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There’s an old phrase which says, “fix small issues before they become big ones.” This is especially true with maintenance on bicycles and automobiles.
During my road ride last weekend with the group, I remember one particularly rough shift. We were nearing the end of our route and a traffic light had just turned green.
I clicked the shift lever and my rear derailleur responded with a very audible “clunk” as it changed gears. I wondered whether I caused damage to the teeth on the rear cassette, but I quickly forgot about it.
Later in the ride, I realized the bicycle was sluggish to shift. It would shift, but then it would sometimes “ghost shift” again, especially in the middle gears.
“I need to adjust the cable tension,” I thought to myself. Adjusting the cable tension should be quick. That only requires adjustment of the barrel adjuster in quarter-turn increments.
So, yesterday, I set up the repair stand in my home office, put the Canyon on it, turned on coverage of the Tour de France, and got to work.
As it would turn out, by taking the time to diagnose a small problem, I would discover an equipment failure which could have left me stranded on the side of the road.
Fixing One Problem, But Finding Another
The drivetrain seemed to be behaving normally initially. As I turned the barrel adjuster, the shifting became smoother and the “ghost shifting” seemed to have disappeared!
But, as I tested it further, a new problem had replaced it.
It was no longer shifting into the outermost gears. It would shift smoothly from the inner gears to the middle of the cassette, but it would then stop shifting.
(Author’s Note: I prefer to describe gears in terms of inner and outer. Using terms like “big” can create confusion. The smallest gear on the rear wheel is the most difficult to pedal, which seems counter-intuitive for some.)
“Weird,” I thought to myself.
The next thirty minutes were spent fiddling with the adjuster, glancing at the limit screws, and even detaching/reattaching the cable. Nothing made a difference.
Knowing When To Read The Documentation
It was time to grab the manual. My favorite repair guide is “Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance” by Lennard Zinn. I have the 5th edition, but there is now a 6th edition as well. The back of the book has a great diagram for troubleshooting issues.
Replacement of the shift cable was the only suggestion which I hadn’t already attempted. Since the cable wasn’t very old, I was skeptical. But, it was worth a try.
My focus shifted from the rear of the bike to the front.
Uncovering A Big Problem
As soon as I exposed the cable in the Shimano 105 shifter, the problem was obvious! Numerous fibers of the cable had snapped in the shift lever and created a tangled mess.
It was astonishing that the bike was still shifting at all! I was immediately grateful that the cable hadn’t snapped altogether while out on a ride. When a shift cable fails completely, the rear derailleur loses tension and drops into the outermost (most difficult) gear.
Armed with a pair of needle-nose pliers, I removed the severed cable fibers. Then, I removed the handlebar tape and the rest of the cable from the bike’s cable housing which runs through the frame.
Problem Solved: A New Shift Cable Is Installed
The cable was replaced with a spare from the garage and reattached. I started to pedal the bike on the repair stand.
Voilà! It was fixed!
It’s just about ready to be returned to service, although the handlebars need to be re-wrapped. Bar tape has become more expensive, so I ordered tape directly from Canyon. No bar tape has ever particularly stood out to me, so it’s not an item that I splurge on.
Hopefully, the bar tape will arrive this week so I can ride with the group next weekend.
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