5 Minute Simple Bike Gear Tune-Up | Indexing, Cable Tension & Limit Screws

Got 5 minutes? Why not get your road bike's gears working perfectly! Jon has a few tips to tune up your front and rear derailleurs and get them working like new in just 5 minutes!

Begin with your chain in the outer chainring, and shift until you’re in your hardest gear. Now, using a phillips head screwdriver set your outer or H-limit screw. The best way to do this is looking from the back of the bike, turn the limit screw until the jockey wheels sit just outboard of the smallest cog. This will help the derailleur shift easily into your hardest gear.

Shift the chain to the second smallest cog at the rear and the big ring up front. Without turning the pedals, shift up into the smallest cog. This will give you a bit of cable slack. Holding the derailleur, undo the bolt holding the cable in place, and pull through until the cable is tight, but don’t yank on it as hard as you can. Now turn the pedals to allow the chain to shift into your smallest cog. This should leave your chain shifting perfectly.

For the front derailleur you are likely to have an inline barrel adjuster to fine tune your indexing, when you move the shift lever. You want the cable to be nice and snug in the cable clamp with a good tension and then slowly turn the barrel of the adjuster to help with that finishing touch to make sure the derailleur responds to the movement of the lever.

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[gcntech]

What part of your bike can we fix in 5 minutes? Let us know and we'll cover it if we can.

[gregg]

Yep, all nice and simple in theory. Took my front derailleur off once - took me six hours to get it working smoothly again

[SaqerAlKhalifa]

This guy was a swift addition to the GCN team, what a great lad he’s turning out to be.. keep it up!

[D.Eldon_]

One mistake Jon: When you demonstrated how to adjust the front derailleur "H" screw, you forgot to shift to the small cassette cog at the rear derailleur. All you did was shift the front derailleur to the big chainring and, since your rear derailleur was still on the big cog, you were cross-chained when you adjusted the "H" screw. The thing that viewers need to understand is: Always shift the chain all the way to the inside (big cassette cog, small chainring) when adjusting the "L" screw and always shift the chain all the way to the outside (small cassette cog, big chainring) when adjusting the "H" screw. This is true whether you're adjusting the front derailleur or the rear derailleur. Do not adjust anything in a 2x or 3x drivetrain when you're cross-chained. Cheers.

[Bearded.Wonder]

Thanks, Jon. Was having problems with the chain jumping around in the lower gears. Followed the steps in this video and viola! it’s all fixed! You’re a good man, Charlie Brown!

[MBKBooster]

This video has really helped me fine tune my derailleurs. Easy to follow and understand. Thank you GCN Tech!

[CamKnoppMusic]

Awesome video! It seems like every bike video I was coming across was waaaay too long and complex, but this was simple and straightforward.

[caliniaru]

I've just fixed my problems by following these guidelines. Thank you!

[arepea]

I sure do miss Jon. I used to watch him all the time when it became Ollie I stopped watching it at all. Such good instruction clear and competent.

[nathanwilliams]

I will return to this many times. It’s very clever instructions. Thanks 🙏🏼

[paulyd]

Hi John, thanks for this had the indexing fixed in those 5 minutes. Cheers, Paul.

[rpriceutube]

Thanks! Basic but super helpful for us non mechanically-inclined riders :)

[JaredKC]

Just what I needed for a reminder before my room de today. Perfect timing.

[vkdgn]

My 105 rear-shifter handle was causing gear changing troubles (small to big cogs not jumping or jumping in 2's). Bike shop couldn't fix it but I did; pulled on the brakes and moved gear shifter across which visibly exposes some of the innards - then blasted the insides with WD40 until it worked correctly; squeezed a pile of grease in with my fingers and it's been as-new for months now (I ride about 200km/week).

[TheWaxChainFanClub]

I'd love it if Jon had a bike shop near me. Definitely a safe pair of hands I'd trust with my gear, you can tell he really cares.

[rossfripp]

Great video thanks. Useful for my old bike. Di2 on the new one It just works!

[bizzehdee]

Built myself a new cyclocross bike at the weekend from a new frame, and a set of spare parts i had from an hybrid where i damaged the frame, plus a chainset from ebay. 2x8 speed. Struggled to get the gears to shift properly at all, and i remembered one of the older/longer versions of this video, silky smooth now. Old sora shifters, with a new claris front mech and a deore rear mech (older mtb mech). All works perfectly together with the bontrager 750's and some 35mm cross tyres :)

[andycheng]

Good video! Easy to understand and very practical. Thanks

[chrisandrade]

My Sora 3500 front shifter has a trim function and Shimano recommends setting it with chain on big in the front and big in the back with the chain just touching the inside of the front mech’s left plate.

[tommccafferty]

Jon, a great how-to video. Keep them coming.