[David]

Thanks in advance for any help.

I have a 03 bullit, not that it matters, I am running an 8 speed drive xt/xtr set up, I don't remember when but it was a while ago I noticed when I started shifting up/pulling the cable it was nearly impossible but shifting down/releasing some slack it was smooth. I dont remember if my rear derailleur took a hit or not but last week up in whistler I finally broke my shifter trying to force it into gear. I put a new xt shifter on it, got a new cassette and a new chain, the chain I put on is a little bit shorter than the one I was running. Do you guys think my derailleur is shot or any other possibilities like my chain being to short which would suprise me because it used to shift fine and I dont remember ever shortening it aside from the aforementioned. Like I said it is only when I am pulling cable.

Thanks,
David

 

[dukeblaster]

My advice is to check to see if the derailleur if it is at all bent. Take the chain off of the front sproket to loosen all of the tension in the chain. Then see if the derailer moves up and down through the range of motion smoothly, just shift the derraileur up and down. If it gets all bind up then it might be bent, or the cable is fouled up some how. Also check to see if the chain is inline with the gears (ie check to see if the bottom little gears on the derailleur is lining up with the gears on the rear cassette). It sounds like you are having problems switching to the larger gears in the back. That could mean that your chain is too short making it hard for your derailleur to stretch out enough to wrap around the larger gears. I would only change your gears after I have checked to see that the derailleur wasn’t bent, and that the derailleur cables are perfectly cleaned and lub (so there isn’t a lot of friction in the cable making it hard to shift). Then my next best guess would be the chain is too short. Just buy a few more links at the bike shop…usually they can sell you a few links as replacements but you might havta buy a whole new chain.

 

[David]

My advice is to check to see if the derailleur if it is at all bent. Take the chain off of the front sproket to loosen all of the tension in the chain. Then see if the derailer moves up and down through the range of motion smoothly, just shift the derraileur up and down. If it gets all bind up then it might be bent, or the cable is fouled up some how. Also check to see if the chain is inline with the gears (ie check to see if the bottom little gears on the derailleur is lining up with the gears on the rear cassette). It sounds like you are having problems switching to the larger gears in the back. That could mean that your chain is too short making it hard for your derailleur to stretch out enough to wrap around the larger gears. I would only change your gears after I have checked to see that the derailleur wasn't bent, and that the derailleur cables are perfectly cleaned and lub (so there isn't a lot of friction in the cable making it hard to shift). Then my next best guess would be the chain is too short. Just buy a few more links at the bike shop…usually they can sell you a few links as replacements but you might havta buy a whole new chain.

Good idea, I'll give that a shot, thanks for the advice

 

[Tippster]

Please reply back with:

number of links in your chain. Number should be between 100 and 110 ish.

What cassette are you using? i.e. 11-34? 12-32?

How many teeth are you running on your front chainring?

What spec of derailler are you running? XT long cage? XTR short cage? Model number would help.


I run:
XT 44 tooth chainring front
Dura Ace cassette 11-23
XTR 2003 rear mech (short cage)
100 link Dura Ace chain.

The set-up above is at the very limit of how short the chain can be. I am unable to use the large ring up front combined with the large cog at the back. Done for 2 reasons - to save weight and to force me not to use gears that give me the worst chainline.