The "I'm pissed off" thread

[Sal Atticum]

If anyone has a suggestion for replacing my POS front Ultegra shifter and derailleur, I'm all ears.

So much for thinking I could ever do anything mechanical with bicycles when I can't even fix my own (EXPLETIVE) shifting problems.

[Plantains]

[Plantains]

srsly tho... Im out of the loop so I'm not certain what's wrong with it... is it just that it won't shift properly and probably needs to be adjusted? Or is it broken in some respect and you need to replace it (the brifter and FD)

[Plantains]

Oh yeah and I believe in you beek. 

[Plantains]

Aslo... I'm pretty surprised that someone besides me started this thread.

[Sal Atticum]

I'm slightly mellowed out now, although that might be the vodka.

It hasn't shifted properly for two or three years now and I'm marking it down to my own incompetence, somehow.  For some reason I can't make shifting work with all three chainrings (cue people calling me a wuss for having three chainrings), most of all I have a problem shifting to the big ring (cable length rather than outer limit?).  The indexed shifter is pissing me off because either way (loose cable or tight cable) I end up with the derailleur shifted way outside so the inside rubs on the chain--but when I shift down, it drops to the middle ring.

Too much trouble to find a double somewhere?

[Plantains]

I remember when I went from a triple to a double on my 105 stuff and never had the shifting "quite right" but it was rideable (it made mario pretty mad though... stupid engineers).

I assume you've read and understand how to properly adjust the FD, but in case... http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=75

Chances are, if you're only "feeling" two shifts, you have an issue with cable tension. If you don't feel those 3 independent clicks then the derailleur isn't pulling on the cable hard enough to activate the mechanism. If you get it too tight though, you're shifting lever force will be noticeably difficult right away.

Switching to a double won't really "solve" the issue either since adjusting it is adjusting it. The chain won't know that there are only 2 rings there vs. 3. I def recommend looking into a double, but more for the weight than the usability.

I'll bring my cable pullers (3rd hand) by tomorrow if I get a chance to stop by your office (I'll be faxing that thing in the Union). It may seem daunting, but generally on an older setup if I can't get it to sort itself out with the 1st cable adjustment, I'll completely re-cable and re-house that system (perhaps leave the housing under the bartape if its routed that way so I don't have to retape the bars). Reason being, if you constantly pinch and repinch the cables, a divot forms and the cable will tend to "slip" back into its comfy zone. Not to mention the cable gets way weaker. If you decide to re-cable, I'd also recommend popping your FD completely off and cleaning it as well as the area where it mounts and then let it completely dry. Sometimes the grime causes issues too.

On a triple, its also beneficial to run barrel adjusters. Some people like them all over, but I never use them on doubles (too much weight lol).

Lastly, on some of the higher end systems you should push the derailleur off of the limit screw while you turn it. I never did this before and on my RED group I bent the screw. I imagine this is on the insane groups mostly tho...

[Toaster]

Triples with sti shifting have always been a pain in the ass to adjust as far as I am concerned. Is your bike over at Mario's? I could take a look at it and maybe make it even worse.

[Sal Atticum]

It has a barrel adjustor, which is what I have been using to try to tweak things in the end.

I'm slightly confused though on the double/triple issue--shouldn't the front lever be indexed to the derailleur?  I mean, why have indexed stops for three chainrings if you only have two?

Yost, my bicycle came home from Mario's because I don't fit into Mario's schedule of when he wants people to practice.

[Plantains]

That whole thing about levers being designed for a triple or a double is fudgy. A derailleur isn't indexed per se, it is simply built with a range in mind. This is further adjusted by the limit screws. The brifter is indexed though, but this indexing is range dependent. By that I mean that if you have a triple brifter, and a double chainring, the brifter won't know how many gears there are and so long as the limit screws and cable tension is adjusted properly, it will work fine.

My Sram RED in fact has 3 clicks. Sram calls this "trim" but really it adapts to a triple easier. My 105 triple group (which I was running double FSA cranks on) worked pretty much EXACTLY the same as my red (albeit not anywhere CLOSE to as precise (but thats a 105 vs. red issue)). When I was in the big ring, I could downshift 1 click and the chain wouldn't shift, the derailleur would just trim. If I went another click, it would jump down to the 39 ring. If I then up shifted 1 click, it would trim, and if I upshifted 2 clicks, it would jump back to the 53.

The purpose of the trim is because running a double with a 10-speed cassette on the back requires the chain to move through such a wide range, this effectively enables you to "crosschain" your system without the derailleur interfering. (though it doesn't do anything to destress the chain really)

So yeah, there won't be any issue running a double crank on a triple group. But as I mentioned earlier... it won't necessarily make adjusting things any easier.