On my crosser/roadie, just changed the cassette and chain as the shifting was awful and they were slipping, well they had done six months commuting through the wettest winter ever, anyway new c&c and shifting still crap, so I replaced the mech hanger as I did have an off a few weeks back and landed drive side down, still no good. Cables all good and not fouling, mechs okay (tried a spare as well).

Every time I shift gear to go up the cassette it requires a good 2-3 turns of the barrel adjuster to change gear, almost as if the shifter isn’t taking enough cable.

Anyone got any useful tips or is it new shifter time? The ones I’ve got are about 5 years old and have done several thousand miles and are Tiagra 9 speed.

Thanks in advance.

Check your top jockey wheel on the mech isn’t fubared. Any excessive slop in that will create overshifting to make the chain move across the sprockets.

Yeah mech is fine jockey wheels in almost new condition, no play any where that there shouldn’t be.

Even though you say the cables are fine, I would then still point the finger at those then.

Shifters don’t wear out, there will be another problem.

Yep sounds like cable outer compression.

How could it be unless he’s using brake outer?

Outer not fully seated in ferrules, outer collapsed, kink in outer etc.

It could also be that the new hanger isn’t aligned. They often aren’t I find.

Ah. I would call those what you called them…not outer compression!

had a similar problem with a cross bike I got second hand.
It turns out that the bit out outer that went into the mech was too short. This stopped the mech moving down properly into small sporckets.
Took me quite a while to find the problem.

Looks like I’ll be trying some new outers, the cable is two months old and it all looks good, still the cheapest option to try. Thanks.

So you put 2-3 turns on the barrel adjuster, then what? Will it shift up to the next gear? Will it shift down again?

If you find that it continuously needs more and more tension, the cable may be breaking strand by strand inside the shifter.

Otherwise, change the outers. Modern shifters like a nice long loop of outer to the rear mech.

Assuming everything (e.g. outer ends, barrel adjuster, cable ends) are correctly seated and in the right place, I would also be changing cable and outer right now.

pdw – yeah pretty much needs 2-3 turns of the barrel adjuster each time to get a shift, then there is so much additional tension on the cable that you the chain won’t return to the smallest sprocket.

Going to try new outers and inners tomorrow, it always used to work fine, so I’m assuming the set up is fine.

When you shift gear can you see the mech move at all? Does sound like a kink in your cable housing but you might also want to open the shifter up and check the mechanism when you shift gear as well.

It will be friction in the final cable before the RD. Replace and all will be well. One of the most frustrating niggles to diagnose, but easily sorted.

That cable outer can look fine, but the ferules kink easily and cause tension. Nothin to do with the barrel adjusters.

Problem solved, new outers and inner fitted, turns out on closer inspection the outer from the shifter was split and i guess it was kinking and pinching the inner.

Thanks for the help, sometimes the simplest solution is overlooked, by me any way! 😳