First off, typically I’d post this in a much bigger forum like MTBR or something, but I want to help pump our conversation levels here. Good ole community spirit! 
A mnemonic is when you make up a word-trick to help remember something. I can NEVER remember which way you turn barrel adjusters when I’m riding and honestly not even when I have the bike on the rack. Truth is, I’m not much of a mechanic, I can keep things tight and the bike is clean and often functional but I need to keep up more with keeping it Excellent Its just that “mouth feel” you get between ok and excellent. Know what i’m saying?
So, do you have any word-tricks or memory tricks for things like barrel adjusters that you would care to share? I’m about to go down stairs and put the bike up on the rack and try to make my gears perfect. Right now I’m getting a bit of auto-shift under load and that drives me bonkers. I’ve only got about 200 or 300 km’s on the entire bike so I suspect i’m only experiencing a bit of cable stretch.
I just watched a youtube video of some bloke tuning up a Dura-Ace and I liked his technique. You tighten the barrel adjuster all the way, then set the limit for the top gear (smallest gear… so theres an opposite sort of mnemonic…) anyways, and then you trim the second tallest gear (once again, the second smallest) with your barell adjuster if it doesn’t already just shift perfectly. Then because indexing on the shifter is black no touchy touch magic the rest should work. If it shifts perfectly with no load, it “should” be fine under load.
There… I typed a lot but that excercise in itself probably helped me remembrer and I think I can inmprint this into memory “Lefty Loosen moves the chain closer to the wheel” Now to repeat 5 times… Lefty Loosen moves the chain closer to the wheel. Lefty Loosen moves the chain closer to the wheel… screw 5. I think I got it.
Oh. And when Looking at your Limit screws the L is for Largest and Low. 5Ls.
I am very mechanically minded so I always think about the physical movement of the barrel screw. That is to say if you’re having trouble shifting up the cog set (or your derailleur is dropping down a cog by itself) your cable tension is too low and you need to turn the barrel so it screws out, taking away the slack to increase the tension.
The threads are standard so: lefty loosie (counter clockwise turn, screw backs out more tension on cable) righty tighty (clockwise turn, screw goes in, less tension on cable)
What Bent said. Some road bikes can be backwards with the inline adjusters, but on a MTB, it’s pretty straight forward. Next time we are in your basement, I can screw it up and show you how to fix it.
Aaron.
Cool. Appreciate the offer.
Thing is , I do understand the mechanics when i take time to think about it, but when I’m rolling on the bike and want a minor adjustment, i second guess ever one i make.
So yesterday I did gum my gears up a bit in an attempt to get them back in spot. I think i got it, but there is an ever so slight clicking that i want to make go away. So i cleaned up my chain with 14 cans of wd-40 and some solvent (HA JUST KIDDING). But yeah I did clean it and am going to tinker a bit more to get it as smooth as I can.
I don’t have a mnemonic. I just think about the spring.
Rear derailleur - spring pulls out. Cable tension pulls in. Not shifting in enough - more tension - barrel adjuster out. Not shifting out enough - less tension - barrel adjuster in.
So… if you need
In… BAD out.
Out…BAD in.
The front derailleur works the opposite. Spring pulls der in. Cable pulls it out.
[quote=“Rockhopper”]I don’t have a mnemonic. I just think about the spring.
Rear derailleur - spring pulls out. Cable tension pulls in. Not shifting in enough - more tension - barrel adjuster out. Not shifting out enough - less tension - barrel adjuster in.
So… if you need
In… BAD out.
Out…BAD in.
The front derailleur works the opposite. Spring pulls der in. Cable pulls it out.[/quote]
Unless it’s rapid rise. Those were the days. Jeff, if you can hear the noise while riding still, put ever so slight of pressure on the shifter like you were going to climb up the cassette into an easier gear. If it goes away, you need more tension, back out the adjust. If it gets worse, screw it in to drop the tension. Hope this helps.
I used what Rockhopper said actually today. It didn’t shift when i clicked the shifter. I knew it needed tension so i backed adjuster out a bit and it shifted. Actually i guess that is the combo of a few peoples advice. I think it will stick now.
