Bikes can make your journey hassle-free and less complicated. But, this journey can turn into a painful experience, when your gears do not work properly. Like every other things in the world, bike gears require adjustment and fixation as well.
Your bike demands you to fix bike gears as soon as any complexity arises. You need to fix bike gears when there is any problematic shifting, falling chain or when gear does not remain in its place. These are enough to ruin the functionalities of any equipment.
Worried about it already? Let us give the opportunity to be your helping hand and follow our instructions. Here, we have listed some procedures that you can consider in order to fix bike gears.
Step 1: Positioning your bike
Make sure that you can spin the wheels without any troubles but do not let the bike move. You can take the help of a bike stand for this or go to the nearest repair shops or look for tutorials for help. Another method is to turn your bike upside down in a way that it stands on the seat and handlebars. In this case, you have to work reversely as said in the following guidelines.
Step 2: Placing derailleur
The next step is to place the derailleur which are said to be the components that let the gear shift and chain stay in its place. There are two of them. While one is situated on the back wheel attached to the cassette, the smaller one can be found close to the pedals. Verify if the derailleur are cleaned or not and wipe away the dirt, if there is any.
Rear derailleur being complicated includes one arm and 1-2 smaller gears from which the chain is passed through. Here, a chain lets the arm to be dragged backward and forward and also permits switching of chain to gears.
The role of front derailleur is to keep the chain in its place on only one gear at a time. You will find this derailleur in the bike’s frame. This includes a spring and two “derailleur plates” or small metal walls.
Step 3: Verify each gear
Check each gear to find the shifting problems. In order to do this, pedal the bike and begin with every gear on the back derailleur and do not forget to go through each gear slowly. Check every gear up and down at least once. You should also observe the gears which seems hard to shift. This may occur if the chain slips off the gear and you should solve it by shifting it twice to make the bike shift. Moreover, if you are working with one derailleur, you can keep the other in the middle gear to resist stretching of the chain.
Step 4: Look for cable adjusters
You have to look for the adjusters now which can be found if you follow the cables that ultimately reach to the derailleur. This looks just like nuts or barrels which can be found around the cables- at the derailleur end and by the handlebars. As a result, you will find a massive change in your shifting that appears through these little fixations.
Step 5: Getting back to the “problem gear”
Getting back to your problem again, pedal the bike with one hand, shift the gears and keep doing this till you find the problem. Once you have got your problem, you can discontinue shifting but let your bike remain in that gear.
Step 6: Solution for shifting as you lower gears
If your issue is related with shifting as you lower the gears, then you should rotate the cable adjuster anticlockwise to undo it. Carry on doing this calmly and carefully until the chain drops and attach to the right gear. Keep in mind, to rotate the adjuster in the same style you would want the chain to turn. Turn it towards the bike to make the chain move towards the bike.
Step 7: Tighten cable adjuster
If you are still having any complication shifting your chain up, try to tighten the cable adjuster. Turn it clockwise to ensure its tightness. You will see the chain falling to the right gear on its own, if you are doing the proper process. Keep a distance from your bike while doing this process.
Step 8: Checking every gear
As the fixations are done, you can check every gear so that it can be assured that the derailleur can shift through every gear without any trouble or hassle. You definitely would want a swift movement of gears as you shift them.
Once you are done with these adjustments, you should ride the bike for a short period in a safe place. This will identify any remaining or new problem. So, this was all about how you can fix bike gears. We hope you will have no difficulty in such adjustments in future.
