Shifting Issues

[IndexI96]

Hey Everyone,

I am hoping someone here may be able to assist me with my old bicycle. I currently own a Trek 4900 that was probably purchased in 2002 +/- a year or two. The bike got a lot of good use/abuse up until the time I got married and had children. Now that my kids are a little older and starting to ride bikes more competently I decided to finally get it cleaned up and in working order. The problem I am having is that it sat outside uncovered for a long time. I have cleaned it up and oiled it up and made some adjustments to get the gears moving smoothly. Shifting from 1st to 2nd on the front derailleur is pretty smooth and the same goes for downshifting from 2nd to 1st. However, no matter what I tighten, oil, clean, or fiddle with I can not get it to shift in to 3rd gear on the front. Normally to shift up it take a full press of the thumb shift but when I try to go to third it does not even catch until about 3/4 of the way through the press and then does not even get it close to catching the 3rd gear. I have (hopefully) added photographs so you have an idea of what I am looking at. The first picture of the shifter and the derailleur is its normal resting position in second gear and the second set of pictures shows you how far the dial moves with a full press as well as the location of the derailleur.

   
   

   
   

For now I am just hoping to fix this thing up as much as I can since I am too cheap to purchase something new haha.. But I am just hoping to get it fully functioning for some easy family rides on paved trails or around the city and then maybe purchase something a little newer later on if I want to get in to some more advanced rides.

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

[CharleyFarley]

(04-28-2020, 06:05 PM)IndexI96 Wrote:  ... Normally to shift up it take a full press of the thumb shift but when I try to go to third it does not even catch until about 3/4 of the way through the press and then does not even get it close to catching the 3rd gear. I have (hopefully) added photographs so you have an idea of what I am looking at. The first picture of the shifter and the derailleur is its normal resting position in second gear and the second set of pictures shows you how far the dial moves with a full press as well as the location of the derailleur.

If it was working properly when you rode it years ago, and now won't work properly after being stored for so long, it sounds like it could be a cable problem. That's where I'd begin, with a new cable and housing. You could move the derailleur by hand to see that it moves across all three chainrings without sticking.