I’m a college student that’s been given this old road bike that was never really used. It’s been in the garage hanging upside down potentially for decades. I was able to shift it into the largest gear on each lever but now it won’t shift back.
I took it to an REI near me and they said that a flush may help, so I did so to the best of my abilities.
It still won’t shift.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated, I got this bike for free and she is beautiful so I would like to get her running once again 🙂
I’m probably gonna take it back to another REI where they could look at it quicker
by aa_rddit
7 Comments
It’s hard to tell what’s going on from a photo. It could need new cables and cable housing, it could just need to be re-indexed, or something could be damaged. Replacing the cables or re-indexing are possible to do on your own with YouTube guidance, but of course taking it in to a shop is easier if you’re not a DIYer person.
r/bikewrench is a great sub for bike mechanic advice.
Can’t edit but I’ll do this instead:
As soon as I posted this, the flush worked. I don’t know if you guys want me to leave the post up as it may help others in the same situation.
All I did was got some degreaser and sprayed behind the brake levers and into the shifting mechanisms. Now it shifts just fine.
REI wouldn’t take it to service it for you? They have great bike mechanics, I’m sure they would have had that up and running for you after a day or two.
I would still get a good service done on it by a reputable bike mechanic – new brake and gear cables, new chain, the works just to make sure it’s in top working order. Well worth it considering the bike was free
That bike looks like it’s in really good shape, just needs some TLC.
I highly recommend you watch some of the Bike Farmer videos. He has a lot of bike maintenance videos where he revives older, neglected/abandoned bikes and brings them back to life mostly with just a clean up and lube. He’ll show you how to adjust brakes and shifters as well to get them back to how they were when the bike was new.
https://youtube.com/@bkefrmr?si=1MwpK0qH_srl1f44
Spray some lube in the shifters.
Open the brifters, spray an ungodly amount of wd40 in there. Wiggle em around a bit. Wait a minute, then take it for a spin and see if it worked. I have revived tons of bikes with just that.