Pedaling difficulties

[hhhesse12]

I recently began riding my bike around town (let it be known I know nothing about bikes) and noticed I had a left hand "friction" shifter a long with the 7 gear shifter. I was messing around with it trying to figure out its purpose while biking and ended screwing up the shifting/resistance. Now there is no resistance in any of the gears except in 7, which is more like in gear 2. When I go down hills or go too fast there is absolutely no reistance when I pedal until it slows down more. I am still able to bike but not very fast and its annoying to only go one speed/resistance.

The chain is in its correct spot for gears, I checked that. I even tightened the gear cable as I know thats a common problem with shifting changes, but I don't think the problem is how the bike shifts. Any suggestions?

[nfmisso]

pictures are required to assist.

[hhhesse12]

[attachment=3312][attachment=3313][attachment=3314]

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the second picture has an arrow pointing to where I think the problem might be? The left hand shifter moved the black piece back and forth and that's when the problem arised. fyi the close ups are when the bike was upside down

[Bill]

Front derailler!

[hhhesse12]

right well when i switch gears the front derailler moves (i've tried this with my bike upside down while spinning the pedals and watching gear changes) but the chain always stays on the smallest circle as shown in picture two. Is it supposed to always stay there? If I fix it will it get my gears back to normal?

[cny-man]

My suggestion is that you have a shop fix the problem. You may have done something to the left shifter that is keeping it from working properly, and pictures are likely not to show the problem.

It is not a good idea to "mess around" with something mechanical without knowing what you are doing or the consequences.

[nfmisso]

(07-08-2012, 10:22 AM)cny-man Wrote:  My suggestion is that you have a shop fix the problem. You may have done something to the left shifter that is keeping it from working properly, and pictures are likely not to show the problem.

It is not a good idea to "mess around" with something mechanical without knowing what you are doing or the consequences.

Your reply is not in the spirit of this board, which is to share knowledge about repairing bicycles.

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(07-07-2012, 11:00 PM)hhhesse12 Wrote:  right well when i switch gears the front derailler moves (i've tried this with my bike upside down while spinning the pedals and watching gear changes) but the chain always stays on the smallest circle as shown in picture two. Is it supposed to always stay there? If I fix it will it get my gears back to normal?

Hi;

we need a picture of your front shifter - the one on your left handle bar. It appears that you reduced the friction in the shifter, so now it will not hold the derailleur in position.

Your bike is currently in it's lowest range, suitable for climbing very steep hills, and not much else.

Absolute worst case: replace the front shifter:
http://www.amazon.com/Front-Bicycle-Twist-Shifter-Micro/dp/B000NNX2SG/

Or both:
http://www.amazon.com/SRAM-Bicycle-Twist-Shifter-7-Speed/dp/B0017YX2OO/

But I doubt that things will come to replacement.

[Joe_W]

I guess that it might be a loose cable... check if the cable moves when you try shifting the front dérailleur. Basically pull by hand on some of the exposed FD cable and shift. If the cable moves: good. Then, try moving the FD by hand. Should be possible (but limited by the chain). My guess is that the cable is not fixed securely to the FD. There should be a nut or a screw holding the cable in place.

Next, follow the steps on FD adjustment in Alex's video.