is no noise whatsoever when using the 50 and 30 : only the 40.

At my wits end.
Has anyone else come up against similar problems ?
(as an older ex-competitive cyclist, it is embarrasing
having to ask this but.........)

Ya tried using the front shifter to trim it?

boudreaux said:

Ya tried using the front shifter to trim it?

What do you mean by trim it ?
(not being smart but what does trim it mean ?)

limerickman said:

I checked the FD and it can't be feathered as you suggest.

The feathering(trim) is in the shifter. It can be moved in small incerments to eliminate rub in any chainring.

The 40 tooth ring isn't bent out of round is it?

boudreaux said:

The feathering(trim) is in the shifter. It can be moved in small incerments to eliminate rub in any chainring.

I have tried this and there is no improvement, unfortunately.

meehs said:

The 40 tooth ring isn't bent out of round is it?

The 40 tooth looks to be rotating correctly.
There are no "kinks" in it's rotation.

I also checked the chain - just for the heck of it.
The chain looks fine and the fact that it runs smoothly on the 30 and 50 tooth
respectively suggest that it ain't the chain that's the problem.

Boudreaux, meehs, Gruppo - thanks for taking the time to reply.
I will being it to my LBS.

Older types like me want to think that we know everything about our bikes.
On this occasion I will concede.

merci

limerickman said:

Boudreaux, meehs, Gruppo - thanks for taking the time to reply.
I will being it to my LBS.

Older types like me want to think that we know everything about our bikes.
On this occasion I will concede.

merci

No problem Lim. I don't know anything else to suggest anyway. I'm just as stumped as you are. Let us know what the problem turns-out to be if you have a chance.

meehs said:

No problem Lim. I don't know anything else to suggest anyway. I'm just as stumped as you are. Let us know what the problem turns-out to be if you have a chance.

I will do.

limerickman said:

Good question, Meehs.

I put the bike up on the stand and rotated the pedal and the chain appears
to slightly gaise the guard on the FD.
(it's only a slight sound when I rotate the pedals when the bike is on the stand - when rotate it while sitting on the bike, it is far louder as there is more force being applied than when I rotate the pedal with my hand).

I checked the FD and it can't be feathered as you suggest.
In fact I checked the front FD and it is aligned correctly (no sign of it being damaged in a crash)

Yes, normally if there is an issue with the chain rubbing the FD, it happens when you use the higher/lower chainring.
In my case it works perfectly - except when I shift in to the middle chainring.

This one has me stumped, Meehs.
But thanks for the suggestion - as I said it is probably something very obvious and I have simply missed it !

Which part of the cage is it rubbing on? Is it the same regardless of which ring you shifted from?

I have a theory... But it is pretty much a wild guess.
Could the shifter cable be sticking? A burr on the cable could begetting stuck on the housing when shifting to the middle causeing the cable to not move quite far enough, but when you shift again in the same dirrection the tension in the cable is high enough to move the burr past whatever it was getting hung on...

limerickman said:

I will do.

Did ya' ever find out what it was?

tamman2000 said:

Did ya' ever find out what it was?

I'm collecting same tomorrow.
I'll post the LBS remedy as soon as he tell me.
Manjana.

This is the followup as promised :

Just collected my bike from the LBS.

According to the LBS guy, the cause of the friction between my
chain and my FD on the middle tooth ring (40) was, according to him,
because the new chain that I had placed on the bike quote "had to play itself
in".

This is a new one on me.

He said that when a new chain is put on a bike, it sometimes takes a day or two for the chain to settle.
I put it to him that the chain managed to settle on the bigger tooth ring (50)
and the smaller tooth ring (30)without any problem, despite it being a a new chain.
He said that he took apart the derailleur adjuster and re-assembled it, and
then re-feathered it and tested the bike.
He said the chain worked perfectly now.

It's a new one on me.

I didn't take apart the derailleur adjuster (didn't know you could do so), I had simply tried to adjust the alignment of the derailleur by opening/closing the
derailleur screws.
I had also checked the lubrication on the deraillieur/chain when I discovered the problem and I had also checked the chain suck and the gearcable tauntness.

So there you go - the answer, in this case, is to dis-assemble the derailleur adjuster.

limerickman said:

This is the followup as promised :

Just collected my bike from the LBS.

According to the LBS guy, the cause of the friction between my
chain and my FD on the middle tooth ring (40) was, according to him,
because the new chain that I had placed on the bike quote "had to play itself
in".

This is a new one on me.

He said that when a new chain is put on a bike, it sometimes takes a day or two for the chain to settle.
I put it to him that the chain managed to settle on the bigger tooth ring (50)
and the smaller tooth ring (30)without any problem, despite it being a a new chain.
He said that he took apart the derailleur adjuster and re-assembled it, and
then re-feathered it and tested the bike.
He said the chain worked perfectly now.

It's a new one on me.

I didn't take apart the derailleur adjuster (didn't know you could do so), I had simply tried to adjust the alignment of the derailleur by opening/closing the
derailleur screws.
I had also checked the lubrication on the deraillieur/chain when I discovered the problem and I had also checked the chain suck and the gearcable tauntness.

So there you go - the answer, in this case, is to dis-assemble the derailleur adjuster.

Hmph! That's a new one for me too. Thanks for the update Lim.

limerickman said:

According to the LBS guy, the cause of the friction between my
chain and my FD on the middle tooth ring (40) was, according to him,
because the new chain that I had placed on the bike quote "had to play itself
in".

This is a new one on me.

He said that when a new chain is put on a bike, it sometimes takes a day or two for the chain to settle.
I put it to him that the chain managed to settle on the bigger tooth ring (50)
and the smaller tooth ring (30)without any problem, despite it being a a new chain.
He said that he took apart the derailleur adjuster and re-assembled it, and
then re-feathered it and tested the bike.
He said the chain worked perfectly now.

So there you go - the answer, in this case, is to dis-assemble the derailleur adjuster.

What a bunch of BS!!. 🙁 🙁 :eek: