Like a lot of people below I really appreciated the clear, no nonsense, no filler, articulate explanation given by this chap. I also liked his easy going manner. I was able to learn the things I needed to learn from this video and from others by him and from GCN. Thanks lads.
Saw so many videos on youtube to train myself on tuning my bike gears, but after hours of struggle I would always give up. This video cleared the entire procedure so well for me. Saw this video, grabbed my tools, and tuned my bike in under 20 minutes. Thank you so so much!
OMG after watching this and tinkering a lot, I can FINALLY access ALL 21 gears of my MTB!!! I couldn't even access all 21 fresh out of the store when I bought it brand new. Thank you so much!
Thanks for this clear explanation. I just bought a super bike, and the instruction book had great advice like "Don't ride while drunk" and "Don't hang on to moving trucks" but nothing like this straightforward informative stuff that saves you a trip to the bike shop or 2 hours twiddling the wrong screws and generally messing up your bike. Thank you again.
the best explanation on here, an oxford or cambridge type explanation, well i understood far quicker than the others as you explained which job each thing did rather than just do it and don't ask why..i could work in a bike shop now. took me 1 hour my first front and rear derailleur and ten mins after i watched this viddie. thanks.
This is so helpful. After paying a local shop $200 to "tune" my bike only to see it won't shift down to the smallest rear cog properly, I find myself here learning how I could have saved myself $200 in the first place, so I can fix what they didn't do right for $200. This is great. After 25 years owning a bike (albeit it's been sitting around most of the time) I'm fiiiiinally learning how to adjust my own derailleurs. Thank you.
Dam u got ripped off extreemlu badly. Dod they wash every inch of ur bike and regreased every moving part and replaced every seal? And give u a bj after?
Aw, come on, some people like that drunken "hey dude" amatuer look. It makes them feel familiar, but are usually not very informative. Info taaaaaainment.
Thank you GCN for this video, this video saved me a trip to the bike shop, now I can index my gears correctly in my garage. Simon explained it so well he made it so clear what to do step by step. GCN once again making bicycle repair fun and easy.
This was incredibly helpful. I had a friend look at my bike, and he did something that I ended up being unhappy with (he kind of made an issue worse). Instead of having him look at my bike again, and instead of trusting that it was something I could do, I went to a bike shop, and they managed to make things even worse! Thanks to this vid, I now know they completely messed up the limiter screws on my rear derailer (I couldn't, for the longest time, shift into my largest gear, *after* the bike shop was done with it...). I just lived with it, thinking it was the trade off for getting another issue with my front derailer resolved. What an easy fix, and what a silly thing for them to have messed up so badly on my bike... I feel so much more confident that my bike is better tuned after this video - THANK YOU!! Plus, it feels great to tune the machine you love, yourself.
Hi Guys, just a massive shout out to you, helping me get to grips with fixing my bike when things go wrong, or my LBS gets it wrong as well. I'm so used to taking to my LBS, but with your help with these videos, I'm winning and really getting to know my bike inside out. Thanks guys:) James
FINALLY! Been watching the ‘wrong’ videos in which other “experts” try to explain the H & L limiters in completely convoluted and seemingly outright wrong ways. I’m happy to say that my mail-order bike of 2.5 months in finally in tune. Cheers. I did; however, adjust the tension prior to dialling in the limiters (was a full two cogs off before starting). I also put the bike in the highest and lowest gears using the mechanism instead of pushing/pulling manually.
This is an outstanding instructional video. The presenter is one of the best I've seen on TH-cam. Well done not only to him, but also to the photographer.
Thanks for this guys, you just saved me a lot of hassle! I'd been having issues with shifting into the largest rear sprocket and was ready to change the gear cables, but a little check and it seems that the problem was that my L screw was set too far in.
I have been watching so many videos on how to index and set up rear derailleur and have failed to set it up properly. Your video was the most straight forward guide to setting it up, awesome. It literally took me 5 minutes once I watched your video. The limit screws were my issue, no other video explained this as well as you did with the manual adjustment!!! Very happy
In short, if the indexing doesn't works, you'll have to check your cables, chain and wheel condition, and replace them if it's worn out. Thank a lot GCN! I've learned a lot in this video!
This video is excellent - you do a really good job of explaining the high and low adjustment for the rear derailleur. I watched a couple of other derailleur adjustment videos prior to this one, and ended up really confused but feel pretty confident after seeing this one.
Great video guys! for someone who's rode single speeds and BMXs for years this is a ton of help, it's half as long as the derailleur video by Park Tools and I found it more informative! not talking bad on them, just well done guys, love the Network and keep up the good work!
Had a fiddle. Watched this once again. Had a repair done by me. My advice is listen and know what you’re doing. Amen 🙏🏼 it’s not pride or ego it’s a working pinion 😅
Thanks for the good video. I've been doing this a lot on many bikes for many years and as you mentioned in the end, it doesn't always go so well. The real game changer for me was to buy one of those hanger "alignmenters". That solved so many tedious tries to get all gear indexed. Typically I would manage to get the lower gears working great, but then the higher gears were all over the place - or the other way round but rarely could I set up the indexing for all gears to work properly. After getting the hanger alignment tool I went through all my bikes (4) and the improvement was drastic. I could now index all gears perfectly, just as shown at the beginning of the video! so, go to your local bike shop (LBS) and ask if they can align the hanger for you or buy the tool (at the LBS or online) and get the hanger aligned properly! Don't waste your time trying to index the gears when it just won't work.
Huge thanks for this. Spent ages trying to sort out gears without any success. Found this video and after watching it, ten minutes later, gears running smoothly.
I like to adjust my derailleur and then get someone who knows what they’re doing to adjust my derailleur. Edit: This might actually work. Second Edit: Shut the front door, it worked! Well played sir.
I'll be waiting patiently for your front derailleur video, my bike with a 3 ring set shifts up smoothly but if I'm shifting down I have to shift all the way down to the little ring and then shift back up to the middle.
I like the way you put the barrel adjuster out of range to demonstrate it, and then it wouldn't shift out of the smallest cog later because you'd also showed the limit screws in action, so you'd need to use it again to show indexing adjustment with the barrel adjuster. That really separated the two actions in my head - and it shifts now! Thanks for this, even if it's four years old!
An excellent video. Clear, jargon free and didn't make me feel like I had to be a bike tekkno-geek to watch it. Just a run of the mill guy with a bike. Within 2 minutes I had my gears fixed fine Many thanks indeed!
Bradley Harkness our mail boxes are on our computers and our letter boxes are on our front doors where they should be lol , and yea I've always wondered why it was called American football when you carry the ball by hand , its more like rugby with lots of padding and helmets :P :D
David Culshaw The term "football" was previously used to describe any sport played on foot (not on horseback). Among the many types of football, two of the most popular were rugby football and association football. The term "soccer" was a _british_ abbreviation for association (from assoc), so you can't blame americans for the name confusion. It's your own bloody fault for not sticking to the name your people came up with, :P! Anyways, since the term football could refer to either sport, people got in the habit of referring to whichever sport was most popular. recently soccer started to see more popularity in the states, but football is so ingrained in American pop culture that Superbowl Sunday is pretty much an unofficial holiday here.
I have got a Specialized hybrid and I spent a small fortune trying to get the bloody thing to index properly. The whole situation had the mechs at my local bike shop scratching their heads with frustration. A list of thing changed Wheel, Cassette, Cables both cable and outers, chain, gear selector (upgrade). I was a hair's breadth away from changing the actual derailleur when the thought struck me JOCKEY WHEELS! A simple change of the jockey wheels solved the problem. Jockey wheels will very quickly become worn unless you have a set of jockey wheels with bearings in them. Most jockey wheels don't have bearings. Sometimes the simplest thing is often the solution. All it takes is a small amount of movement in the jockey wheels to stop the gears indexing properly when under load..
Mate.....thank you man. Really. The nature of business is to keep "trade" secrets, "secrets", although i must admit my amazing lazyness to research it out is GREATLY to blame, but, jesus christ, getting a shop to do what took me, now, after you vid, 15 minutes to index, and them "2 hours" (for 15 pounds sterling) is beyound belief!!! Business indeed!! fucks sake!!! Ive learned more here, in 15 minutes, then with those chaps at the shop! God bless you tube! ^^ :) :) :) :) :)....there go the bycicle trade secrets! ^^ :) :P Great wortk! Great vid! You are a master of the art of Zen cycling mechanics and pass the info easy enough my good sir :) Well, it helps that the system is, has u mentioned, simple yet highly effective! Cable tensioning indeed! ^^ :)
Took me all Sunday morning to do for the first time after putting in new cables, chain and cassette. Was about to give up and book in a service but finally made sense after watching this vid.
agreed; for cables within outer cables, use pasty teflon grease Save wd 40 for cleaning your chain, Always to be followed by proper 'white lightning" type teflon spray
indobleh if his bike is already well lubricated he isn't gonna tell you to oil anything.he sticks to the job at hand and doesn't get sidetracked.wd40 and oiling is just basic common sense.
I noticed his rear brakes are on the left side of the handle bars. I take it that it's one's preference on which side the brakes control the rear and front or does it have something to do which country you live in? I always have the rear brakes on the right side and front on the left side. Just curious. Thanks for the video.
Dude...In USA...specifically, Austin TX...you would be referred to as a "baddass" - believe me, that's a good thing. Totally a GCN geek by now...loving all your content! Well done! Shine on! PB
'It's a simple system that works brilliantly' Yeah, Lol, I wish, my f**king gears cause me no end of headaches, they always want to jump a gear or not change properly or just plain cause the chain to come off both ways, even with new cable outer + wire installed.
+Kie 7077 I find in these types of instructional videos people take a bike that already shifts perfectly, fiddle with the barrel adjuster a bit until it's not quite shifting, and then them "fixing" it is just them reversing the steps they took to "break" it in the first place. They never seem to work on a real bike with real problems.
Well I found a bike had "I'm free take me" on it. Seemed ok gears and brakes needed adjusting but when I got it home the rear wheel was well buckled. Thanks to my humble teacher youtube and great guys like this I now have a straigh rear wheel within 1/2 mm out (best possible without equipment), perfectly working brakes and smooth as silk gears so I have to disagree! This worked in real world with a little patience!
late to the party, but its inherit to the system. You have cable tension and the stiffness of the derailleur to blame. If, for example, the cable just stighly wears down its housing, the tension is off. Also, you have your chain diagonal half the time and you also wear the whole thing out. Derailleurs are a shitty system that is only kept alive because it is a wearable/consumable for the industry
Bike derailleurs used to never be indexed at all, they used "friction shifting" where a shifting lever adjusted cable tension. You had to move this lever to change gears and for each change, fine tune it so the chain was quiet.
I can't seem to get into the smallest two again after adjusting the screws. I've unscrewed the h-screw as far as it goes. I suppose it got stuck? Any clues anyone?
Thank you! I should have looked here first today. After looking at other articles and being totally confused, I watched your video and indexed my gears in less than a minute.
It's jsut the way of things in the UK! We get all confused when it's the other way round like in Europe and the US, and it means we go over the bars...
You guys just saved me! I listen to an Halfords website on how to set gears...which completely buffered up my gears. Luckily I found this video and managed to set them ok. Great video, thank you guys, big thumbs up from me!
Shayan Mantegh brake cables are routed differently in different countries. usually associated to the side of the road that you drive on. can you switch it without legal repercussions? yes. does it make a huge difference? no. its up to your preference, really.
chickenpoodl GMS Some people that ride motorcycles also like to have their front brake on the right hand so they don't get confused when they switch from moto to bicycle.
Shayan Mantegh In the UK we have the rear as the left brake and the front brake as right. Makes more sense having the stronger brake on your dominant hand.
Charlie Dillon Your response is the correct one. I do the same thing on my bikes. I had a dirt bike before I had a mountain bike, so swapping levers is my solution.
Came here because my LBS who I have spent a few thousand pounds with by the way, did not have time for me the other day when I went in to ask the mechanic his advice on making my wheels as puncture proof as possible. Was told he was way too busy and that in no way could he talk. He was 12 feet away in clear view, the shop was empty apart from me and there were two other staff members on. To say I felt embarrassed is an understatement!! This soon turned to anger and now I want to tell them all to F>>> off. I will not be supporting them in the future and doing my own repairs and maintenance. If they go under and disappear then I shall cry no tears. Terrible attitude. If they treat me like this who has the ability to spend, how will they treat a young kid without much money. Idiots. A cycle is not built around rocket science, it is a very simple piece of kit, just need to be shown once and that is it. TH-cam is the future!!!
Why have a mechanic on display? obviously people will bombard him with questions. Sick of the attitude of LBS I live in Farnham and have experienced "were doing you a favor" attitude.
Agreed, I only know one LBS that has its mechanics on display and that's because the shopfloor is miniscule so they have no other choice. That said, I also work in retail, so I see the point Joey is making.
The english way is the same as a motorbike, the front wheel has the most breaking grip under deceleration so the front is the primary brake(right hand). I think right=front brake is a little better, I ride both and realistically there is just about no difference.
That is because we ride on the correct side of the road in the UK (the left) ;) so because a right turn is across the traffic it is more important to make a hand signal than if turning left and therefore we need to use the left hand for the rear brake.
My gears have been playing up the last couple of days and not being very knowledgeable about gears I was going to book the bike in to get it seen to. Watched the video and then went and fixed the problem - indexing was off. I now know what indexing is! And how to fix it! Thank you bicycle man!
Popped into LBC at the end of my noisy ride this morning and was told I would have to leave it with them until next week. No weekend riding?!? No way! I clacked home, watched this vid and 10 mins later it's sweet as a nut. Happy weekend GCN!
Thank goodness for GCN. If it wasn't for this video I'd have never known how to get my rear derailleur to shift to the last cog. I noticed that when I shifted to the 11 tooth cog in my cassette I was able to shift down again even though I was already at the smallest cog. I used the barrel adjuster to "shift" the whole derailleur back to where it should've been because I was missing an entire gear essentially.
Years ago, the first mtb I ever bought, I bought out of a friend's out shed. I was really starting to turn into a cyclist and beginning to know what I was looking at. Saw some the mid-range and high end parts on it and I offered him $150 and a case of beer and the deal was done. The old owner told me he and his brother used to race and his brother still had all the tools and what not and recommended I go over there and get her tuned up. Fast-forward several months: I've now learned some bike mechanics from this guy and got some tools of my own, etc. The mechanic brother told me from start he had to lock out first two low gears. I didn't ask any questions, whatever dude let's f-in ride! Now I'm in my garage, summer in Florida, I'm four hours in. I've done all this, cables,tire alignment, literally this whole list. Then I notice a mounting screw that looks... Aftermarket. I load up and drive over to the mechanic brother's house and I'm like dude wtf is that. I've been trying to tune this thing up for HOURS and I finally notice this screw. He goes "I told you I locked out those gears for a reason. Turns out when upgrading to the parts that were on the bike when I bought it, the brothers had bought a rear-derailer that didn't actually fit so they drilled and tapped the frame to make it fit but once they installed the part realized it would never index properly and just decided to live with it. I still have that bike going on 10 years now. It's a hardtail Voodoo Bokor made by Easton. I've never changed any of the parts except for a new fork, chain, 5 sets of tires, and tubes a plenty. Still ride it regularly. It's a real Frankenstein and always draws loads of comments on the trail. I don't think I'll ever part with it .
so i had a go at indexing my gears and it went well.just a slight adjustment and now there set.i always avoided touching the gears as i thought it was a lot more complicated but it's so easy.thanks again for a great video.
LOL - I've been fiddling with those screws for hours trying to get it to work... didn't realise it was the barrel adapter I needed to touch!!!! Should have watched this frist... Thanks! Liked.
I find this video and now it seems like my bike works again. Thank you so much for this simple and easy help. You need to update these kind of videos even though its the same thing said. Always good to have updated videos on the channel
Brand new bike was having issues with shifting a lil over a week after i got it professionally set up. It wouldn't go to the highest or lowest gear and had slipping while shifting. I followed this video and was able to get it shifting perfectly again! Thanks!
Thank you so much for this video. My bike's rear wheel had gone out of alignment, and when I realigned it properly, the gears went completely out of tune. I kept fumbling with the derailler adjuster for about 30 mins before watching this video & finding out exactly how to fine tune it. All 7 gears shifting smoothly now! (Y)
Very grateful for this excellent video.My LBS failed twice to index my gears. They were extremely rude about my bike and insisted I change they change the hanger. Gears still didn't work properly But guess what - using this video and taking a bit of time the gears are working fine and now I understand how to adjust them myself. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the video! I almost lost all the hope, but your video was spot on and I was able to replace the gear cable and reindex all the gears. Can't thank you enough. Bike shop wanted $100 for it... outrageous
Good tutorial thanks - I just did mine successfully front and rear thanks - took a bit of messing and a few hours of cursing but eventually I started to understand the process. Many thanks!
Lol. This video made me laugh on myself. Thanks for making me understand how this thing works. Indexed in 5 minutes after I watched this video. Thanks again 🙏
Thanks for the clear explanation. I just had a stab at indexing the rear derailleur. Tomorrow's ride will tell me if I succeeded. I had no work stand so I bodged it by hanging the saddle up with a string to keep the rear wheel off the ground. I submitted a photo on Twitter with the hashtag :)
I love these GCN videos explaining everything the crappy SRAM manuals do not. Just changed my wheelset for winter and have to adjust my rear derailleur now - and I am actually looking forward to it :)
Thanks! This and your front derailleur adjustment video helped me avoid a trip to the bike shop. Im fact, my bike now runs better than when I first bought it!
This helped so much! I was in despair over my little folding bike. I changed the inner and outer cables (again thanks to another gcn video) just fine but actually changing gears was a headache. Highly appreciated. Very clear instructions. Thank you!
Like a lot of people below I really appreciated the clear, no nonsense, no filler, articulate explanation given by this chap. I also liked his easy going manner. I was able to learn the things I needed to learn from this video and from others by him and from GCN. Thanks lads.
Saw so many videos on youtube to train myself on tuning my bike gears, but after hours of struggle I would always give up. This video cleared the entire procedure so well for me. Saw this video, grabbed my tools, and tuned my bike in under 20 minutes. Thank you so so much!
Just saved me a trip to the bike shop. Thanks GCN!
OMG after watching this and tinkering a lot, I can FINALLY access ALL 21 gears of my MTB!!! I couldn't even access all 21 fresh out of the store when I bought it brand new. Thank you so much!
Its not really 21 gears anyway alot of the gear settings are redundant it's more like 12 or 13 which is why 1x have become so popular
Thanks for this clear explanation. I just bought a super bike, and the instruction book had great advice like "Don't ride while drunk" and "Don't hang on to moving trucks" but nothing like this straightforward informative stuff that saves you a trip to the bike shop or 2 hours twiddling the wrong screws and generally messing up your bike. Thank you again.
the best explanation on here, an oxford or cambridge type explanation, well i understood far quicker than the others as you explained which job each thing did rather than just do it and don't ask why..i could work in a bike shop now. took me 1 hour my first front and rear derailleur and ten mins after i watched this viddie. thanks.
This is one of the best how-to videos I've ever seen. Within 2 minutes of watching this video, I had fixed my gear jumping issue. Awesome!!
This is so helpful. After paying a local shop $200 to "tune" my bike only to see it won't shift down to the smallest rear cog properly, I find myself here learning how I could have saved myself $200 in the first place, so I can fix what they didn't do right for $200. This is great. After 25 years owning a bike (albeit it's been sitting around most of the time) I'm fiiiiinally learning how to adjust my own derailleurs. Thank you.
How much did it cost?
Dam u got ripped off extreemlu badly. Dod they wash every inch of ur bike and regreased every moving part and replaced every seal? And give u a bj after?
The Brits are the best at producing videos. The BBC and GCN are a million times better than anything we have in the U.S.
slowcheetah24 As long as they don't have to pronounce anything in Spanish
+slowcheetah24 look at this dumb guy
Actually, the park tools indexing guide is far better
Aw, come on, some people like that drunken "hey dude" amatuer look.
It makes them feel familiar, but are usually not very informative.
Info taaaaaainment.
Aussies are good too
This was a very well done video with concise instruction.
No full tilt back flips.
Lame
Absolutely… one of the best in YT for indexing
Thank you GCN for this video, this video saved me a trip to the bike shop, now I can index my gears correctly in my garage. Simon explained it so well he made it so clear what to do step by step. GCN once again making bicycle repair fun and easy.
This was incredibly helpful. I had a friend look at my bike, and he did something that I ended up being unhappy with (he kind of made an issue worse). Instead of having him look at my bike again, and instead of trusting that it was something I could do, I went to a bike shop, and they managed to make things even worse! Thanks to this vid, I now know they completely messed up the limiter screws on my rear derailer (I couldn't, for the longest time, shift into my largest gear, *after* the bike shop was done with it...). I just lived with it, thinking it was the trade off for getting another issue with my front derailer resolved. What an easy fix, and what a silly thing for them to have messed up so badly on my bike... I feel so much more confident that my bike is better tuned after this video - THANK YOU!!
Plus, it feels great to tune the machine you love, yourself.
Hi Guys, just a massive shout out to you, helping me get to grips with fixing my bike when things go wrong, or my LBS gets it wrong as well. I'm so used to taking to my LBS, but with your help with these videos, I'm winning and really getting to know my bike inside out. Thanks guys:)
James
Thanks James, glad to hear it!
FINALLY! Been watching the ‘wrong’ videos in which other “experts” try to explain the H & L limiters in completely convoluted and seemingly outright wrong ways. I’m happy to say that my mail-order bike of 2.5 months in finally in tune.
Cheers.
I did; however, adjust the tension prior to dialling in the limiters (was a full two cogs off before starting). I also put the bike in the highest and lowest gears using the mechanism instead of pushing/pulling manually.
Literally after 2 hours i adjusted my bike correctly. Never been so mad lol
Puppies/Videos/Compilation been here for over 4 hours now , I feel retarded 😂😂
and sweaty... didn't have a bike stand so did some weird position grabbing of the bike to make it work. never worked so hard lol
we've all been there
It is definitely trial and error. Can be very frustrating..
sure beats spending 10,000 hours to become expert at something.
This is an outstanding instructional video. The presenter is one of the best I've seen on TH-cam. Well done not only to him, but also to the photographer.
Thanks for this guys, you just saved me a lot of hassle! I'd been having issues with shifting into the largest rear sprocket and was ready to change the gear cables, but a little check and it seems that the problem was that my L screw was set too far in.
I have been watching so many videos on how to index and set up rear derailleur and have failed to set it up properly. Your video was the most straight forward guide to setting it up, awesome. It literally took me 5 minutes once I watched your video. The limit screws were my issue, no other video explained this as well as you did with the manual adjustment!!! Very happy
Great video, explained in a way an idiot like me can understand. Top stuff!
In short, if the indexing doesn't works, you'll have to check your cables, chain and wheel condition, and replace them if it's worn out. Thank a lot GCN! I've learned a lot in this video!
Always come back to this video for a refresher when indexing my gears, excellent tutorial, well explained and to the point. Thanks 😊
This video is excellent - you do a really good job of explaining the high and low adjustment for the rear derailleur. I watched a couple of other derailleur adjustment videos prior to this one, and ended up really confused but feel pretty confident after seeing this one.
Great video guys! for someone who's rode single speeds and BMXs for years this is a ton of help, it's half as long as the derailleur video by Park Tools and I found it more informative! not talking bad on them, just well done guys, love the Network and keep up the good work!
Had a fiddle. Watched this once again. Had a repair done by me. My advice is listen and know what you’re doing. Amen 🙏🏼 it’s not pride or ego it’s a working pinion 😅
as he spoke i did it along with him and now its perfect
Thank you! This is one of the few straight forward videos on this issue.
Thanks Simon for the guide, always been something i never really wanted to mess with too much due to fear of my own idiocy getting in the way!!
Andrew Bedford. The pineapples. The. Eye doctor who was a teashirt i have
Thanks for the good video. I've been doing this a lot on many bikes for many years and as you mentioned in the end, it doesn't always go so well. The real game changer for me was to buy one of those hanger "alignmenters". That solved so many tedious tries to get all gear indexed. Typically I would manage to get the lower gears working great, but then the higher gears were all over the place - or the other way round but rarely could I set up the indexing for all gears to work properly.
After getting the hanger alignment tool I went through all my bikes (4) and the improvement was drastic. I could now index all gears perfectly, just as shown at the beginning of the video!
so, go to your local bike shop (LBS) and ask if they can align the hanger for you or buy the tool (at the LBS or online) and get the hanger aligned properly! Don't waste your time trying to index the gears when it just won't work.
after hours of messing around with this, looks like i'm going to have to take it to the bike shop anyway because I made it worse somehow
Same
I had to do this, the bike shop said they were "the worst indexed gears he'd ever seen"
😂😂😂
I loosened the rear shift cable as much as it will go with the barrel adjuster and it seems it needs to be even more loose. I wonder how to fix this
@@charlesmiv3842 Very similar problem with still no solution. My cable is totally loose and gears still don't want to shift.
After watching a dozen or so videos on the subject, I finally found one that is well explained and helped me to solve my problems. Thanks GCN guy.
Thank you this is just the video I needed! My gears have been grinding for a week now
Huge thanks for this. Spent ages trying to sort out gears without any success. Found this video and after watching it, ten minutes later, gears running smoothly.
I like to adjust my derailleur and then get someone who knows what they’re doing to adjust my derailleur.
Edit: This might actually work.
Second Edit: Shut the front door, it worked! Well played sir.
haha. same here!
😂
best video for indexing...simple, to the point and not 30 minutes long!
I'll be waiting patiently for your front derailleur video, my bike with a 3 ring set shifts up smoothly but if I'm shifting down I have to shift all the way down to the little ring and then shift back up to the middle.
I like the way you put the barrel adjuster out of range to demonstrate it, and then it wouldn't shift out of the smallest cog later because you'd also showed the limit screws in action, so you'd need to use it again to show indexing adjustment with the barrel adjuster. That really separated the two actions in my head - and it shifts now!
Thanks for this, even if it's four years old!
Just finished building my road bike and this was actually the hardest part!
An excellent video.
Clear, jargon free and didn't make me feel like I had to be a bike tekkno-geek to watch it. Just a run of the mill guy with a bike.
Within 2 minutes I had my gears fixed fine
Many thanks indeed!
+Gerard Henry Yeah, just screw the H screw in a turn or so.
Bradley Harkness its just our british way mate , all uk bikes are set up with the front brake lever on the right and rear on the left ;)
David Culshaw like motorbikes.
L. W. Lucas yup :D
Bradley Harkness our mail boxes are on our computers and our letter boxes are on our front doors where they should be lol , and yea I've always wondered why it was called American football when you carry the ball by hand , its more like rugby with lots of padding and helmets :P :D
David Culshaw The term "football" was previously used to describe any sport played on foot (not on horseback). Among the many types of football, two of the most popular were rugby football and association football. The term "soccer" was a _british_ abbreviation for association (from assoc), so you can't blame americans for the name confusion. It's your own bloody fault for not sticking to the name your people came up with, :P!
Anyways, since the term football could refer to either sport, people got in the habit of referring to whichever sport was most popular. recently soccer started to see more popularity in the states, but football is so ingrained in American pop culture that Superbowl Sunday is pretty much an unofficial holiday here.
I have got a Specialized hybrid and I spent a small fortune trying to get the bloody thing to index properly. The whole situation had the mechs at my local bike shop scratching their heads with frustration. A list of thing changed Wheel, Cassette, Cables both cable and outers, chain, gear selector (upgrade). I was a hair's breadth away from changing the actual derailleur when the thought struck me JOCKEY WHEELS! A simple change of the jockey wheels solved the problem. Jockey wheels will very quickly become worn unless you have a set of jockey wheels with bearings in them. Most jockey wheels don't have bearings. Sometimes the simplest thing is often the solution. All it takes is a small amount of movement in the jockey wheels to stop the gears indexing properly when under load..
Mate.....thank you man. Really. The nature of business is to keep "trade" secrets, "secrets", although i must admit my amazing lazyness to research it out is GREATLY to blame, but, jesus christ, getting a shop to do what took me, now, after you vid, 15 minutes to index, and them "2 hours" (for 15 pounds sterling) is beyound belief!!! Business indeed!! fucks sake!!! Ive learned more here, in 15 minutes, then with those chaps at the shop! God bless you tube! ^^ :) :) :) :) :)....there go the bycicle trade secrets! ^^ :) :P
Great wortk! Great vid! You are a master of the art of Zen cycling mechanics and pass the info easy enough my good sir :) Well, it helps that the system is, has u mentioned, simple yet highly effective! Cable tensioning indeed! ^^ :)
Took me all Sunday morning to do for the first time after putting in new cables, chain and cassette. Was about to give up and book in a service but finally made sense after watching this vid.
would you adjust the front derailleur first or after you indexed your rear derailleur?
This is the easiest and quickest video video out there on how to do this job. Awesome video. Thank you
I'm looking but I can't see a can of WD40 anywhere in this video....
There's a blue and yellow can amongst the cleaning products on the worktop to the left... ;)
Duncan Bananatyne It can be terrible, but it can help for a lot of part (as long as you keep it away from ball bearings)
agreed; for cables within outer cables, use pasty teflon grease
Save wd 40 for cleaning your chain, Always to be followed by proper 'white lightning" type teflon spray
indobleh if his bike is already well lubricated he isn't gonna tell you to oil anything.he sticks to the job at hand and doesn't get sidetracked.wd40 and oiling is just basic common sense.
irlrp
Why???
all these maintenance videos are really helpful i find myself coming back to them when i work on my bikes. thanks.
I noticed his rear brakes are on the left side of the handle bars. I take it that it's one's preference on which side the brakes control the rear and front or does it have something to do which country you live in? I always have the rear brakes on the right side and front on the left side. Just curious.
Thanks for the video.
Most EU and British bikes are left rear, right front. Just a traditional thing i think
My canon came with rear on right
Dude...In USA...specifically, Austin TX...you would be referred to as a "baddass" - believe me, that's a good thing. Totally a GCN geek by now...loving all your content! Well done! Shine on! PB
'It's a simple system that works brilliantly'
Yeah, Lol, I wish, my f**king gears cause me no end of headaches, they always want to jump a gear or not change properly or just plain cause the chain to come off both ways, even with new cable outer + wire installed.
+Kie 7077 I find in these types of instructional videos people take a bike that already shifts perfectly, fiddle with the barrel adjuster a bit until it's not quite shifting, and then them "fixing" it is just them reversing the steps they took to "break" it in the first place. They never seem to work on a real bike with real problems.
real bikes usually need parts serviced or replaced before adjustment
the solution is ALWAYS TO BUY A NEW BIKE
Well I found a bike had "I'm free take me" on it. Seemed ok gears and brakes needed adjusting but when I got it home the rear wheel was well buckled. Thanks to my humble teacher youtube and great guys like this I now have a straigh rear wheel within 1/2 mm out (best possible without equipment), perfectly working brakes and smooth as silk gears so I have to disagree! This worked in real world with a little patience!
late to the party, but its inherit to the system. You have cable tension and the stiffness of the derailleur to blame. If, for example, the cable just stighly wears down its housing, the tension is off. Also, you have your chain diagonal half the time and you also wear the whole thing out.
Derailleurs are a shitty system that is only kept alive because it is a wearable/consumable for the industry
Just indexed gears on my new Diverge using this video step by step .now working perfectly .Thank you GCN😊
Do you know what grind my gears?
- Non indexed gears
Leads to the question, what is non-indexed gears?????????
Bike derailleurs used to never be indexed at all, they used "friction shifting" where a shifting lever adjusted cable tension. You had to move this lever to change gears and for each change, fine tune it so the chain was quiet.
Just did this after a rear tyre blow out caused it all to shift. Great clear instructions, 2 mins and I was done, thanks Si.
1:42
Limit screws
H for smallest rear cog adjustment
L for largest rear cog adjustment
2:44
Indexing for shifting and gears
Use barrel adjuster
I can't seem to get into the smallest two again after adjusting the screws. I've unscrewed the h-screw as far as it goes. I suppose it got stuck? Any clues anyone?
Thank you! I should have looked here first today. After looking at other articles and being totally confused, I watched your video and indexed my gears in less than a minute.
I've just noticed that you've got rear brake on the left side of the bars and front brake on the right. Is there any reason why it's mirrored ?
Simon is a motorbike rider!
It's jsut the way of things in the UK! We get all confused when it's the other way round like in Europe and the US, and it means we go over the bars...
It's a local UK thing, I just swap the cables over as soon as I get a new bike with this setup.
It's personal preference. I live in Asia, and I use left hand rear brake too.
It's called moto style in the U.S. Motorcycles are setup the same way.
You guys just saved me! I listen to an Halfords website on how to set gears...which completely buffered up my gears.
Luckily I found this video and managed to set them ok.
Great video, thank you guys, big thumbs up from me!
'Stick it in your little ring', my goodness😚
Look i don't know why all of your videos are so much easier for me to understand than any other video on the same subject but thank you!
Pretty comprehensive! Ok, I'll click on you.
5 years later this video still helped me. 🙂
That's weird, how come at 4:58, you used the left brake lever to stop the rear wheel? Isn't it usually the right brake lever that's used for that?
Shayan Mantegh brake cables are routed differently in different countries. usually associated to the side of the road that you drive on.
can you switch it without legal repercussions? yes.
does it make a huge difference? no.
its up to your preference, really.
chickenpoodl GMS Some people that ride motorcycles also like to have their front brake on the right hand so they don't get confused when they switch from moto to bicycle.
Shayan Mantegh In the UK we have the rear as the left brake and the front brake as right. Makes more sense having the stronger brake on your dominant hand.
Charlie Dillon Your response is the correct one. I do the same thing on my bikes. I had a dirt bike before I had a mountain bike, so swapping levers is my solution.
6 years on and still helped me. Thank you 🙏
Came here because my LBS who I have spent a few thousand pounds with by the way, did not have time for me the other day when I went in to ask the mechanic his advice on making my wheels as puncture proof as possible. Was told he was way too busy and that in no way could he talk. He was 12 feet away in clear view, the shop was empty apart from me and there were two other staff members on. To say I felt embarrassed is an understatement!! This soon turned to anger and now I want to tell them all to F>>> off. I will not be supporting them in the future and doing my own repairs and maintenance. If they go under and disappear then I shall cry no tears. Terrible attitude. If they treat me like this who has the ability to spend, how will they treat a young kid without much money. Idiots. A cycle is not built around rocket science, it is a very simple piece of kit, just need to be shown once and that is it. TH-cam is the future!!!
Sounds like a certain shop near Maidstone
human intuition maybe.If there is a customer standing on front of you with a question you make the time to answer them.
Why have a mechanic on display? obviously people will bombard him with questions. Sick of the attitude of LBS I live in Farnham and have experienced "were doing you a favor" attitude.
Agreed, I only know one LBS that has its mechanics on display and that's because the shopfloor is miniscule so they have no other choice. That said, I also work in retail, so I see the point Joey is making.
I've watched videos on adjustments, they lost me immediately.
You explain it so nicely, I was able to do it while listening to the video. Excellent. 👍
Left brake lever = rear break. Crazy
+Kirby Louis It's because we drive on the left, apparently.
Noticed that one too. Mind blown.
Makes sense to me because more people are right handed therefore have a stronger right hand and the front brake does most of your stopping
The english way is the same as a motorbike, the front wheel has the most breaking grip under deceleration so the front is the primary brake(right hand). I think right=front brake is a little better, I ride both and realistically there is just about no difference.
I thought it was something to do with indication.
i had adjusted my rear derailleur while i was seeing this video its far more helpful to me i always see gcn's videos for more information
he's got his back brake on the left hand side? wonky englishmen..
I noticed that too. What!? No... Way...
That is because we ride on the correct side of the road in the UK (the left) ;) so because a right turn is across the traffic it is more important to make a hand signal than if turning left and therefore we need to use the left hand for the rear brake.
Understood. You don't want to brake the front wheel with one hand.
My gears have been playing up the last couple of days and not being very knowledgeable about gears I was going to book the bike in to get it seen to. Watched the video and then went and fixed the problem - indexing was off. I now know what indexing is! And how to fix it! Thank you bicycle man!
Who the hell down votes this?
morons
GCN
Popped into LBC at the end of my noisy ride this morning and was told I would have to leave it with them until next week. No weekend riding?!? No way! I clacked home, watched this vid and 10 mins later it's sweet as a nut. Happy weekend GCN!
Woohoo! Nice one Clare!
Press zero repeatedly.
Yet more pearls of wisdom from GCN. Thanks Si.
Thank goodness for GCN. If it wasn't for this video I'd have never known how to get my rear derailleur to shift to the last cog. I noticed that when I shifted to the 11 tooth cog in my cassette I was able to shift down again even though I was already at the smallest cog. I used the barrel adjuster to "shift" the whole derailleur back to where it should've been because I was missing an entire gear essentially.
I remember the first time I did this it took me so long. Now it's like 10 min. Thanks for the vid!
Talkin of gear, can you sort me some geez...
Years ago, the first mtb I ever bought, I bought out of a friend's out shed. I was really starting to turn into a cyclist and beginning to know what I was looking at. Saw some the mid-range and high end parts on it and I offered him $150 and a case of beer and the deal was done. The old owner told me he and his brother used to race and his brother still had all the tools and what not and recommended I go over there and get her tuned up.
Fast-forward several months: I've now learned some bike mechanics from this guy and got some tools of my own, etc. The mechanic brother told me from start he had to lock out first two low gears. I didn't ask any questions, whatever dude let's f-in ride! Now I'm in my garage, summer in Florida, I'm four hours in. I've done all this, cables,tire alignment, literally this whole list. Then I notice a mounting screw that looks... Aftermarket. I load up and drive over to the mechanic brother's house and I'm like dude wtf is that. I've been trying to tune this thing up for HOURS and I finally notice this screw. He goes "I told you I locked out those gears for a reason. Turns out when upgrading to the parts that were on the bike when I bought it, the brothers had bought a rear-derailer that didn't actually fit so they drilled and tapped the frame to make it fit but once they installed the part realized it would never index properly and just decided to live with it.
I still have that bike going on 10 years now. It's a hardtail Voodoo Bokor made by Easton. I've never changed any of the parts except for a new fork, chain, 5 sets of tires, and tubes a plenty. Still ride it regularly. It's a real Frankenstein and always draws loads of comments on the trail. I don't think I'll ever part with it .
Been struggling to get my gears working, literaly just watched the video, got the idea and now it's working smoothly
so i had a go at indexing my gears and it went well.just a slight adjustment and now there set.i always avoided touching the gears as i thought it was a lot more complicated but it's so easy.thanks again for a great video.
Thank you so much for this video. I use it every time my gears stop working and it works every time. Brilliant.
This just saved me from insanity trying to optimise my rear derailleur to my smart trainer, Thanks Si / GCN!
Glad we could be of service!
LOL - I've been fiddling with those screws for hours trying to get it to work... didn't realise it was the barrel adapter I needed to touch!!!! Should have watched this frist... Thanks!
Liked.
I watched over 30 video on how to fix my gears and this the only vid that help thanks
I find this video and now it seems like my bike works again. Thank you so much for this simple and easy help. You need to update these kind of videos even though its the same thing said. Always good to have updated videos on the channel
Brand new bike was having issues with shifting a lil over a week after i got it professionally set up. It wouldn't go to the highest or lowest gear and had slipping while shifting. I followed this video and was able to get it shifting perfectly again! Thanks!
Thank you your instructions were simple and straightforward not like some other videos.
Thank you, you have the best explanation on TH-cam.
Thank you so much for this video. My bike's rear wheel had gone out of alignment, and when I realigned it properly, the gears went completely out of tune. I kept fumbling with the derailler adjuster for about 30 mins before watching this video & finding out exactly how to fine tune it. All 7 gears shifting smoothly now! (Y)
Very grateful for this excellent video.My LBS failed twice to index my gears. They were extremely rude about my bike and insisted I change they change the hanger. Gears still didn't work properly But guess what - using this video and taking a bit of time the gears are working fine and now I understand how to adjust them myself. Thank you.
I want to thank you for this video. This video made it simple for me to understand how to adjust my gears.
Thank you so much ! Just bought a new bike and was going crazy with the rear derailleur/gears, you've saved my night.
Thank you so much for the video! I almost lost all the hope, but your video was spot on and I was able to replace the gear cable and reindex all the gears. Can't thank you enough. Bike shop wanted $100 for it... outrageous
Good tutorial thanks - I just did mine successfully front and rear thanks - took a bit of messing and a few hours of cursing but eventually I started to understand the process. Many thanks!
Lol. This video made me laugh on myself. Thanks for making me understand how this thing works. Indexed in 5 minutes after I watched this video. Thanks again 🙏
Thank you for a simple explanation. This will save me from going to a shop for a small repair.
Thanks for the clear explanation. I just had a stab at indexing the rear derailleur. Tomorrow's ride will tell me if I succeeded. I had no work stand so I bodged it by hanging the saddle up with a string to keep the rear wheel off the ground. I submitted a photo on Twitter with the hashtag :)
Brilliant! My new DA-7900 RD is now shifting like butter! Thank you!
I love these GCN videos explaining everything the crappy SRAM manuals do not. Just changed my wheelset for winter and have to adjust my rear derailleur now - and I am actually looking forward to it :)
Thanks! This and your front derailleur adjustment video helped me avoid a trip to the bike shop. Im fact, my bike now runs better than when I first bought it!
thats it. thats it! ive been intimidated by the mystery of the rear derailleur for all these years and that it? wow.
One of the better (and I’ve seen a damn few) videos on rear mech adjustment. Thanks
This helped so much! I was in despair over my little folding bike. I changed the inner and outer cables (again thanks to another gcn video) just fine but actually changing gears was a headache. Highly appreciated. Very clear instructions. Thank you!