Bike won't shift

[buddy20]

I have a trek mountain bike. The front derailleur will not shift from the largest gear at all. Can someone give me some suggestions as to what to check for.

Thanks in advance.

[cyclerUK]

Undo the cable where it is clamped on the dérailleur and see if the dérailleur will move by hand.

[buddy20]

(03-31-2011, 02:33 PM)cyclerUK Wrote:  Undo the cable where it is clamped on the dérailleur and see if the dérailleur will move by hand.

I removed the cable and it did move. How do I know if the cable has the correct tension. It seems when I shifted from 2 to 1 there was some slack in the cable?

Thanks for the help.

[cyclerUK]

Does the cable move correctly when operating the gear shifter? (pull the cable by hand while moving shifter).
If it does then set the shifter to the same position as the low gear and reconnect the cable.
Generally take the slack out of the cable before finally clamping.
Now try changing gear. Somewhere, depending on the style of changer, there should be an adjuster to fine tune the cable.

[buddy20]

(04-06-2011, 03:59 PM)cyclerUK Wrote:  Does the cable move correctly when operating the gear shifter? (pull the cable by hand while moving shifter).
If it does then set the shifter to the same position as the low gear and reconnect the cable.
Generally take the slack out of the cable before finally clamping.
Now try changing gear. Somewhere, depending on the style of changer, there should be an adjuster to fine tune the cable.

Thank you, that seemed to fix the problem. I appreciate all the help.

[cyclerUK]

Hi, Thanks for the update. Glad it works.