How to Adjust your Shimano Rear Derailleur | #CGT - Bike School

For Troubleshooting, read here!

Bent hanger - this is often the reason for your gears to be acting weird. The derailleur hanger is a small piece of aluminium that connects the derailleur to the frame. Its purpose is to bend in case of an impact to the derailleur, protecting more expensive parts from getting damaged, like the derailleur or the frame. To check if this is the cause to your gear problems, stand behind the bike looking at the derailleur and checking that the hanger is perfectly straight. If this looks bend, take your bike to a local bike shop and get a new hanger (usually this is cheap) and your gears should work perfectly again.

Kinked Gear Cable - a gear cable can get kinked if poorly installed, caught on some obstacles trail side or even if it gets caught on the bike rack in your car. If a cable is kinked, gears will be way off when you are using higher gears but when selecting lower gears if feels okay. To confirm the cable is kinked, select the highest gear (smallest cog) and follow the cable from the shifter to the derailleur. If you find the kink, the only way to fix it is by replacing the gear cable.

Frayed Outer Cable - If you have old outer cables on your bike and you can start seeing the inside of the cable starting to fray, your gears won’t work perfectly. A frayed outer cable won’t keep the gear cable tension consistent throughout the entire gear range, causing the cable tension to fluctuate and create inconsistent shifting. You will need new outer cables.

Steep Angles on Gear Cable - this one is hard to confirm but essentially if you have the gear cable doing steep angles on route to the rear derailleur, the cable inside won’t slide as freely as it should, causing extra resistance on the shifter pads and delays in shifting. You’ll need to either shorten or extend the outer cable.

Dirty, Muddy or rusty Gear Cables - After a very wet or very muddy ride, it’s quite easy for water or grit to accumulate around the cable and make its way to the outer cables. This will add considerable friction to the gear cable and might even stop the cable from moving. Try to clean the cables and the outer cables. Failing that, you might need to change the gear and, possibly, the outer cable.

Damaged Shifter - If you feel inconsistent shifting performance and you recently had a crash, it’s possible that the shifter suffered some internal damage. Usually the shifting pads get either very stiff to move, or extremely loose when you try to operate them. You can try to repair the shifter but most likely you will have to replace it.

Old Rear Derailleur - If your rear derailleur is getting old, the spring inside might start losing recovery energy and getting fatigued. You can confirm this if your gears are moving nicely up the cassette but coming down slow.

Stiff Chain Link - Sometimes it feels like the derailleur wants to jump to a higher or lower gear when you’re pedalling. If cable tension seems to be correct, check the chain for a stiff link, a connection between two links that is not moving freely. Locate the stiff link by either looking at the jockey wheels when turning the pedals slowly, or by checking every link on your chain individually. Fix this by lubing that stiff link and/or holding the chain and flexing it laterally, to allow the link to centre itself. Failing this, ask a bike mechanic to help you out.

Chain jumping on gear - If all gears are working perfectly on the work stand but when you jump on the bike and go for a ride you feel the chain jumping, especially on higher gears, it’s because your chain and/or cassette is getting old and the teeth are not holding the chain anymore. You'll need to get a new chain and cassette.

Cable Stretch on a New Bike - If you just bought a new bike and after a few rides start feeling the gears getting out of shape, this is just the gear cable stretching, something perfectly normal. As the gear cable stretches, gear cable tension is reduced. Add tension by turning the barrel adjuster on the derailleur anti-clockwise half a turn. Continue watching the video to understand how cable tension works.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below and I’ll reply.

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[TheBassallyear]

by far the best and most straightforward mechanical rear derailleur adjustment tutorial on youtube. so many others try to resolve around a flawed setup.

[carlosferraz]

probably the most straightforward guide i've seen. talking slowly helps

[Elephantine]

I like this procedure in which you do high/low with the cable disconnected. Good video. Thanks.

[larryschweitzer]

I worked! I took notes and went out on the drive. Went step by step, got rained on as a bonus. Now shifts better than it ever has. Thank You

[viobekam]

Thank you master. You've saved me 20 bucks from my local bike shop. May God repay your good deeds.

[JingsWorld]

Whenever I had to do my derailleur I always search for this guy, very simple and accurate instructions. Believe me it works …👍

[PhilAndersonOutside]

I work in a bike shop. This is the most straight forward, easy to understand, correct way to do this. Skip all other videos on this subject. This is the only one you really need to watch.

[ThomasHLDG]

by far the most simple and easiest explanation 👌

[frozenflyify]

I've unsuccessfully tried adjusting my deraileurs for many years (my current squeeze @ 2000 Devinci Millenium Road bike with Ultegra) One minute and a half of your video and I got it nailed. Thanks.

[spencerlorrison]

You win! Easily the best rear derailleur adjustment video on YouTube. I wish I'd found it sooner, it would have saved me lots of time. Thanks for making the effort to create this. Instructions were clear, easy to follow and to the point. Added to favourites...

[MrEq]

Out of all videos I've watched today, yours did the job. Thank you!

[RichardConnor]

This is the best video on YouTube explaining setup of indexed gears. Well done.

[kmalerich]

Thanks. That was the best step by step vid. Some others tend to jump around a bit and not follow a logical sequence.

[jerrygowins]

Best video on gear adjustment I've found! Straight forward, easy to understand the principles being talked about. Great Job!

[jkwok]

Thank you man. I just spent two days literally fixing my bikes gear shifting and you having explained the concept and easy steps, which helped me get things done in an hour. My shimano derailer isn't as good as yours so I had a ton of trouble adjusting it right since the chain tends to end up slipping either to the front or back of the cassette. I had to adjust L and H but the worse part was the anchor bolt where I had to adjust the wire tension to somehow make the derailer arm align with the cassette. I then shifted to every gear and quickly adjusted, while my bike is upside down until it was somewhat smooth gear shifting. I still haven't made the shifting as smooth as I want, but it's a huge step in the right direction and I'm writing to say thanks since now I can at least ride my bike with gear working.

[psygoo]

After 7 years it still the best derailleur adjustment tutorial on youtube.

[batesady]

Agree with others - this IS the best RD tutorial on YouTube. Well done! 👏

[SteffiReitsch]

Finally a simple explanation without all the bull sh*t. Thanks dude.

[myhdcycle]

Thank you so much for this easy to follow method. I have just wasted 2 hours trying to fix mine and after utilizing your method, Bam! 5 minute fix!

[Laolang]

I watched bunch of other videos. None of them works! Only this video clip really solved my problem! Thank you so much!