Cycling newbie....does this sound right?

carleigh

Evening all. I picked up my first bike since my teens yesterday, its a Butler Explorer 200 hybrid. I'm not very educated on cycling or cycle parts so I'm hoping someone can help me.

I took the bike out last night for an 8km spin. The bike itself had Shimano TX35 Tourney rear, TX 51 front gears (hope thats right! ). To me, it has a left clicker numbered 1, 2 and 3. And a right clicker numbered 1 through 7 for the back derailleur.

I got it in my local bike shop, and was told to cycle using the 2 function on the front derailler and as I was flicking between the 7 gears on the back chain rigs, I noticed the chain was rubbing against the chain guard quite loudly.

Anyway, 10km done this morning, same thing, so I brought it to the bike shop and asked the owner who sold it to me if thats normal. He told me that basically being in gears 5 - 7 on the number 2 setting is too high, thats why the chain is hitting off the guard and to move it onto number 3. But this essentially means already losing 3 gears out of 21, correct?

Basically, I want to know if what he told me is right or if I need to go back and get this sorted. Apologies for my lack of knowledge, but like I said, all alien to me.......for now! Thanks in advance if anyone can help me.

Shedite27

There's mixed opinions on how good/bad it is. It's called "Cross-chaning" apparently.
http://www.bicyclechainrings.com/crosschaining.html

ZiabR

Rule of thumb when cycling it to avoid cross chaining and also to avoid running (in easy terms) the big ring on the front with the big ring on the back. Same can be said for the small ring on the front and the small ring on the back. It is not good practice.

If you find yourself running the small ring on the front and the small ring on the rear you should really be moving the ring on the front to the big ring.

EDIT - I should have mentioned, I know you have more than 2 rings on the front but the same principle applies.

HivemindXX

Just to back up what everyone already said. This is a real thing and the bike shop guy is not trying to trick you. Some bikes suffer more than others and it is possible that an adjustment might reduce the effect but you are unlikely to be able to eliminate it.

It might seem like you are losing gears but because of the way the front and rear gears work actually a lot of the gears in the middle range overlap so you are not really losing anything by never using those particular ones. The smallest cog on the rear is really only there to give you your top gear while in your small chain ring at the front.

If you change up a gear and notice the scraping then just change up on the front and down a couple at the back and you will have very nearly the same gear. It is something almost all cyclists have to deal with.

quozl

I've never used a triple but I thought that a correctly set up one was meant to give access to all the rear cassette while you're in the middle front chain-ring?

Certainly

being in gears 5 - 7 on the number 2 setting is too high,

seems excessive to me. I would have thought that at max the smallest and largest sprocket would cause chain-rub while in the middle front chain-ring and I think it may need some derailleur adjustment.

Can anybody confirm/deny this?

smacl

quozl wrote: »

I've never used a triple but I thought that a correctly set up one was meant to give access to all the rear cassette while you're in the middle front chain-ring?

Certainly seems excessive to me. I would have thought that at max the smallest and largest sprocket would cause chain-rub while in the middle front chain-ring and I think it may need some derailleur adjustment.

Can anybody confirm/deny this?

Middle ring certainly works fine with all rear gears on my hybrid, 3x9 Deore set-up, but is prone to chain rub if you don't keep the front DR in good adjustment. Big difference between this and by road bike, which has a Veloce 3x10, is that the road bike has trimming which allows two cage positions per chain ring. Even then I find the front derailleur still needs regular enough adjustment to avoid chain rub in certain combinations.

carleigh

Thanks for all the advise guys. Its great to know that this is normal practice, and hopefully over the next few weeks I will get used to the set up. I got the bike purely for leisure purposes so I wont be putting any mad miles on it. I've gone out the past 3 days (8km, 10km & 5km), and other than a sit of a sore behind and a sore neck, all seems to be going well. Hopefully I will get used to the stance on the bike as I feel very outstretched but I suppose after 10+ years out of the saddle, it is going to take some getting used to. And I will do some reading up on cross-chaining. Thanks again.