Wanted: Bicycle Mechanic to set up gears and brakes

Try as I might, I just can't set up my gears (Shimano with d/t mounted indexed shifters) and my brakes feel stiff and have very little power at the back.

Totally beyond me, M8s.

If any of you amateur bike mechanics wants to make a score this weekend, let me know. I could use a shop but budgets are tight.

Thanks LFGSS! weeps

Is this a 'vintage build'? If so, that's probably just how 20 year old Shimano road bike parts are supposed to work...

True dat^

If you ride it to me on Saturday morning I'll do it for free.

It's old but worked fine before I took it apart to clean it up, so should be fixable. I've been PM'd about sorting it, but thanks all the same, bra's.

stiff brakes (Galli superlights) on mine following rebuild was simply the centre bolt was half a turn too tight. They should ping back out from the rim when you let go of the lever. If not they are too tight or the return mech is wrong somehow.

There are videos on utube showing how to set up indexed gearing. Not hard.

I'll take another look at the brakes. I'll give someone cash money to sort the gears though. Not bike shop money though, I'd rather help out a forum brother with the skillz to pay, umm, the billz?

Shimano have little guides for setting up to download. The principle is the same for all models.

http://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/index.jsp

hope you greased all brake axles and threads, bolts and so on.
if not, back to square one !

old caliper brakes - center bolts need to be adjusted really finely, so finely it's annoying.
Old gears - need to be clean and greased up nice

all cables and sheaths need to be oiled nicely too with wd40.

Those indexed (6, 7 or 8 speed??) systems operate very well indeed, or they should.....

I have been playing with them since they appeared and they are (potentially) lovely. As above, start with the basics, cables lubed etc
Good luck,
Scherrit.

im working in w1t area on sat and sunday, come round and i do it for you. give us a shout (pm me)

brakes: tight center bolt or old cable/outer (can be sorted by lubricating cable...)
gears: rear and front mech limiter screws, cable tension...

im working in w1t area on sat and sunday, come round and i do it for you. give us a shout (pm me)

Hey there brothers and sisters, mothers, aunts, uncles, Bungle from Rainbow, Pob, the cad who nicked my iPhone, every single person in a Where's Wally? book, members of Shed Seven, the inventor of spray mount, war criminals, Rapha acolytes, the singer off Pigbag, my first girlfriend's dad's mate Colin, his hot wife, the politician Paul Boeteng and Chronic the Drug Wasp, I need your help.

As per the original post, my gears are all shittered, and I can't make them go correct again. I know there's some serious mechanical talent on this forum, so do me a favour and help me to swerve the kind of fees the shops charge?

Cheers.

here's my vague technique for getting rear mechs going:

• check the outer cables you're using are indexed outer cables (straight, not coily metal inside).
  
  • undo rear mech cable and tighten in the adjusted screw on the rear mech. line up rear mech with smallest sprocket at the rear with H adjuster screw.
    
  • lube up the cable with some grease ALL OVER IT. even at the end in the shifter lever. so it won't get even a little bit stuck in the outer cables.
    
  • reattach it all with the cable tension quite tight but not so tight that it shifts up into the 2nd sprocket.
    
  • shift up into the second sprocket. if it's slow shifting up, shift back down and screw out the adjuster screw where the cable goes into the rear mech a quarter turn. repeat until it shifts good.
    
  • shift up into 3rd sprocket. do same as above.
    
  • shift up and down a bit. if it's slow shifting back down, tighten the adjuster screw back in a bit. if it's slow shifting up still, screw out the adjuster screw a bit more.
    
• shift into largest rear sprocket and adjust the L screw until the mech won't knock the chain into the wheel
  
  

also make sure the cable is attached to the rear mech at on the correct side of the clamp screw, some stuff works differently depending on which way the cable is routed round it because the pull ratio is altered slightly.

also, make sure the outer cable isn't too long because it might be adding unnecessary friction.

if this all fails you might needs to bath your rear mech in light oil. it's possible it's just old and rusty.

how many speeds is it?

Awesome.

12-speed, and in pretty good nick. Cables will need replacing/greasing, though, I know that much.