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I wonder if anyone can help me this very annoying problem.
SRAM Force 1 (11 speed)
I am having problems with shifting back down through the gears from the largest to the smallest sprocket. There is no issue when shifting in the other direction, up the block
I have tried the following.
1. New (ish) cable and outer – stripped down and lubricated tonight the cable is clean and rust free.
2. I have taken out the back wheel and the rear mech’ is seen to work smoothly from side to side.
3. Cleaned / de-greased / lubricated the rear mech’ and worked it by hand moving the chain up and down the block. It moves up and down freely.
4. Adjusted the B screw.
The problem seems to lay with the cable where it passes through a very small hole in the barrel adjuster. I can ‘single click’ back down the block and the chain won’t budge from the largest sprocket although the cable becomes very slack. On a ride the way to change down gear is to lean forward and grab the cable!
Many thanks
Jon
New cable. Be sure you buy the genuine SRAM cable, it is smaller than the Shimano cables 1.1 vs 1.2mm iirc. The hole in the shifter is very small.
Some generic kits list for both brands which may work on MTB but doesn’t on road. Brake cables either work for me.
When there is no tension to pull the cable down the block it will stick. Obviously when you’re pulling it to go up the block, you put enough force into it to overcome the friction.
New cable (sram) and outer.
When you cut the outer, make sure you do it with an old inner in place, and use the proper tool. Badly cut outers will make this issue 5x worse. I usually file the ends of the outers down a bit too.
Make sure there are no sharp bends in the cable route.
There's a few threads on this issue already, e.g.:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/sram-road-hydraulic-shifter-outer-cabling-tips/
I'm a little confused by what you describe - if it's sticking at the barrel adjuster on the mech, how does pulling on the cable (on the downtube?) help?
My conclusion is that the setup is just really borderline: the spring strength in the mech is only just strong enough to overcome the friction in the shifter and cable, so any slight imperfection in the cable routing will cause what you describe. It doesn't help that the cable routing out of the shifter is so awful.
Making sure you use SRAM cables helps a little, but it wasn't a cure for the issue I had.
Mine has shifted fine through two years of muck, grit and minimal maintenance...
...Once I sorted out a tight bend in the outer where it joined to the shifter under the bar tape...
...and once I realised I had routed the cable into the mech incorrectly, you can install the inner cable and it *looks* correct even though it's wrong, which caused sticky shifting and also will not allow the gears to index correctly in a couple of gears...