As title - does anyone leave their bike in the smallest cog so there is less strain on the spring in the derailleur? I wondered if it makes any difference. My thought was that if you are supposed to wind off a torque wrench to prevent straining the spring then the same might apply to other things wot are springy... I was in the habit of doing it on my MTB as it was easy enough to get going initially and then change up once moving when left in the smallest cog; my road bike is harder to pedal in 12th and is clipless so it's awkward when starting in 12th so I don't. Also the road bike is AXS so I'm not even sure it has a spring....
Anyway - does anyone else bother or is it just idiots like me that think/do these things?
Small ring , smallest sprocket for the reasons you mention. Always.
Common sense says to leave it in smallest with spring unstretched but experience suggests a lot leave it in big/big after a salty shitty ride and wonder why the mechs seize
I'm not consistent about it, but most often one of the middle ones because there it won't jump out of gear when spinning the cranks backwards to wipe the chain clean/dry or after applying lube.
never even thought about it. it's in whatever gear that was last used.
PS I live up a hill so that will throw it all out !
If only Fox made derailleurs.
sirromj
Full Member
If only Fox made derailleurs
Not sure I understand. Derailleurs that creak? Or that the coating falls off?
I leave it on my 32 up front and the 16 at the back.
I don't really have much choice on that.
Derailleurs aren't precision instruments that might need calibration like Torque wrenches.
Whatever gear I arrived home on.
I usually drop it down into something lowish to make it easier to get moving next time, but only when I think about it.
I first read the thread title as what gear do you leave on your bike!
Smallest ring, largest sprocket. Rapid rise rear derailleur.
this used to be a thing waaaay back in the day although i was told it was about taking the tension off the cable not the spring.
Whatever gear I left it in. Probably a low ish one as I got taught as a kid to leave it in a gear you could start in next time.
Largest sprocket for travelling back from a ride. Smallest sprocket if it's getting stored like that so that any stickiness gets pulled by the leaver rather than the spring. After a clean and relube, middle of the cassette for storage so I can either ride straight from the door.
If the bike is not getting used in the next week it goes in the smallest sprocket.
Commuter/ used in the next week it just gets put away
If I’ve been out for a pootle it’ll probably be in about 8, if I’ve been on a proper ride the back wheel will probably have been off to put it in the car so it’ll be left in 12 because that’s what it will have been in to put the wheel back in.
maybe I’ve got too much faith in mech springs, but I can’t see it having much of an effect
I used to, but that was because I had SRAM 9 speed and it'd just stop working properly sometimes if I didn't. Now I don't bother and never had any issue with anything from 10 speed on
As TJ says, this used to be a thing to protect great cables back in the day before compressiinless housing was invented.
I haven't bothered for about thirty years.
Springs return to their original shape unless you go past the elastic limit.
Not sure I understand
What the fox says accurately captures my thoughts on the matter.
I leave it in a middling gear as it's most resistant to derailing when backpedaling it for cleaning/oiling/rolling backwards into the bike rack.
Except for the main bike, it's only option is 30*19, and no, I don't bother slackening off the belt tension. Or the rebound on my forks 🙂
I will answer later once I’ve jacked the car up so there is less strain on the springs
Yeah but you miss the point. The point is whether or not they’ll last longer if not stretched (shock springs are compressed anyway but the effect is probably the same) and obv it’s not practical to do that on a car every night - however I wonder if the shocks would last longer if you did…
i suppose it begs the question who’s had to change a derailleur because of a knackered spring or experienced slow shifting or something… maybe no one. 🤷♂️
Smallest sprocket because then the derailleur just clears the big **** off garden planter trough of postcrete that the ground anchor is set into.
🙂
The point is
My car is ten years old and has covered 116,000 miles on the original springs. How much different do you think the characteristics of those springs are now compared to ten years ago?
How much different do you think the characteristics of those springs are now compared to ten years ago?
a lot. they will be shorter and have a lower spring rate than new
The one that I was in when I got back to the car or garage
Yes. Springs fatigue and get both shorter and softer spring rate as a result. Use your favourite search engine. Loads of papers on it.
Wow. Never thought about it. I’ve been doing it wrong for 45 years. I just leave it in whatever gear I was in when I hit my drive.
In other news, I still leave my turbo charged engine running on my car for a couple of minutes before I turn it off. Maybe……
I remove the spring after each ride, clean and blow dry and place in a humidity controlled environment.
Middle of the cassette, makes cleaning/oiling the chain easier when I get back and is in a decent gear for when I next set off on the bike. On one of my bikes it also lifts the chain above the chainstay enough so that it doesn't rattle against it when on the bike rack. Has a tube protector on it anyway but just a habit I have.
...however I wonder if the shocks would last longer if you did…
Shocks (or more correctly dampers) don't care what position they are in statically, they don't have any pressure in them. It's the movement of the oil and seals that causes wear.
Yes. Springs fatigue and get both shorter and softer spring rate as a result. Use your favourite search engine. Loads of papers on it.
Is correct. It's why torque wrenches need to be periodically calibrated and that in motorsport the suspension springs have a service life (based on use and time on the car) before they are checked.
It’s meant to be in the smallest cogs, however sometimes it goes away in the last gear it was left in 😂
Been using 1 X for years now so smallest cog on the cassette (highest gear). I think a friend years ago told me about told me the derailleur spring thing and as someone who is prone to bouts of OCD it just stuck.
Havnt read preceeding...
I know that when I next go out on the bike I ll be cold and going uphill,so make sure I leave it in an easier gear, 1x12 maybe 4/5 from the easiest, 2 x11 Road will be small front and middle of cassette. Once I'm rolling can adjust to comfort without f*cking my gears up
I have to say I have never bothered and never had an issue
joshvegas - ha, yes.
I'm also 32:16.
Big ring at the front. Simply as my bikes are hung up - and the chain provides a bit of protection from 52 spikey spikes when I end up leaning under the bike then smacking my head on the chainring when I stand back up.
Torque wrenches are defo backed off though- as per others, they are a precise device, dérailleurs aren't.
Same as most above, the gear I got home from the pub in.
Edit: just checked and it's the forth cog up from the bottom.
Neutral, of course...
I hope you leave the brakes on!
When I was young and gullible I used to put the bike in the small/small combination so as not to wear out the springs. However I realised that the springs are deforming elastically and since I don't store my bike in an autoclave, unlikely to suffer from creep. So now the bike gets put away in whatever gear it was in at the time.
So leaving a spring under tension does nothing to alter its elasticity then is the consensus do we think?
If it is a concern simply pop it off the front chain ring? If you are riding regular then the rear mech will generally wear out/become damaged before your concerns become apparent.
Depends whether I arrive home from the uphill or downhill side.
What gear do you leave your bike in when you put it away?
Generally whatever I left home in, occasionally I'll have doffed my gilet though
Torque wrenches are defo backed off though- as per others, they are a precise device, dérailleurs aren’t.
"The most significant result from the test is that all of the wrenches remained within tolerance,
regardless of whether they were left at the minimum scale setting or at their maximum."
NB "Whilst the occasional user should adjust back to the minimum scale setting after use,
if you use the wrench in an environment such as a commercial garage, the choice is yours. Either way is
acceptable."
So leaving a spring under tension does nothing to alter its elasticity then is the consensus do we think?
Springs certainly lose tension after time
is this relevant to bicycles? Not in my experience
30 years of riding mountain bikes and I've never thought about this one. Though I don't think I've ever created a maintenance issue because of the gear I left my bike in on the previous ride. There's plenty of things to do maintenance wise before I'd worry about this.
Never bothered, never even thought about it. Never had an issue.
The only exception is that I have left bike in highest gear if I've left the bike unattended and unlocked for a few seconds in the vague hope that it will slow a thief down slightly
Running a 12 speed SRAM GX rear mech on a bike; I'd be overjoyed if spring tension was anywhere near the top 10 of things that could bork it. The spring is probably the strongest part of it, given they moulded the rest of it from cheese.
Never considered it.
The road bike gets dumped into the granny ring as otherwise the gravel driveway would be deadly. But other than that, depends how tired I was in the last few hundred metres to the door.
Never found it an issue.
Springs do creep over time, to the extent the drivers side on most cars will sit lower than the passenger after a few years because most cars only ever have one person in them. Even though driving time is comparatively low.
I guess that would be offset by the fuel tank usually being on the passenger side (for safety reasons, apparently), if we drove on the same side of the road as those crazy Europeans and Americans.
A low one so it's ready to jump on and cycle away next time.
To the ones that drop down - do you also remove the chain to preserve the jockey tensioner and decompress your shock and fork springs? Same principle.
Like others I've left it in gear for years and never had an issue with losing tension, cable stretch is easily adjusted out as well so I don't really see the issue.
Common sense says to leave it in smallest with spring unstretched but experience suggests a lot leave it in big/big after a salty shitty ride and wonder why the mechs seize
I'd say the mech position has no bearing at all on the outcome of putting a bike away covered in 'salt and shit'.
I will answer later once I’ve jacked the car up so there is less strain on the springs
Yeah but you miss the point. The point is whether or not they’ll last longer if not stretched (shock springs are compressed anyway but the effect is probably the same) and obv it’s not practical to do that on a car every night – however I wonder if the shocks would last longer if you did…
They might but the suspension bushes probably wouldn't thank you. I'd rather do 4 springs than umpteen bushes.
The spring thing is a new one to me. I leave it on whatever cog it's on when I stop. If that happened to be the smallest one it might occur to me to move it up nearer the middle for getting going again but that's about it.
Sounds like one of those things that is true in a very abstract sense but makes zero difference in reality.
You lot are really weird.
*Laughs in Rohloff*
Anecdotally, I replaced the suspension coil springs on my Land Rover because they had got shorter.
On the other hand, I've known of vintage trucks that have been parked up for decades which will have had some of the valves fully open with springs fully compressed all that time with no ill effect.
Whichever it's in when I'm done, but that is usually a higher gear by default
I leave it in whatever gear it was in which is usually a middling one. I've never had any issues, I've got 15 year old mechs that are still fine even when compared to new ones.
Springs fatigue and get both shorter and softer spring rate as a result.
Hmm. In practice? I replaced all the springs on my Passat after maybe 12 years and I noticed no change at all - and I'm very picky as I'm sure you all know 🙂 Changing the dampers had a big effect though, it added to the spring rate quite a lot so if you did both at the same time you might feel that change and attribute it to spring rate.
An easy one so I have a chance of doing a crank revolution without falling sideways. 😉
no_eyed_deer
You lot are really weird.
I'm with this poster.
Back in the 90s when I started all this mtb lark, we used to hang about in a bike shop, where the owner was really anal about maintenance and all that.. he taught us loads of silly things about fixing, cleaning and looking after our bikes. Never, not once ever, did he mention which gear/cog/chainring to leave our bikes in after use. Nosirree.
And Jim knew his stuff.
I did check my bikes that were hanging up and 2 of them were in smallest cog - but I know why - cos I had taken the back wheels off them at some point. That's one of the things I did learn from Jim - always shift into smallest cog before taking off the back wheel. Sage advice.
I did actually have a SRAM NX 11spd rear mech that was left in the largest sprocket for about a year and had completely lost all spring/return tension when I tried to start using it again. Since then I try and remember to drop it down a few but mostly forget and haven't had the same problem again so it was probably just borked in another way.
That’s one of the things I did learn from Jim – always shift into smallest cog before taking off the back wheel. Sage advice.
To be honest, if you need telling that, maybe stay away from bike maintenance 😉
To be honest, if you need telling that
To be honest, if you read me being told that back in the 90s as needing to be told it, maybe stay away from the English language 😛
To be honest, if you read me being told that back in the 90s as needing to be told it, maybe stay away from the English language 😛
Just pulling your leg princess xx
TLDR,
But a spring doesn't care whether its left compressed, stretched or at rest. As long as its elastic limits aren't exceeded, then its properties won't change!
I did actually have a SRAM NX 11spd rear mech that was left in the largest sprocket for about a year and had completely lost all spring/return tension when I tried to start using it again
Did it? Or, more likely, did the linkages seize?
In order for a spring to no longer be a spring you have to do stuff at the atomic scale to change its properties, be that thermal, chemical or radiological. Just putting it away dirty will do none of those barring some surface rust unless it's being kept in a damp, salty ejvironment (as in sea spray rather than a bit of static road salt).
Whichever one I finished in
Smallest chainring, biggest sprocket.
Disclaimer - I live at the top of a hill