How To Index Your Gears - Adjusting Your Rear Derailleur

Looking for smooth shifting? Here's our full guide on how to index your gears.

Poorly set up gears is an infuriating problem. You'll find that either you'll skip gears or not change gear at all when you push the lever. Thankfully it's an easy issue to fix.

Gears shift based on tension in the cables, which are adjusted via the barrel adjuster - you'll find it where the gear cable meets the rear derailleur. Small adjustments here will put more or less tension into the system and help solve your shifting problems.

If you find the chain falls off your cassette when you shift into the highest or lowest cog, take a look at your limit screws. They essentially stop the mech from going too far over, which is what causes the chain dumping in the first place.

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Leave us a comment below!

Music licensed by Cue Songs

[Varabandhu]

Like a lot of people below I really appreciated the clear, no nonsense, no filler, articulate explanation given by this chap. I also liked his easy going manner. I was able to learn the things I needed to learn from this video and from others by him and from GCN. Thanks lads.

[AGRAJSOBTI]

Saw so many videos on youtube to train myself on tuning my bike gears, but after hours of struggle I would always give up. This video cleared the entire procedure so well for me. Saw this video, grabbed my tools, and tuned my bike in under 20 minutes. Thank you so so much!

[pedroo]

Just saved me a trip to the bike shop. Thanks GCN!

[alanminne]

OMG after watching this and tinkering a lot, I can FINALLY access ALL 21 gears of my MTB!!! I couldn't even access all 21 fresh out of the store when I bought it brand new. Thank you so much!

[MrRaceMaths]

Thanks for this clear explanation. I just bought a super bike, and the instruction book had great advice like "Don't ride while drunk" and "Don't hang on to moving trucks" but nothing like this straightforward informative stuff that saves you a trip to the bike shop or 2 hours twiddling the wrong screws and generally messing up your bike. Thank you again.

[qualityswisswatches]

the best explanation on here, an oxford or cambridge type explanation, well i understood far quicker than the others as you explained which job each thing did rather than just do it and don't ask why..i could work in a bike shop now. took me 1 hour my first front and rear derailleur and ten mins after i watched this viddie. thanks.

[brianrutherford]

This is one of the best how-to videos I've ever seen. Within 2 minutes of watching this video, I had fixed my gear jumping issue. Awesome!!

[ElectricRCAircraftGuy]

This is so helpful. After paying a local shop $200 to "tune" my bike only to see it won't shift down to the smallest rear cog properly, I find myself here learning how I could have saved myself $200 in the first place, so I can fix what they didn't do right for $200. This is great. After 25 years owning a bike (albeit it's been sitting around most of the time) I'm learning how to adjust my own derailleurs. Thank you.

[RichardTuckman]

This was a very well done video with concise instruction.

[slowcheetah]

The Brits are the best at producing videos. The BBC and GCN are a million times better than anything we have in the U.S.

[declanfaughey]

Thank you GCN for this video, this video saved me a trip to the bike shop, now I can index my gears correctly in my garage. Simon explained it so well he made it so clear what to do step by step. GCN once again making bicycle repair fun and easy.

[mrahzzz]

This was incredibly helpful. I had a friend look at my bike, and he did something that I ended up being unhappy with (he kind of made an issue worse). Instead of having him look at my bike again, and instead of trusting that it was something I could do, I went to a bike shop, and they managed to make things even worse! Thanks to this vid, I now know they completely messed up the limiter screws on my rear derailer (I couldn't, for the longest time, shift into my largest gear, *after* the bike shop was done with it...). I just lived with it, thinking it was the trade off for getting another issue with my front derailer resolved. What an easy fix, and what a silly thing for them to have messed up so badly on my bike... I feel so much more confident that my bike is better tuned after this video - THANK YOU!!
Plus, it feels great to tune the machine you love, yourself.

[jamesjahmoolahutmorrison]

Hi Guys, just a massive shout out to you, helping me get to grips with fixing my bike when things go wrong, or my LBS gets it wrong as well. I'm so used to taking to my LBS, but with your help with these videos, I'm winning and really getting to know my bike inside out. Thanks guys:)

James

[brushstroke]

FINALLY! Been watching the ‘wrong’ videos in which other “experts” try to explain the H & L limiters in completely convoluted and seemingly outright wrong ways. I’m happy to say that my mail-order bike of 2.5 months in finally in tune.
Cheers.

I did; however, adjust the tension prior to dialling in the limiters (was a full two cogs off before starting). I also put the bike in the highest and lowest gears using the mechanism instead of pushing/pulling manually.

[PuppiesVideosCompilation]

Literally after 2 hours i adjusted my bike correctly. Never been so mad lol

[andrewhall]

This is an outstanding instructional video. The presenter is one of the best I've seen on Youtube. Well done not only to him, but also to the photographer.

[yosoypatrick]

Thanks for this guys, you just saved me a lot of hassle! I'd been having issues with shifting into the largest rear sprocket and was ready to change the gear cables, but a little check and it seems that the problem was that my L screw was set too far in.

[SLIMSHADY]

I have been watching so many videos on how to index and set up rear derailleur and have failed to set it up properly. Your video was the most straight forward guide to setting it up, awesome. It literally took me 5 minutes once I watched your video. The limit screws were my issue, no other video explained this as well as you did with the manual adjustment!!! Very happy

[Jamesah]

Great video, explained in a way an idiot like me can understand. Top stuff!

[AnythingWithSieghart]

In short, if the indexing doesn't works, you'll have to check your cables, chain and wheel condition, and replace them if it's worn out. Thank a lot GCN! I've learned a lot in this video!