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Gears are stupid. Its not me, being a cack handed, half witted "mechanic" its the gears. They are stupid. Thats why I went single speed in the first place, single speed is simple, is great, is all I need except for the biggest hills, where, lets be honest I'd walk anyway. Oh and spinning out on the road? So what, its road, its not exactly fun anyway!
But now I'm older, and my knee has gone from occasional pain to constant pain. And the rides I do are a bit undulatey and maybe some gears would help me get up some of those technical climbs and stop my having to stand (and then spin out the rear wheel) everytime the trail gets a bit uppy and muddy.
So i put the gears back on. Brand new mix of deore shifters, XT front mech and SLX rear. New chain as well (which CRC sent in a shoe box but thats a different issue). I say brand new, its a few years old, but was taken straight off the P7 when I got it as gears are a pain and i don't need them.
So now, mechs bolted back on, shifters back on, new chain and... nope. the rear mech only offers 8 out of nine gears (I can choose which 8, but still I'd like all nine) the mech refuses to adjust so the top jockey wheel doesn't rub on the cassette. Its noisy as hell, the chain is going to slap against the chain stay, taking all the nice paint off and being noisy, the shifters make my bars look crowded and there is cables everywhere.
I tried to book it into any one of the 4 LBS in my area, but none of them can sort it immediately, so thats no good asI want to ride now!
Gears. I hate you.
It's not the gears. It's you.
B-screw on rear mech?
H/L screws on rear mech
Or, most likely, shifter not at end of range when cable was attached to mech.
I'm crap at setting up gears as well. I've just about got the hang of rear mechs but front ones are still temperamental for me. In an ideal world all my bikes would have hub gears on them.
just learn to set gears up, it isn't hard. twiddle a couple of screws and it is done, and despite so many comments you won't need to touch them for months.