[PlatyPius]

Left shifter - turn the barrel adjuster out a full turn, maybe two. Should be good now.

Your shifters work just like all other MTB and road shifters... You push the bigger lever to work against spring tension (ie: to the bigger ring both front and back), and push or pull the smaller lever that uses derailleur spring tension to move the chain down the cassette on the back and to smaller rings on the front.

If your rear derailleur were a Crapid-Rise, then you would have that perceived bliss of having both shifters do the same things - ie: Push for hard, pull for easy. The caveat is that many mechanics call it Crapid-Rise for a reason...

 

[PlatyPius]

Thanks, all...

I don't know what the current convention is, but the Cadent is a flat bar, with the left shifter controlling the rear deraillure and the right shifter controlling the front. I 'spose I can have them reversed, but if I have to learn how the shifters work, one orientation is the same as another for me now.

So, on shifting... when moving UP the rings, using the thumb controller, do you depress the shift lever ALL the way to the stops, or depress until there is a solid shift?

I can see why single-speed bikes are gaining popularity again...

Thx!

Unless somebody built your bike backwards while taking hits of acid, smoking PCP, and shagging an armadillo, left is always front and right is always rear. Same for brakes, unless you're in some odd European country. It is physically impossible to use the shifters if they themselves are reversed, so hooking up the cables wrong is the only other option. In which case, you would only have 3 poorly-working rear gears and 5-6 non-existent front ones.

One click = one shift.
One full push of the rear (right) shifter shifts 3 gears (if I remember correctly)

Shifting a bike is generally of the same level of difficulty as taking a piss...don't think about it too much. Just ride, shift, click, explore.

 

[PlatyPius]

Well, I found the source of my earlier self-diagnosed "front derailleur rub" -- there is a plastic sticker on the front derailleur indicating "1mm" and "3mm" -- apparently indicating appropriate clearance of some type. The chain is rubbing against this sticker.

I would _ass_u_me that I can remove this sticker? NBD, just sounds kinda card-in-the-spokes-ish in some gears right now.

One of my pet peeves.... bike shops that don't remove that sticker. That and shops/bike owners who leave the plastic covering on headtube badges and rear derailleurs. "It'll protect it!" No it won't. After a year heat and sun will bake it on so that your badge/derailleur look like crap and will never, ever clean up.

When a bike comes into my shop that has any of the above mentioned stickers; I remove them. I'll save your bike from you if I have to!

 

[PlatyPius]

Thanks, all...I will remove the sticker with the assurance the derailleur won't fall off.

In defense of my LBS, he is a startup in a small town, the bike was ordered in, delayed a bit in receving it, got it in late on a Friday and had to build it for me. It was promised by noon on a Saturday, but I suspected this would be optomistic. I did get it by 6 PM on a Saturday, but if ANYTHING is put together perfectly by 6PM on a Saturday, I have yet to find it. If one sticker is missed, I am getting off easily.

But, he promises life-time free adjustments and free installs on any toys I get for it, and simply the fact that he is starting a shop but already seems to have a following makes me want to work with this guy.

But here is the thing I have noticed about bike shops...LOTS of people hang around, FEW every buy....

I would say the hardest part of owning a bike shop is knowing you have to be attentive to the hangers-on, keep up the warm-fuzzies in the event someone actually does buy something at some point, but knowing that your time is being sucked up that could be used in more productive activities.

The flip side of this is people who, having bought a bike from a guy a year or two or three or five years ago assume they are now entitled to an eternity of premium service.

(And having operated a few small businesses in the past, none of these issues are unique to bike shops....)

Don

Describes my life perfectly, yes.