I've had steadily worsening shifting probs over the past couple of
weeks: bike wouldn't stay in lowest gear, and tended to jump around in
the next two lowest. Went over it last night to see if I could figure out
the problem, and WOW the cable housing is shredded where it enters the
shifter. Guess that's the problem. So I replace the cable & housing.

Question 1: How tight do I make the cable? I'm having a hard time
figuring that out because it's not instantly curing my shifting issues.
Shifting is still pretty stiff, and unpredictable in the lowest gears. Is
there some magic formula I can apply to this to get the cable set up &
then go from there, as I think I may have more than one problem.

Which leads me to rather nebulous Question 2 - a) I don't *think* I have a
bent derailleur hanger (if I do, it's not obvious). However - b) the
jockey wheels don't line up vertically with the cogs on the rear cassette
in all gears. They're perfect in the lowest gear but kinda cockeyed in
the highest.

What are my next troubleshooting steps?

gabrielle (wrenchette #2)