[GiantTalon29]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post, but I have been having a few problems with my bike for awhile and I'm curious if anybody else has had any of the same problems.

First off, my front wheel moves to the left side when I brake hard with my front brake. This has been ongoing for the last year, and I haven't been able to find a solution. I set the wheel, and tighten the skewer tight, but as soon as I brake moderate to hard with my front brake the wheel will move. It doesn't move just while braking, it's permanent. To correct it I have to loosen, and then re tighten the skewer (only for it to happen the next time I brake).

My next issue just recently came up after I replaced the chain and cassette. When in 1st gear, (smallest of the chainring, and *largest* of the cassette), the bike has a faint grinding sound like it's trying to shift gears. It appears there is quite a bit of horizontal offset from the smallest of the chainring gears, and *largest* of the cassette gears. From what I can tell, it looks like the horizontal offset is enough for the chain to be being pulled off of the smallest of the chainring gears causing the faint grinding noise. This didn't happen with the last chain and cassette, and I'm nearly 100% positive the chain and cassette are the same as what was previously on the bike because I used the Giant site to determine what cassette and chain the bike used.

**Edits made where *'s are prevalent

Bike Info:
Mostly stock 2010 Giant Talon 2 29er
Talon 29er 2- 2011 (2010) | Giant Bicycles | United States

Mods:
BB7's
Manitou Tower Pro (2012) Fork
Easton EA70XC Front Wheel

Thank you for the replies,

 

[MSU Alum]

Wheel: Lube the skewer to ensure that the cam can be tightened completely (I'm grasping at straws, here. But I have a buddy who couldn't tighten his QR for his seatpost enough to keep it from slipping until he lubed the cam on it.) Cassette: Are you sure it's on tight? Any chance you bent the derailleur hanger?

 

[eb1888]

Smallest to smallest is cross chaining and is not a recommended use. Don't go there. Solved.
Or-
Three things to look at are the condition of the chain ring teeth, the condition of the lower jockey wheel chamfered teeth and the alignment of your rear derailleur on the hanger. The hanger can be straight but twisted.

 

[rangeriderdave]

I had a problem like that ,I fixed it putting on a different skewer. As to the the grinding noise you should be able to fix it with a cable adjustment,1/8 turn tightening. But you should not ride in the little ,little gears nor big/big ,there is a big sideways load on the chain ,it will wear faster and you could break it.

 

[GiantTalon29]

Smallest to smallest is cross chaining and is not a recommended use. Don't go there. Solved.
Or-
Three things to look at are the condition of the chain ring teeth, the condition of the lower jockey wheel chamfered teeth and the alignment of your rear derailleur on the hanger. The hanger can be straight but twisted.

Yep, Sorry, I mis-typed that!

The biggest on the cassette to the smallest on the chainring. So 1st gear, which I heavily use while mountain biking.

 

[time229er]

Wheel: Lube the skewer to ensure that the cam can be tightened completely (I'm grasping at straws, here. But I have a buddy who couldn't tighten his QR for his seatpost enough to keep it from slipping until he lubed the cam on it.) Cassette: Are you sure it's on tight? Any chance you bent the derailleur hanger?

maybe red hoses...

 

[IslandCrow]

For the chain grinding, your limit screws may need an adjustment. It's pretty easy to do yourself. Just look up tutorials on tuning your bike. Park Tools' website has a pretty good text description of how to do it in their maintenance section. I've got nothing on the wheel issue.

 

[MSU Alum]

maybe red hoses...

More cowbell!

 

[GiantTalon29]

For the chain grinding, your limit screws may need an adjustment. It's pretty easy to do yourself. Just look up tutorials on tuning your bike. Park Tools' website has a pretty good text description of how to do it in their maintenance section. I've got nothing on the wheel issue.

I've thought about that, but I'm pretty sure the noise is coming from the top of the largest gear. I think the chainring is pulling the chain off of the largest gear of the cassette because of too much horizontal displacement.

I think this is the case because it only makes the noise under harder pedaling, and I've messed with the derailluer quite a bit already with no luck.

 

[slapheadmofo]

Does look like the chainline is a bit angled in that pic. Nothing crazy, but some. Dunno why it would've started only after your replaced the cassette though, particularly if you used the same parts.

FWIW, most beginners over-utilize their lowest gears. Save that little ring for long-ish climbs and try to get comfortable spending most of your time using the middle ring. Your overall riding will benefit.

 

[127.0.0.1]

are you using the skewer correctly ? sorry to ask but I have seen some mistakes with peeps just trying to use the cam lever as a handle and screw it tight. that will never make it tight enough

open the cam, tighten non-cam nut, crank cam lever down, it should be hard but not impossible to close. but should take some hard effort no tools hands only