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here's the question: Can you use a triple shifter w/ a double chainring?
here's the background: I'm leading a beginner women's ride last night and one lady is having really bad gear problems. Like getting off to shift, or having to shift her front d with her right hand, because she has to push that hard. Says it just came back from the bike shop but they didn't fix it.
I get on the bike. I can't make it have any problems. I hand it back to her and ask her to try it now. She says she still can't do it. I get back on. Sure enough, i can't get it to drop into the small ring. (thumb shift) I try repeatedly and finally push the CRAP out of the little lever and it shifts. But after that it goes back to shifting fine.
I bring it back to her and we discuss. It's the blind leading the blind at this point. I'm trying to figure out what makes it start acting up and why she seems to think it's f-ed up ALL the time. finally she says something about not being able to get in "three". What do you mean, i ask? She points at the little red indicator at the top of her shift lever. Repeats that she can't get shift into "three." I point out that she doesn't have a triple. This does not register at all. I point at her rings and we count "one", "two". We find her friend's bike and count to three.
She seemed VERY skepical of what I was telling her, I think she'd been "shifting to three" for a long time. Says she used to have trouble shifting to "one" (shows me the sift to the big ring) but that the bike shop fixed that.
So... I'm still a little confused over what's happening, but I think maybe when she's trying to jam it somewhere it won't go, she's screwing it up somehow, and that's why the shift problem (as I see it) is intermittent. Anyhow, will this fix itself if she stops looking for three? or do triple shifters just not work w/ double chain rings?
(it was Shimano, but I failed to look at exactly what group)
I love the newbie rides. I'm the most helpless, stereotypical female imaginable when it comes to mechanical crap, but last night my ability to change a flat and count chain rings made me look bad ass. ;-)
here's the background: I'm leading a beginner women's ride last night and one lady is having really bad gear problems. Like getting off to shift, or having to shift her front d with her right hand, because she has to push that hard. Says it just came back from the bike shop but they didn't fix it.
I get on the bike. I can't make it have any problems. I hand it back to her and ask her to try it now. She says she still can't do it. I get back on. Sure enough, i can't get it to drop into the small ring. (thumb shift) I try repeatedly and finally push the CRAP out of the little lever and it shifts. But after that it goes back to shifting fine.
I bring it back to her and we discuss. It's the blind leading the blind at this point. I'm trying to figure out what makes it start acting up and why she seems to think it's f-ed up ALL the time. finally she says something about not being able to get in "three". What do you mean, i ask? She points at the little red indicator at the top of her shift lever. Repeats that she can't get shift into "three." I point out that she doesn't have a triple. This does not register at all. I point at her rings and we count "one", "two". We find her friend's bike and count to three.
She seemed VERY skepical of what I was telling her, I think she'd been "shifting to three" for a long time. Says she used to have trouble shifting to "one" (shows me the sift to the big ring) but that the bike shop fixed that.
So... I'm still a little confused over what's happening, but I think maybe when she's trying to jam it somewhere it won't go, she's screwing it up somehow, and that's why the shift problem (as I see it) is intermittent. Anyhow, will this fix itself if she stops looking for three? or do triple shifters just not work w/ double chain rings?
(it was Shimano, but I failed to look at exactly what group)
I love the newbie rides. I'm the most helpless, stereotypical female imaginable when it comes to mechanical crap, but last night my ability to change a flat and count chain rings made me look bad ass. ;-)