In the top 3 gears, when trying to go down it will often struggle to go down, especially on the top one where if I try to go down to the next gear, it doesn’t and I have to press multiple times for it to go down. I’ve tried to adjust the derailleur to no success and adjust the derailleur hanger, any suggestions?
Derailleur skipping from top gears
byu/Yeetusmcfeetus101 inbikewrench
by Yeetusmcfeetus101
2 Comments
New shifter cable and/or lube the linkage of the derailleur. It sounds like something is getting stuck and the derailleur can’t provide enough tension to pull the chain down.
Check for hit marks on the lower cage and if it’s misaligned.
I had a milder version of this on my previous derailleur. Had to shift 2 times before the chain left the largest cog. If i rotated the barrel enough for the chain to leave the largest cog with 1 shift, the chain would not climb the cassette properly anymore. I also serviced the derailleur, cleaned and greased the p-axle and everything was crisp except for that problem.
The mechanic at the lbs said i seemed to have the lower cage mildly bent towards the wheel. And I indeed had several visible hits on the derailleur. He said i could try bend back the lower cage manually into place, but he didn’t do it, and i ended up not trying that either. At some point i even replaced the lower cage because i messed up the threads where the pulley wheels bolts screw into. It also didn’t work to fix the shifting problem.
Eventually i broke the derailleur on a large twig that got jammed, replaced the derailleur and the cables, and it was all good after that.
So i ended up not knowing exactly what it was but it was either the cable getting stuck or the derailleur lower cage being misaligned where it attaches to the upper parallelogram. But I’m inclined to think it was a derailleur problem as i could see the cable getting slacker when i shifted.