MtnBikeRiders.com

15 Responses to “How to tune/adjust a rear Shimano Derailleur”

1. Jay says:

   January 3, 2009 at 8:39 pm

   Great job as always RL.

   Quick question: Because the bike will many times act differently on a bike stand than it does when mounted, what would you suggest to a person that perhaps is running into shifting problems when they are on the trail? (after they have adjusted it in the stand)

   BTW – troubles occur most frequently when climbing on a full suspension bike
2. RL Policar says:

   January 3, 2009 at 10:15 pm

   Thanks Jay,

   I’d suggest riding on a flat street, go through your gears and fine tune it with the adjuster barrel on the shifter pod. But make sure that you only do half turns so you can dial it in just right.
3. Ghost Rider says:

   January 4, 2009 at 7:21 am

   Don’t forget to adjust high/low limit screws and “B” tension screw(if applicable). BEFORE adjusting cable tension. If you don’t do those first, the rest is meaningless.
4. RL says:

   January 4, 2009 at 9:22 am

   You only need to touch those if your chain jumps the cog and into the spokes or if your chain is on the small cog and its really rubbing bad on the pulley/ or the derailleur is pulling towards the drop out.
5. Ghost Rider says:

   January 4, 2009 at 4:00 pm

   Check the Park Tool repair database…H and L and B-tension screws get adjusted first. THEN, the indexing adjustment. If H and L are off, no amount of cable tension tinkering is going to get you good shifting!
6. RL says:

   January 4, 2009 at 4:04 pm

   As I mentioned, you don’t have to. It worked just fine in the video.
7. Shane says:

   January 6, 2009 at 11:36 am

   Just get an Osobike, then you don’t have to worry about adjusting your derailer.
8. RL Policar says:

   January 6, 2009 at 1:49 pm

   But an Oso bike isn’t a mountain bike…
9. Ghost Rider says:

   January 6, 2009 at 6:08 pm

   Yeah, I’d like to see one of you guys tackle Southridge on an OSO. Ha ha!
10. Larry Byrnes says:

    February 13, 2010 at 11:34 am

    Great video. Wanted to know if there is an adjustment I can make to get the chain to rotate freely backwards. All the gears seem to shift smoothly going forward, but chain will slack up when pedaling counterclockwise. Does this mean I need a new derailer or possibly a new chain? Thanks!
11. Ike says:

    June 16, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Shimano Derailer, new bike, 6 Speed, rear wheel locks when I try to move backwards. Rear wheel makes dragging when you move forward. Any suggestions?
12. Jun says:

    June 27, 2010 at 7:14 am

    This is awesome. As always thanks for all the tech tips…keep em coming…
13. crcle says:

    March 17, 2011 at 10:25 am

    How do I set cable tensioN and whAt is proper tension?
14. RL Policar says:

    March 18, 2011 at 8:52 am

    Crcle,

    You adjust the tension by turning the adjuster barrels on the shifter or derailleur. The proper tension would be found when the gears are shifting properly. There really isn’t a set tension, you just have to make sure that it works. Each bike is different.
15. MtnBikeRiders.com » Blog Archive » What a busy weekend! says:

    April 11, 2011 at 10:04 am

    [...] he mentioned how he was mis-shifting badly. I directed him to watch a video I made a while back on how to tune a rear derailleur. Though he followed the steps, he still had issues. At that time, I offered to check out his bike [...]