2013 Giant Defy 1 problem.

spoke2cun

I'm having problems when I try to shift into the lowest 3 gears. It feels as if the chain is not sitting properly on the rear rings. And you can hear what sounds like a 'jingle' of some sort. Was told by my LBS that it was loose spokes! Not sure. Any advice?

brianomc

No advice I'm afraid but I have the same on my defy 2, except its just the 2 smallest rings at the back, and then random rings when I'm on the big ring up the front. Only noticed it on the approach to home from the shop, will bring it back to the shop on Monday and see what they say.

It's not a grinding sound, more a jingle like you say but every other gear is silent so it's fairly noticeable alright.

Cee-Jay-Cee

spoke2cun wrote: »

I'm having problems when I try to shift into the lowest 3 gears. It feels as if the chain is not sitting properly on the rear rings. And you can hear what sounds like a 'jingle' of some sort. Was told by my LBS that it was loose spokes! Not sure. Any advice?

First thing to do is change where you bring your bike. Did they not adjust the rear derailleur for you?

spoke2cun

I took it back once already. I'll take it in again on Monday. Only have it for about 7 weeks. Paid a lot of money for this to be happening.

brianomc

I just had a proper look at mine, I put the chain onto the smallest ring at the back and can clearly see it rubbing up on the front derailleur. Try it yourself and see if you can see the chain rubbing where it shouldn't.

spoke2cun

Yeah its also rubbing up against the front derailleur when in the lowest gear. I can hear it scraping against it. But I'm still mystified about the 'jingling' sound. Maybe I should e-mail Giant themselves. What do you think? Hoping to do the Sligo to Letterkenny charity cycle next sunday but this needs to be sorted.

dave_o_brien

The chain rubbing off the front derailleur is likely to happen when you're cross chained, ie. in the big chainring and the big sprocket on the rear, or the small chain ring and the small sprocket. Campag and Shimano allow for an amount of "trim", which is basically like a small movement of the front derailleur without actually changing gears at the front to minimise this noise, although it's still pretty bad for your chain to stress it in the cross chained position.

The jingle noise sounds like your rear derailleur is touching your spokes as the wheel rotates. This could be caused by a bent rear hanger, which will allow you to shift into the big sproeckts without overshooting, but still knock your spokes. You can bend the hanger back to being straight, or get a new hanger.

Most importantly, as another poster mentioned, if you brought this back to the shop who sold it to you and they didn't fix it, you need to go to another shop. No point contacting Giant directly, as neither of those problems have anything to do with them, it's all down to poor mechanics.

brianomc

Trimming worked for me anyway, that was what my jingle sound was, the chain just lightly rubbing up against the front derailleur.
I haven't had a chance to test what was happening when on the big ring at the front.

dave_o_brien

brianomc wrote: »

Trimming worked for me anyway, that was what my jingle sound was, the chain just lightly rubbing up against the front derailleur.
I haven't had a chance to test what was happening when on the big ring at the front.

It's still not great for your chain. If you're cross chaining, shift into the bigger ring and up two or three sprockets. Should result in a much straighter chainline.

spoke2cun

Thanks for the advice. I'll check those couple of things now.

Ciaran OHara

If your hanger is the problem then you can adjust the low screw on the derailleur so that it moves a little further away from the wheel but you may also have to adjust the cable tension to make sure your gears still shift. Check out some youtube videos, thats how I have learned to do most of the work on my bike.

I hate cross chaining. I cycle with my girlfriend and she always does it and I always have to tell her to adjust her gears and it turns into an argument.

bold_defender

Ditto for my new defy 2, slight tingly sound but is def front derailleur. If hold shifter for front derailleur fully in while riding it stops. Have made one adjustment and thought I had it but still there a bit. I thought I noticed it most when on large ring front and largest 3 or so at back. Must pay more attention next time, and find a quiet road.

nordicb

My 2013 Defy 1 came with incorrectly adjusted front derailleur. If you have 105 (not sure about others) controls, note there are 4 positions for the front derailleur: smallest sprocket, smallest sprocket deviated, large sprocket deviated, large gear. This pretty much covers situations when chain rubs the derailleur depending on rear gear. It takes time to get this adjusted right, unless you have an inline cable adjuster.

My rear PR2 wheel developed clicking sound, which was caused by loose spokes rubbing each other on torque. Moreover it has been trued 3 times. The ride quality is quite poor over 100psi, I'm 86kg. Got new wheels, love the bike to bits now.

Best regards

johnk123

If you search on youtube there are plenty of videos on how to correctly set-up your front and rear derailleurs. All you need is a screwdriver!!

Try it yourself first as it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to get it right.

dave_o_brien

bold_defender wrote: »

Ditto for my new defy 2, slight tingly sound but is def front derailleur. If hold shifter for front derailleur fully in while riding it stops. Have made one adjustment and thought I had it but still there a bit. I thought I noticed it most when on large ring front and largest 3 or so at back. Must pay more attention next time, and find a quiet road.

That would be cross chaining. It's generally bad. It cause your chain to brush the inside of your front derailleur, producing the sound you described.

But you should be able to set up the front mech so that there is no noise. This will not stop cross chaining from being a bad idea.