Fine tuning shifters

My tiagra 10 spd shifter (RH) looses accuracy from 7th gear to 6th, if I fine tune it one way it stays inaccurate in high gears, if I tune it the other way it is inaccurate in low gears, the shifter is not more than 12 months old (I upgraded from 9 spd) and it's never been right. Is there anyway of fine tuning the shifter mechanism itself?

Sounds like your hanger is bent

As above or a weak derailleur spring.
Have seen a weak spring on a fairly new Ultegra derailleur, changing that fixed the inconsistent shifting.

Derailleur, cassette, chain and chain rings are all new and lovely, I'm defo it's the shifter, I would change back to 9 spd but it'd be cheaper to buy a better shifter. I think I've posted this in the wrong bit of the forum, how do you move a thread (or is that a conversation now?)?

Good shifting at one end of cassette and not other is defo a tell tale sign of a bent hanger.

I shall have another look at it then, cheers.

Checked against a metal rule edge, straight as a die.

A ruler?

You need to check it against the wheel with an alignment gauge.

If only I had such a wondrous device! The frame and hanger are as straight as they were prior to the 10 speed being fitted, at which time the 9 speed was functioning fine, I used the ruler just to make sure the hanger had not become bent unbeknown to me and mainly to check it was seated flat on the dropout.

You've not accidentally used a wrong spacer in between 6 and 7 or something?

No, spacer on either end but not middle. Also problem was present with previous 10 spd cassette which had no spacers and only two (I think) removable sprockets.

Maybe there's an alignment issue with the frame, are the tolerances on a 10 spd system sufficiently finer than a 9 that such a problem would only become apparent once the 10 speed was fitted?

it's certainly possible. Get it to a LBS, won't be much for them to unscrew the mech and check the hanger alignment. Just one of those expensive tools that it's not worth having at home

I have heard complaints about 10spd tiagra, mine is a bit sketchy. Checked that all your cable ends are tidy?

Yes, it all looks lovely, I can get all the gears but often have to flick down two and back up one in the mid range, it's workable but annoying. I wouldn't mind if the shifters were just pennies but even Tiagra is over £50.

Sounds like a bent hanger or you've clamped the cable wrong.

The hanger is true against a straight edge, could that still mean it's bent enough to affect shifting, also it's aluminium billet so wouldn't bend easily, if buying a new one will fix it I'm prepared to get one but it appears fine. Cable is clamped in the usual way, what am I likely to have done wrong?

As had already been said you need to check it with an alignment tool.

I haven't got one, I may trouble the local bike shop to check it eventually but is it so unthinkable that shimano have produced an inaccurate shifter? I suspect their bargain range is a bit crap to encourage us all to fork out the stupid amounts demanded for dura ace or ultegra.

It's pretty unlikely I reckon, even their dirt cheap stuff works fine, much more likely to be the hanger.

But surely a bent hanger would not be straight.

Did you get a new derailleur with your new shifter?

I will tell you the story of what I did; I replaced the shifter, cassette and chain but left the derailleur and chain wheels, because I'm tight. It was not very good but I thought "it'll do". My work bike then broke its derailleur so I bought a lovely 10 speed 105 and put that on my road bike and transferred the old tiagra 9 speed to my work bike. Disappointingly the 105 derailleur improved nothing. Having worn out the first 10 speed chain, this week I replaced the chain wheels, the chain and the cassette; they look marvellous but improvement there was none.

Hangers not aligned properly.

I think I'll live with it until I buy a condor frame, they still make an aluminium one you know.