chain tension/jumping

before i get whacked for ostensibly not reading through years of
threads to see if the problem was solved, i did, but still need more
help.

situation: bike is a 2004 specialized fsr full suspension. tacoed
rear wheel 3 weeks ago. replaced with new rim. chain appeared near
end of life so in same repair at lbs had chain replaced. went on
business travel and picked bike up night before 5 hour ride. next
morning chain is jumping all over the place. figure just the deraileur
not adjusted right. nope. bike either changes gears on its own
(especially on climbs), or "jumps" or "skips" frequently. at end of
awful 5 hr ride took it to another lbs. they diagnose problem as "not
worn cassette rings" and "not a maladjusted deraileur", but insetad a
"broken hanger". the xtr componentry on the fsr has a funny hanger,
but okay i had it replaced.

took bike out for 7 hr training ride this weekend, and same thing
happened. man it sucks. always worst possible time it
slips/skips/jumps, or whateverthe**** but it sucks let me tell you.
took it back to first lbs. they said let's take apart rear cassette.
they showed me that there was "play" in it, wherein i could turn the
gears individually when there should be no movement possible at all.
so he put a spacer in there and tightened 'em up. seemed logical.

mind you i change tires and rims and fix an errant spoke, but don't
take apart hub and cassette myself. adult supervision thing; so these
repairs were beyond me in every respect (tools, experience, confidence,
knowledge).

now it no longer ghost shifts from one gear to the other on me. but it
still skips, and badly. so every oh third or fourth rotation (can't
figure out the period), it "pops". i wonder if it is a bad link in the
chain; but the chain is brand new and how would i know?

could it be something else?

In my experience, it's your cassette. It might not look worn, but if your
old chain was stretched it will wear the cassette with it. Typically, I
always replace both the chain and cassette together. Sounds like it's time
to find a new LBS... it ain't easy to find a good one, that's for damn sure.

Dave

Ditto that, sounds like a new cassette is in order. Check for stiff
links in your chain by back-pedalling the cranks and watching the chain
as it leaves the rear mech, a stiff link should show up as a kink.
Don't try this whilst riding along...
Steve.

czb wrote:
before i get whacked for ostensibly not reading through years of
threads to see if the problem was solved, i did, but still need more
help.

situation: bike is a 2004 specialized fsr full suspension. tacoed
rear wheel 3 weeks ago. replaced with new rim. chain appeared near
end of life so in same repair at lbs had chain replaced. went on
business travel and picked bike up night before 5 hour ride. next
morning chain is jumping all over the place. figure just the
deraileur not adjusted right. nope. bike either changes gears on
its own (especially on climbs), or "jumps" or "skips" frequently. at
end of awful 5 hr ride took it to another lbs. they diagnose problem
as "not worn cassette rings" and "not a maladjusted deraileur", but
insetad a "broken hanger". the xtr componentry on the fsr has a
funny hanger, but okay i had it replaced.

took bike out for 7 hr training ride this weekend, and same thing
happened. man it sucks. always worst possible time it
slips/skips/jumps, or whateverthe**** but it sucks let me tell you.
took it back to first lbs. they said let's take apart rear cassette.
they showed me that there was "play" in it, wherein i could turn the
gears individually when there should be no movement possible at all.
so he put a spacer in there and tightened 'em up. seemed logical.

mind you i change tires and rims and fix an errant spoke, but don't
take apart hub and cassette myself. adult supervision thing; so these
repairs were beyond me in every respect (tools, experience,
confidence, knowledge).

now it no longer ghost shifts from one gear to the other on me. but
it still skips, and badly. so every oh third or fourth rotation
(can't figure out the period), it "pops". i wonder if it is a bad
link in the chain; but the chain is brand new and how would i know?

could it be something else?

Yes. Many 2004 FSRs had shift housing that were too short for the
suspension travel. Look under the bottom bracket and check to see if the
housing isn't too short there. My roommate had this problem, and nobody
else at the LBS figured it out until I checked it out. I am a god!

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
czb wrote:
before i get whacked for ostensibly not reading through years of
threads to see if the problem was solved, i did, but still need more
help.

situation: bike is a 2004 specialized fsr full suspension. tacoed
rear wheel 3 weeks ago. replaced with new rim. chain appeared near
end of life so in same repair at lbs had chain replaced. went on
business travel and picked bike up night before 5 hour ride. next
morning chain is jumping all over the place. figure just the
deraileur not adjusted right. nope. bike either changes gears on
its own (especially on climbs), or "jumps" or "skips" frequently. at
end of awful 5 hr ride took it to another lbs. they diagnose problem
as "not worn cassette rings" and "not a maladjusted deraileur", but
insetad a "broken hanger". the xtr componentry on the fsr has a
funny hanger, but okay i had it replaced.

took bike out for 7 hr training ride this weekend, and same thing
happened. man it sucks. always worst possible time it
slips/skips/jumps, or whateverthe**** but it sucks let me tell you.
took it back to first lbs. they said let's take apart rear cassette.
they showed me that there was "play" in it, wherein i could turn the
gears individually when there should be no movement possible at all.
so he put a spacer in there and tightened 'em up. seemed logical.

mind you i change tires and rims and fix an errant spoke, but don't
take apart hub and cassette myself. adult supervision thing; so
these repairs were beyond me in every respect (tools, experience,
confidence, knowledge).

now it no longer ghost shifts from one gear to the other on me. but
it still skips, and badly. so every oh third or fourth rotation
(can't figure out the period), it "pops". i wonder if it is a bad
link in the chain; but the chain is brand new and how would i know?

could it be something else?

Yes. Many 2004 FSRs had shift housing that were too short for the
suspension travel. Look under the bottom bracket and check to see if
the housing isn't too short there. My roommate had this problem, and
nobody else at the LBS figured it out until I checked it out. I am a
god!

Nevermind, you've had this for a while.

About the popping issue, replace the cassette, esp if the chain is new. I
have the same problem on one of my cassettes (that I keep neglecting to
replace), and it's because those cogs that I use the most are worn to
poopie. It's impossible for me to see, and that fact drives me nuts, too.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training