Bike Shifters Won't Shift - The Most Common Cause
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2015
- I take apart a trigger shifter and show the most common reason why old shifters won't shift. This applies to both mountain bike trigger shifters as well as road bike STI type shifters. I fix the shifter in the video and include links to a couple videos showing how to fix these types of shifters without even taking them apart.
Here are some of the videos I have done on fixing stuck shifters:
Clean, Lube & Repair Shimano Integrated Brake Shifters (Brifters)
• Clean, Lube & Repair S...
Fix Suntour X-Press Accushift Plus Shifters - Stiff/Not Shifting
• Fix Suntour X-Press Ac...
How To Fix STI Shifters (Brifters) That Won't Shift
• How To Fix STI Shifter...
Repair Shimano STX RC Trigger Shifter That Won't Shift
• Repair Shimano STX RC ...
How To Fix Shimano 200GS Trigger Shifters Super Easy!
• How To Fix Shimano 200...
How To Repair Shimano Alivio Trigger Shifter That Won't Shift
• How To Repair Shimano ...
How To Repair Rapid Fire Trigger Shifters On Bike Easy Fix
• How To Repair Rapid Fi...
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Local bike shop advised me to throw away the bike and buy another - "gears and shifters are shot and cannot be fixed. It would cost you less for another bike" . 3.47 mins on your video and ten minutes with a can of WD40 and the gears and shifters are working fantastically. Nothing wrong with them at all. Well done my friend and thank you so much for your video. I truly appreciate it. Paul
lol of course the bike shop said that. Bike shops, like auto mechanics, will say what they need to tell you to spend more money. If they didn't and just helped us genuinely fix things with little to no hassle, they wouldn't be in business xD aaah capitalism... a huge scam no matter how you slice it. Yes this video was extremely helpful. Much obliged Paul
Learning for ourselves is looooong over due
@@vincentdomenici8557 If the bike shops were more honest, people would be much more inclined to visit them and spend more money. Find the honest ones and give them your business :) Capitalism = choice. In any other system, you don't get that choice.
I love the creativity of local shops. Throw away a whole system of mechanisms and big chunks of bars for just one malfunctioning mechanism.
Capitalism baby
I'm rehabbing a Trek 930 made in the '90s. Your videos have saved me a bunch of money and frustration. Thanks, RJ
This technique saved me $$ by salvaging an older Shimano 105 shifter set. I would have either had to try to find shifters from the same era or replace the whole crank set with new parts. It took me 1.5 cans of WD-40 and a good hour of perseverance, but in the end they are clicking like champs. Thanks again, RJ!
same here!
Thank you!!! You saved me money and time from having to replace my brand new 1996, Shimano Rapid Fires! This was the exact problem I had plus it was loose. I had no idea that the nut tightens the opposite way. Fearing was going to break it I let it be but realised today that nothing else was holding it in place until I noticed that lefty was tighty this time! I took the cap off before and it didn't even dawn on me that it needed to be cleaned out! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm replace the fork with a suspension and that video has been a lot of help, too! That will be done by the end of the month when all of the parts come in!
You just saved me a fortune at the bike repair shop! Gears shifting great now, such an easy fix. Cheers👍
Thank you for your help. My uncle had a new bike with the same problem and was about to take it to service before I showed him this video. Works like a dream
Your little trick saved me literally minutes before was about to sell the bike. In the cold weather, the shift wasn't shifting to the highest range.
Thank you again sir.
Thank RJ, I always enjoy watching yr videos. Your videos provide very helpful and practical solutions to a bike problems. Last week, my 25 years KHS mtb with shimano xtr shifter/brake and xt shifter (3x8 speed) giving me sluggish shifting both front and rear and occasional stuck at front derailleur and lever. Bicycle shops quote terrible price just to replace the shifters/brake cables. Eventually, base on all information on you tube, especially your channel, I gather enough courage to buy some shifter/brake housings and cables to DIY to fix the bike. After spending 6~8 hrs, finally get to fix 95% problem. Now my bike ride buttery smooth. We had 7 bicycles, mostly old and 2 new(foldie and 20" mtb). DIY boosted my confidence carry future maintenance/minor repair of these bicycles, certainly save me some money and lots of trouble on the road. My family of 5 enjoy casual cycle. Surprising Shimano chain/crank and rear sprockets wear much even after 25 years. Thanks again for your videos.
Thank you so much, you absolutely made my day. The Shimano Deore XT ST-M510 shifter on the right side of my KTM Veneto Cross only worked more or less on the lower 5 but kept slipping on the upper 4 gears. Had inspection done at a bike shop recently, and it still didn't work when it came back. Even thought of replacing the entire brake/shifting unit, only to find that you only can get it in used condition on ebay. Now after having watched your vid I have just opened the cover and sprayed some WD-40-alike lubricant, did some switching up and down, put the cover back on and did a short test ride. I'm so happy I'm finally able to shift to all gears again, thanks again, you really helped me out.
Thanks for this! Just fixed my vintage 1998 Trek 6500 using this method. I thought I was going to have to replace the shifters or perform some complex disassembly/reassembly. Considered going to a bike shop but they are are still backed due the covid bike panic of 2020. You are awesome!
RJ, you've taught me so much over the last few months. But this video really blew me away. I just did this today and fixed a Deore LX shifter from 1991. Thanks so much.
@Locust Hypnosis Sorry if this is obvious, but the biggest lesson I learned (this was my first time taking apart shifters) was to loosen the cable from the derailleur first, then loosen the barrel adjuster all the way out of the shifter, THEN hopefully there's enough slack in the cable so that you can remove the plastic cover from the main part of the shifter. Oh, and the main screw that holds the mechanism "sandwich" together is reverse-threaded. Turning it counter-clockwise tightens the sandwich. Make sure that it's not so tight that it affects pawl release, but tight enough to keep the springs from popping out. It's one of those weird hard-to-quantify adjustments, similar to the tightness of cones on a loose bearing hub.
Thank you RJ!!you made another winner.your expertise on bike repair is excellent! ThAnk you for your advice on trigger shifters!!
I really appreciate this video a lot! Helped me out big time- I went with using tri-flow chain lube and just clicking back and forth until it seeped in. THANK YOU RJ THE BIKE GUY!!!
Nothing like that moment when you get the shifters to click after an hour or more of fiddling w/them. Usually have to high-five yourself though because everybody else, including the dog, has gotten bored and left the garage.
I am at that point right now..... but they still don’t work. Working for at least an hour, nothing. It’s actually worse.
@@backyardtropicals1157 Sometimes have to let soak overnight and hit it fresh the next morning. 9 times out of 10, they'll break free and start working. Can open up and scrape "plaque" with a pointy metal tool in extreme cases. Also try and get pawls to move manually by manipulating with same pointy tool then spray with grease. That almost always does the trick.
@@jeremydwyer2724 thanks for the tip!
i watched a video and was able to fix everything, except the smallest cog on the peddle (front sprocket I think) won’t shift to the largest cog on the rear. The middle and largest cog on the front do shift to the largest cog on the back. I think I need to adjust the “b” screw, except..... I don’t have a b screw. There just isn’t one on my bike.
When the chain is on the smallest cog in front, the chain is I think too close to the largest cog on the back, and when I press and hear the click on the thumb shifter, it just rubs against the side of the largest cog in the back, without shifting. If you have any tips, I would really appreciate it! I will be mountain biking next Saturday with my friends and want it to be fixed by then (glad I discovered there was a problem sooner rather than later) Thanks again :)
@@backyardtropicals1157 What sort of rear derailleur are we talking about? It may be that someone let your B screw all the way out and it maybe fell off. Unlikely that it just wouldn't have a B screw unless it's pretty old. That would seem to be the culprit based on what you are describing- particularly since it will hit largest rear cog when in middle and largest up front. See what your chain tension is like when you are in small up front and trying to go to largest at rear.
Found this link that may be of help in the event that you truly are B screwless by design...
www.mtbr.com/threads/help-no-b-tension-screw-on-shimano-tourney-rear-derailluer-rd-ft30.863294/
Good luck.
@@jeremydwyer2724 I got overwhelmed 😆
Thank you so much for helping me :)
If you push the chain up it goes up about an inch
It's a Shimano 7 speed. The bike is super old (almost 25 years old) but it has been garage kept and not really used so it's in great shape.
I discovered that when on smallest cog up front and trying to shift to largest in back, it easily makes the shift if after it clicks to first in the rear (the thumb shifter clicks) if the thumb shifter is pushed in more, the rear derailleur moves over more and it shifts pretty easily. I know I didn't leave myself much time but any ideas on that? I can't really make heads or tails of the link but thanks so much for helping me
Thank you for this video! You saved me some money on purchasing a new shifter.
This video is very helpful. My 7 speed rear shifter wouldn't shift out of low gear but it's now working! My Raleigh MT 600 is 28 years old and hasn't been ridden for at least 15 years so. It took awhile to free up the shifter. I kept working the shifter and it slowly started working in the low gears. I sprayed WD40 and let it sit overnight and got it shift to 4th gear. The next time I sprayed WD40 and covered the shifter with plastic wrap and it did a much better job of penetrating the built up crud. Thanks again for a great video.
Thank you! I was about to order a new shifter, didn't even think of cleaning the insides. Works like a dream.
Thank you very ,very much ! I cleaned the shifter like you told. Thus I served money. It work fine now !!!
Very nice of you, that you share your knowledge with us 🙏👍
Perfect tutorial! Not fluff, easy to follow, and effective! Thanks!
This worked - and now so does my bike!! Shifter works like new!! Big thanks!!!!
Super helpful. Got me back on the road and shifting away - many thanks.
This actually worked! Saved me about 40 bucks, many thanks.
always the best bicycle videos, you and park tool are the greatest. thank you
Thank you Thank you!!!! it worked...I was about to buy new sifters, and this saved me lots of money.
Thanks for this video. Both my derailleurs on my mountain bike no longer shifted. After spraying with WD40 and working the cam, they now completely work. I was thinking the cable was stretched. Glad I watched this video.
Thank you very much. Very clear explanation. I was afraid thinking I had to buy a new one and now, I see, there is a solution for this problem (even the one I have is a Deore LX like the one you show).
Once again, thank you!!!!
dude, it worked!! I was a little confused at first because the paw was actually pushing a white round piece and I thought that was the action but I kept fiddling with the paw and noticed that it was not engaging the gear. So i squirted wd40 all in it and worked the paw til it came free. Now i just got to watch some video on how to adjust the rear derailleur
Would have needed this video three years ago ;-) Again: nice video!
Thanks a Ton! Getting frustrated adjusting my derailleur. Last resort were the shifters and it worked in less than a minute.
Thank you - that saved me from pulling my hair out. Easy fix but only when you know how. Solved my Shimano SIS shifter problem in 10 minutes, front and rear.
Here I was thinking my shifter was just all stuffed up from crashing too many times. Been having this issue for months and just put up with it. Decided to take a proper look since I thought I'd need to buy a new one, but found this video and fixed it right up. Just spayed it full of degreaser then full of lubricant and it's working as good as ever.
Just fixed my shifter! Thanks to you! 😉
The best video ever! Thanks for all your advice. Cheers from Chile.
Great video on how to troubleshoot and repair stuck gear shifter.
Hi, thak you very much. You saved me a lot of time and money, because I fixed two bikes today thanks to your video.
this was very helpful. thanks a lot. I've got shimano rapid fire shifters. there pretty pricy in replacing. my 1 through 4 gear stopped catching all together and the shifter caught after gear 5. so I fallowed the instructions, and about 4 minutes of using just a dab of pbr blaster. takes the grease away completely. it worked awesome. ad some lower gear grease. which is an 80w90 haven't had a problem since. thanks so much.
Awesome, thank you! Was going to take my 20+ year old Trek to the bike shop but shot some WD into the shifters and probably saved myself $100!
Thank you!!
This is great , I have a Trek 930 Singletrack w / this very issue , I wish I hadn’t tried to fix it before watching this video , I just hope I can get it back together but anyway you just gained a new subscriber , Thank you for posting this .
Just did this and it fixed it! Slightly different shifter. Hardest thing was getting the spring that tensions the shifter into plac used a pick tool. A few hours and curses and it works!
Big thanks - this really helped me. Clearest I found!
Dang! I picked up a used Trek 7000 with Deore LX components in really nice shape with a bad shifter for $20. Didn't know how to fix it. Your video gave me the solution. Pretty awesome. Got the bike cheaper than what the guy paid for the brand new tires!!
Great advice! Thank you for posting this video!
Thanks for the video! Fixed my shifters today!
Thanks for the info, helped me save 3 shifters..
you gave me confidence to open a shifter (it was daunting!)
AND
I fixed an old bike my girlfriend owns
thanks for this!
Exactly what I needed. Thank you.
Worked great for me! You saved me money!! Thank you!!!!
I was amazed that this worked on my 20 year old shifter which was not working. I just opened up the bottom cover and spray a decent amount of WD-40 and it was working within 30 secs.
You saved me some money and effort which is always good. Thanks for posting!
Cheers
Etops
cool
Cheers for this, been searching for "repair your own bicycle" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Viyackson Yenacob Review - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some decent things about it and my brother in law got excellent success with it.
Etops Flight 👍🏽
I just picked up a free bike from my neighborhood and I was going to throw away the front shifter because it wouldn't shift to the third gear even after adjusting the derailleurs. I followed your instructions and it works perfectly fine now! THANK YOU!
thank you because I saved and I don't have to spend money, I went to the local bikeshop and they recommended me to replace it with a new one but it's a good thing I watched this video
I can't thank you enough I hope ur happy with what ur doing
Great video I've saved some money thanks to you!!!
Thanks for the videos! Was very easy following you.
this channel is up there with Park Tool tutorials . bravo
Just what i was looking for, thanx
After watching your video, I was able to fix my bicycle with lots of WD 40. Thank you very much for posting this very useful video.
Perfect, sorted it out straight away!
Thank u for sharing ur knowledge with us!
This literally fixed my bike thank you
Thanks for this! It worked for me!
Thanx a million 🙏 I saved a lot of money 💰 $$$$ on my mountain bike by doing it this way. I almost went out to buy a new shifter.
Thank you Sir! I was about to buy a new bike. This worked!
THANKYOU RJ this was so useful
Thank You, this Video help me alot and save my Money 🤗
Thank you so much you saved me from probably being ripped off at a
Local bike shop
My front derailleur wouldn't drop to the smallest disk. After tinkering & watching 2 dozen videos I began to figure I had a faulty quick fire shifter, seeing as the bikes practically brand new. I loosened & turned the shifter over & WOW! There's an A & B setting. Flipped it back to A, complete full range of motion through all 3 crank discs.
This really helped! Thank you
thanks i just fixed mine just bu watching your video 👍🏼
Thanks for the info! Just got a Janis dual shock but gears wouldn’t shift, did what you said and now shifts like new!
After a lot of research on YT to fix my bike's rear derailleur shifting issue I finally found the issue and solution! Couldn't find a YT video on this matter! I explain it below:
1) The most common type of housing has an inner thin wires tube and an outer plastic covering tube. Apparently after a while because of pressure the outer plastic tube jams and the inner tube wires are exposed that can get crushed by pressure on ferrels! This causes a serious metal-metal fraction between the cable and thin wires of housing, worse than any dirt or rust can do!
2) Loosen the shifter cable and release the cable at the derailleur (watch YT guides) and through all housings to free all housing parts.
3) You have to cleanly cut the exposed thin wires of housing to align it with plastic cover tube. Be careful not to block inner empty hole (where the cable passes) by crushing the wires. You need a sharp wire cutter (or a specialized tool from bike shop!) Then clean up both ends of housing and lube a bit.
4) Insert the cable in all housing parts and through the derailleur cable clamp. Since you lost some housing length, to have the same tension on the cable at a particular gear you need to pull the cable out of derailleur cable clamp a bit compared to what it was before. This needs to be fine tuned to have perfect correspondence between shifter and derailleur for all gear range (watch YT guides).
Hope it helps someone.
Thank you sir. Let me try this right now.
Some penetrating oil, your vid, a bit of patience and the shifter is working again. Thank you. -V
Thank You. You solved my problem.
My gears are virtually identical to the ones in this video, lmao
I wanted to get my bike serviced and mentioned to the that the gearshift wasn't working right - it's 600 bucks for a service but they advised me that it'd be a grand to fix the gear shift trigger alone! (I live in South Africa, so that's not a lot in US$ but it was way more than I had to spare) so, thanks, now I can finally fix the issue myself!
I unfortunately took apart my shifter before watching this video and now have 30 different pieces laying on my floor :0 . Now I have to try to re assemble . Cheers for video
May be easier to buy a new one.
Great, it works! Thanks.
Thanks for the video, worked!
cool
nice video. you helped me a lot
Thanks for your video , hope it works for me.
It's work!!
Thank you.
Thx now my downhill bike shifter is working thx👍🚲
Very helpful!
Thanks you save my shifter !
People think that WD-40 is a lubricant because it clears all the gunky crap in whatever hinge or joint you use it in and without the hardened grease, the mechanism is smoother. After you use WD-40, use a real lubricant like Tri-Flow or something.
Not so fast--after using WD-40 and freeing up the clogs of dirt and harden greases use air pressure to blow the debris out bicycles gear case. Start with a clean gear case then add lube of you choice.
Amazing, worked me!!!
thanks, I am from Brazil and fixed my old shimano 200gs.
great vid ive got a diamond back avenir with sti shifters im fixing great info
Thank you, life saver!
Thank you.
Very usefull video.,thank you,.
This video saved my live
Just fixed my bike! Thank you! 1:19
That demo tops right 👍
Thank you!
Saved my bacon man, thanks!
Thank you kindly
You are awesome thank you!
Thank you!!😊
Great video thanks A- Lot 👍 just the information I was looking for!…