Or: How the flip do you set up a front mech on road bike?

I’ve made just about every change possible and the blasted thing still crunches in various gears.

Tried the height above the chainring, the angle of the dangle, the cable tension, the stops.

The trim click on the shifter helps but I still can’t get it right. Some gears in the middle of the big ring even rub on the left in the first click and on the right on the trim click.

Only thing I can notice that is possibly wrong is that there is about a mm of wobble on the chainrings. But this appears to be on the crank, not the rings (which so far as I can tell are perfectly true).

Am I supposed to try and bend the chainrings or file down the crank to cancel out this wobble or what? GAWRHGEIFGSIUGHPSIUBGSIPUGISUGFIUGH

(bike is a Boardman sport, chainset is an ‘FSA Tempo Compact – 50/34t’)

I had the same with a fsa crankset, it worked ok just had that slight wobble. Ended up changing it in the end. Cant really think of any fix except getting the wallet out.

Check the rings are bedded properly on the chainset.

Then check the bb/chainset interface.

Then inspect carefully for a hairline crack in the frame especially around the join between bottom bracket and chain stays.

Often a hairline crack with generate more movement at the bottom bracket which will manifest itself as excessive rubbing on the front mech.

I used this…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-uANcaVBfI[/video]

Then, when you’re done faffing, get non-indexed down-tube shifters.

😀

Was about to say get Campag front mech and shifters and enjoy being able to trim the front mech as you go. Lovely. No rub at all.