Hi, I’m having some trouble indexing SLX on my new bike.
It seems that it has problems going onto the 3rd from top sprocket and when I tighten the cable, it doesn’t like the 3rd from bottom. I’m having to “trim” the gears while riding which is not what I want to do on a bike that cost me so much money. It’s really boiling my p1ss now.
Thanks in advance for help.

Is the mech hanger straight and are the mech stops set correctly? Otherwise go through the setup here

also check the rear cable loop isn’t too short, if it is it’ll stop the mech moving forward, keeping the upper jockey away from the cassette. This can lead to poor shifting with shadow type mechs(as can the B-tension screw being too tight).

Have you used new cables – inners and outers. Sometimes if they’re dirty they will fail to shift smoothly from one cog to the next

Thanks guys. The trouble with the park tool guide is that it more or less says “do it this way unless you have rapid rise, then don’t” lol. The cables, outers and mechs are all new. I didn’t have any trouble installing XT, but I can’t seem to get this right and the shimano instructions are utter utter crap.

Double check that ‘gear 3’ at the mech is ‘gear 3’ at the shifter. If its out of sync, i.e gear 3 at mech is actually gear 2 at shifter, that can cause no end of heartache. Count the clicks 🙂

You get one dodgy shift, that moves depending on the cable tension? Sounds like a bent mech hanger…