Do you index?

ILIKEFOOD

Having a major ball ache indexing my gears. First time doing it. I'm about 95% happy. Had to do front and rear. .

Do you do your own or lbs it?

Is it possible to achieve the 100% perfect indexing?

Initially had a bit of chain rub but now there's a small bit of noise on the rear in one or two cogs. ..

All begun after using the turbo one session. .

Head melted. .

Cee-Jay-Cee

It's relatively simple. I have both my bikes working 100% (6800 and 4600)

ted1

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Having a major ball ache indexing my gears. First time doing it. I'm about 95% happy. Had to do front and rear. .

Do you do your own or lbs it?

Is it possible to achieve the 100% perfect indexing?

Initially had a bit of chain rub but now there's a small bit of noise on the rear in one or two cogs. ..

All begun after using the turbo one session. .

Head melted. .

Keep at it, you'll get it, then a week later you'll get it again

Darkglasses

Honestly I leave that to my LBS. We all have our own place where we draw a line at the amount of maintenance we do it ourselves - for me I'm happy just fixing my own brakes and punctures, the two essentials. Gears and any major wheel-truing or BB maintenance, I leave that to my twice annual trip to the LBS for a service.

laraghrider

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Is it possible to achieve the 100% perfect indexing?

Absolutely it is. I do everything myself on the bike (it helps when you have all the tools). I've a commuter with Tiagra 4500 which is coming up on 8 years old and it shifts every bit as accurately as my race bike which has 5700 105. The shifting may be a tiny bit clunkier but that's down to the difference in the shifters themselves but both bikes shift cleaner and smoother than almost any other friends bikes.

I've had other lads ride the commuter and not believe how well Tiagra shifts. They always had this thing that it was entry level crap. Once you learn it it's quite easy.

07Lapierre

Sometimes you can do everything right and the gears still wont index correctly. Worn derailleurs, worn chain/cassette, old cables can all impact on smooth indexing.

On my bike, I've a new chain, new cassette, new rear derailleur and new cables. it still wont index correctly! I've come to the conclusion that the 9 year old shifter is possibly worn.

rollingscone

Yep.

The trick is to do 90% of the work with the barrell adjusters, limit screws should be already set in most cases and when you do adjust them do it in quarter turns or less.

When you are indexing your greatest ally is a repair stand.

route66

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Having a major ball ache indexing my gears. First time doing it. I'm about 95% happy. Had to do front and rear. .

Do you do your own or lbs it?

Is it possible to achieve the 100% perfect indexing?

Initially had a bit of chain rub but now there's a small bit of noise on the rear in one or two cogs. ..

All begun after using the turbo one session. .

Head melted. .

If you are only getting noise in one or two cogs, it might be something else. If the cassette is new, did you make sure all the inter-cog spacers are present and aligned correctly? Are the correct locknut / shims being used - i.e. is there any lateral movement on the cassette itself?

If it is installed correctly, it should not make noise in one gear and not the others. It WILL make noise at the front derailleur if cross chaining but that's a different thing.

Best of luck!

DKmac

07Lapierre wrote: »

Sometimes you can do everything right and the gears still wont index correctly. Worn derailleurs, worn chain/cassette, old cables can all impact on smooth indexing.

On my bike, I've a new chain, new cassette, new rear derailleur and new cables. it still wont index correctly! I've come to the conclusion that the 9 year old shifter is possibly worn.

Have you changed your cassette gearing? I moved from the 11-32 that came with my bike to 11-28 and had trouble mid range with clunky shifting. Turned out the b-screw which alters the distance of the jockey wheel to the cassette was way off as it was previously set to the bigger 32 cog and was too far away. Few turns to bring it closer and had no problems since.

07Lapierre

DKmac wrote: »

Have you changed your cassette gearing? I moved from the 11-32 that came with my bike to 11-28 and had trouble mid range with clunky shifting. Turned out the b-screw which alters the distance of the jockey wheel to the cassette was way off as it was previously set to the bigger 32 cog and was too far away. Few turns to bring it closer and had no problems since.

Cheers...i'll give it a go. Old Cassette was 27x12..new one is 28x12

smacl

rollingscone wrote: »

When you are indexing your greatest ally is a repair stand.

Turbo works pretty well too. I found on the old bike, indexing when the bike was upside down and there was no resistance on the wheels wasn't great.

ILIKEFOOD

Bike is a year old with an ultegra groupset.

It went a bit wonky after one turbo session - i have a spare wheel I use for that with a 105 11sp cassette on it. I have used it before with no issues so I can't figure out what went wrong.

I also has a small crash and am wondering if I've knocked something off AND recently replaced the rear shifter entirely which the LBS did. The gearing was fine-ish after but there was still front derailleur chain rub.

Been watching these youtube vids from Art's Cyclery and they seem pretty straightforward

https://youtu.be/tfBiXgf8JxI

I have a bike stand which is helpful.

Will give it another go tonight and see where I am, it's definitely something I want to know.

cheers

furiousox

I found this video to be helpful.
He's sporting a damn fine pair of slacks as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ

Brian?

Once you have your limit screws set, leave them alone. Use the barrel adjuster to adjust the shift to your middle cog. Once that's done you're 99% of the way done. Some minor adjustments might be needed but my experience is that this is grand most of the time. Even if I'm unhappy with how my bikes at are shifting I'll leave the limit screws alone and simply adjust the shift to the middle cog, most of the time it's all that was needed.

I've recovered a few problems for people where they've simply tinkered too much. 2 different people had issues on their largest 2 cogs, there wasn't an actual issue with the shift but they mistook the subtle noise that comes with cross chaining.

The only time I couldn't get the indexing right was because my derailleur mounting screw had come loose.

Brian?

furiousox wrote: »

I found this video to be helpful.
He's sporting a damn fine pair of slacks as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ

Are they not chinos?

eeeee

Brian? wrote: »

Are they not chinos?

Schlacks! Chino's are a brand name as far as I know.

I have never successfully indexed anything. I have and do continue to try but generally I do have to get someone to fix it for me Indexing = eternal fiddling for me. I reckon I need to learn how to do it right. I might try your method next time Brian (although once they're working right I don't touch them on pain of death in case I set them off again!).

Brian?

gadetra wrote: »

Brian? wrote: »

Are they not chinos?

Schlacks! Chino's are a brand name as far as I know.

I have never successfully indexed anything. I have and do continue to try but generally I do have to get someone to fix it for me Indexing = eternal fiddling for me. I reckon I need to learn how to do it right. I might try your method next time Brian (although once they're working right I don't touch them on pain of death in case I set them off again!).

I thought Chinos were a style of trouser, I could be wrong.

Once your gears are shifting, leave them alone alright. I'm completely over the top on how well adjusted it needs to be. I also swap cassettes and wheels a lot.

If you ever want to see how I do it in person give me a shout.

Thud

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Bike is a year old with an ultegra groupset.

It went a bit wonky after one turbo session - i have a spare wheel I use for that with a 105 11sp cassette on it. I have used it before with no issues so I can't figure out what went wrong.

I think (may be wrong) that different wheel types can line up differently so if you index for your turbo wheels it might be slightly off for your regular wheels when you change back, Ive experienced this.

Brian?

Thud wrote: »

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Bike is a year old with an ultegra groupset.

It went a bit wonky after one turbo session - i have a spare wheel I use for that with a 105 11sp cassette on it. I have used it before with no issues so I can't figure out what went wrong.

I think (may be wrong) that different wheel types can line up differently so if you index for your turbo wheels it might be slightly off for your regular wheels when you change back, Ive experienced this.

Add your reply here.


Agreed. A change of wheels mean you need to re index your gears.

eeeee

Brian? wrote: »

I thought Chinos were a style of trouser, I could be wrong.

Once your gears are shifting, leave them alone alright. I'm completely over the top on how well adjusted it needs to be. I also swap cassettes and wheels a lot.

If you ever want to see how I do it in person give me a shout.

I might just take you up on that. I think I should only fiddle with mine again under supervision!

rollingscone

gadetra wrote: »

I might just take you up on that. I think I should only fiddle with mine again under supervision!

You have gears?

Ethically I'm obliged to inform the authorities at Sundrive

eeeee

rollingscone wrote: »

You have gears?

Ethically I'm obliged to inform the authorities at Sundrive

I only use them on evenings and Sundays I promise!