Hey all...

My right shifter(rear derailleur) seems to stick when I am in the upper gears. The lever tends to "catch" itself when trying to move to a higher gear, and it hangs in between positions. I then have to manually pull it back to complete the shift. I thought it might be a cable angle problem coming out of the shifter, so I made sure it is moving correctly, but that has not fixed it. I then took the hood off to check the ratchet mechanism and it looks fine, but you can see where it is hanging on the upper gears. Very interesting mechanism in there, and rather simple in execution.

Any ideas would be appreciated....

the Flash

In reading this problem I was wondering (and I am not discounting your mech. ability, just throwing a thought out) if you had installed the cable end on the cable where it enters the shifter? It seems anytime a shifter hangs up on the up or down shift it has to do with the cable being messed up at an end or check your derailleur hanger. When you mention that it starts to mess up the further up you go is indicitive of a derailleur hanger being bent. Check it out.

All of the ends are on and I did check the derailleur hanger and it is straight, but I will double check it. I can see the problem occurring when I take the shifter cover off. Just to be safe, I may replace the entire cable and housing to see if that is the problem....

Thanks for the advice....

the flash

Hey Flash,
There should be no cable ferreul where the cable enters the shifter body. You should just have cable going into the shifter for both the brake and the der's. Take that off and you should be all set.

good luck

I don't know exactly what caused it, but after replacing the housing, everything is working fine now....

Thanks!

The Flash

I did my installation with ferrules since there was enough room in the shifter housing to get them in there. Lately I've been riding in cold weather (<20F) and noticed that the shifter takes considerably more effort on downshifts to an easier gear. I thought it might have to do with the cable shrinking in the cold but now I suspect it is the ferrule.

I took the ferrule off tonight so we'll see what tomorrow brings...

Question for CX Fan...I had thought of doing the same (no Cable Ferreuls) but my question is (this maybe hard to explain) Look at where the end of the cable butts up against the shifter body, it looks to me as if only about 75% of the area would provide a clean interface with the cable. This would mean the remaining 25% or so does not have a solid seat with the shifter; what I am getting at is that over time the wires that makes up the derailleur housing would start to migrate into the area that does not have the firm seat with the shifter body. You know how when you are working on an older bike and you take the derailleur cable out and a few of the wires are sticking out further than the rest. I have looked high and low for information specific to this issue and found none, if you have an information source please hook me up, I have installed a few sets of these shifters and wonder everytime if I am installing correctly (they shift fine with the ferreuls) Please let me know! Thanks!

Question for CX Fan...I had thought of doing the same (no Cable Ferreuls) but my question is (this maybe hard to explain) Look at where the end of the cable butts up against the shifter body, it looks to me as if only about 75% of the area would provide a clean interface with the cable. This would mean the remaining 25% or so does not have a solid seat with the shifter; what I am getting at is that over time the wires that makes up the derailleur housing would start to migrate into the area that does not have the firm seat with the shifter body. You know how when you are working on an older bike and you take the derailleur cable out and a few of the wires are sticking out further than the rest. I have looked high and low for information specific to this issue and found none, if you have an information source please hook me up, I have installed a few sets of these shifters and wonder everytime if I am installing correctly (they shift fine with the ferreuls) Please let me know! Thanks!

I was wondering this as well. One route you could take would be to slightly widen out those ferreule holes.

Ok....I stand corrected. I guess if you read the directions or watch the video's that would help.

Since I came from a Campy background, I just "ass u me d" this is how it works.

After watching the install video from the sram website http://willyoumaketheleap.com/ then service link and then tech videos, choosing controls, they actually say to have a ferruel for the cable housing. I have never done this since it usually binds up.

According to both Campy and Shimano, there is no reason to have this since it sits inside a built in ferreul to the levers. Thought that Sram would do the same. My mistake.

I have had my Rival kit since Oct on the cross bike and never had an issue even in temps down to mid 20's.

Check out all install video's at the site.

Good luck

Rich

The wires pushing through is what was happening to me on both Shimano and SRAM. Now that I have SRAM on everything, and ferrules on the ends, it seems to be fine. I think my issus was with the Biomorphe XL handlebar, which is really built for a Campy or Shimano system. Without having the ability to put both cables to the same side easily, it cause a really weird bend that may have been kinking it up....

Flash

I traded e-mails with SRAM tech support the other day and they confirmed that ferrules are the way to go and that the shifters were indeed designed for them...

They also confirmed that cable routing should be done on opposing sides of the bar (not with the wrap around of the shifter cable so that both cable are out the outside groove).

I added the ferrules back today and re-routed the cables. Feels good in the driveway. Tomorrows training ride will tell me more...

I just spent the last week trying to tune my new SRAM Force setup.
I kept tweaking the front derailleur and it would never shift right. I could not event tighten up the tension to make it move from the small ring to the big ring.
I took out the cables and the ends were all bent, basically i needed ferrules to keep the housing from collapsing

Shimano cables appear to be a better quality also.
They have a inner liner that appears to be lubricated. I usually add a drop of oil in the housing.