This video has provided me with enough confidence to go home this evening and fu*k up my rear derailleur. I'm pretty pumped! Thanks guys!!

Amazing how you come round to someone. Doddy at first made me think I might have to skip GMBN but now he has quickly found his niche and has all the authority and tech know how you could want.

3:34 I have always wanted to see this and it's satisfying to see it now.

Doddy has a way of explaining , so everybody can understand ,he knows everything about Mtbs way to go mate 👊😃

I recently bought a new Cannondale CX1 with an SRAM Eagle 12 speed derailleur. After a 100 miles the chain stretched and shifting became sluggish, especially in the lower gears. Your tip on the B screw adjustment saved the day. I made the adjustment per your video, and now my shifts are crisp, snappy, and definitive. Thanks!

as if you knew i have this problem right now. and even the derailleur is the exact same i have. thanks GMBN :D

Seen many videos of this gear set up type. Doddy is by far the best at explaining it. Detail and the manner you teach is unsurpassed.

Well forget it I'm just taking my bike to the bike shop let them deal with it.

Thank you for this, I just got my first ever bike yesterday and the derailleur wasn't working as intended, you helped me go from knowing a bike consists of two wheels and pedals to being able to fix the problem without panicking :)

I know it's not great for chain retention or gear range but you can get away with a LOT less maintenance on 8/9speed derailleurs. I've seen peoples run the stock XT 8 speed derailleurs that came on their bikes for more than 15 years. Because of the larger distance between gears on the cassette, you have that much room for error/misalignment before it starts to negatively effect shifting.

Bought me and my fiancé an Axum Comp X. Mine was near perfect off the shelf (from Walmart!), while hers was having trouble staying in gear at the higher end. I was getting ready to take her bike to a bike shop this morning when I came across this video. You probably just saved me a load of money 💰 😂

I keep getting the gears changing up one gear, especially went going up hill Thanks for the video

Bruh..... This tutorial was FN spot on 👏I went to my local shop for a quick tune but due to covid, the owner was backed up for 5 days and shredding couldn’t wait. Huge props for the training. Not only did I save time but money 💰 Send me some stickers for the garage 💪

I feel like you should have addressed shifting problems that only manifest themselves under high torque/high load. Like when really hammering it uphill. This is hard to notice when just hand cranking it in your garage.

Very good video ! Well structured. Great review of the "sequence" of adjustments. They must be done in order. Well done and helpful !

GMBN is my city.

you guys have taught me more than i ever learnt in school!

I appreciate this channels videos and all but honestly they somehow manage to make even the easiest repairs sound like rocket science. It's just so hard to keep up with when there are channels that explain the same thing within a minute.

just moved from small hybrid to a large MTB in last few days i'm still at the standing back and admiring it phase...(i don't have a life beyond family friends work and bikes) he's a pretty one :)

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.

I like that with subtitles on, the opening graphic has [WOOSH] when the GMBN logo appears. If my mechanical skills could be subtitled it'd be "prrrrrrrrrrp"

Thumbnail looks like Doddy is wearing a sleeveless shirt with tiny little arms

Finally got my limit screws sauced up by myself!! Thanks guys!! I've been riding for years and even racing, but I hate tedious things and never had the patience before. I would always make it so much worse and take it to friends or a shop, BUT I just got her shifting like butter!

My new favorite channel on KZfaq

Howard F I replaced my 10 speed chain with a 11 speed one. & discovered much better shifting. I adjuster the the short cage 10 speed derailleur to clear my new cassette with a 36 tooth granny gear. Now a 86 years I can climb hills easier.

This was helpful and i fixed poor shifting, thanks!

The video is technical but very helpful. My derailleur may need to be replaced, but I can perform the techniques that were demonstrated in the video. I ride a 4" fat tire bike for 40 minutes every morning, and the derailleur may be un-adjustable.

Great video thanks. I did all this and still had lazy shifting. I'm a bikepacker and needed to lengthen the gear sheath between the shifter and down bar to fit the tent under the handlebar. In doing so it reduced the friction further and solved the problem. You hinted at this in checking for friction generally.

Legend, best video on KZfaq for setting gears. Searched through Google before I got fed up and realised should of just checked you guys out. Simple, easy to understand and follow. Thank you very much.

This really helped me

Perfect timing. I crashed last night and bend the hanger, i manged to bend it back on first try with the spanner and the derailleur is shifting fine again

His wheel looks bent

I struggled trying to find a video that explained this quickly and properly. THANK YOU!!!!! This was the best tutorial ever!!!!! Thank you for the visual demonstration of how the adjusting screws and derailer operate. Because of this I was able to do the proper adjustments one the first attempt v.s. last night, when I struggled for an hour and a half playing with the damn thing and actually making it worse!!!😂

Most informative video I’ve found on the subject yet. Thank you very much

I just removed the chain and did reasembeld and now its perfectly working 😅

To avoid the cable to get longer, when you don't use your bike, place the chain in the smallest gear in order to remove all the tension of the cable

Nice to see a bike being worked on that looks like it has been used. I see so many videos where these guys are working on brand new bikes that haven't touched the ground. They won't encounter some of the issues you'd see on a well ridden bike.

If you glance casually at the thumbnail it looks like Doddy is wearing a muscle shirt/wife beater... hard to unsee 😂

Many, many thanks, mate. I am in awe of you expertise.

Thanks for the tips! I had my cable outside the guide and had been stuck for a while on it. One adjustment after watching your video and fixed!

once aligned keep it clean..muckoff products or similar. my shirting problems were related to buildup of dirt/lub mix.

Fantastic video! Thank you for sharing a wealth of knowledge, succinctly. You have a gift, being able to bridge the gap of technical details & subject-specific jargon so laymen grasp new concepts. Thx

fixed my sons gears after watching this. a first for me. cheers.

What might cause a bike to have trouble shifting into one or two gears - (in the middle of the set - not the highest or lowest gear- 3rd gear of 7 total for example) only but shift into and out of other gears fine?

It helps me a little bit because my shifitng up is better now but shifting down is the problem

Derailleur witchcraft debunked in one video. Three problems in one video for me having rebuilt whole backend (the bikes) So much more helpful than the bike shops I seek help from to enable me to buy the right parts. Bravo Senor!

I've had trouble with the park tools before for example the Allen wrench set just fell apart completely

Understand it, still think it’s a dark art, that only bike mechanics are taught, like the force. Cheers for the video.

Please do a video on fixing the issue of the chain shifting into gears when backpedaling. Am using a Shimano Deore RD-M615 rear derailleur with clutch. Thank You.

One thing to note that took me a while. Screwing the adjuster in makes the cable loose, while unscrewing it makes the cable tighter.

Excellent video bro

The part that I use for shifting gears( the part on the handle bars) doesnt lock in place on a specific gear, other than gear 2, everywhere else it just keeps sliding from either 1 to 2, then from 3 to 8, it wont actually stay at any specific gear

great stuff, managed to solve my problem and complete beginner! thanks

I had shops try to adjust my derailleur ans shifting and it still sucks. I probably need to go over all these steps again. Thank a lot for this!

What is the cause of your chain moving up a couple of gears (smaller sprockets) if you pedal backwards?

I just put a hex key into the slot where the derailleur is attached to the hanger and bend it from there. Works fine and doesn't require taking off the derailleur

Great video, very clear and informative. And... cool wristwatch, and hair!

Awesome. Good imparting of knowledge; efficient and to the point.

Excellent video thank you 🚲

So excited to take my cycle to the shop to let the experts deal with it and make be overpay them😊

Have to disagree with Doddy. If you look at Shimano's design docs and white papers, it's the lower jockey wheel that does the shifting and aligning. This is evidenced by the fact that the lower has no side to side play but the upper slides side to side by a good amount. I also believe it is better to disconnect the shift cable from the derailleur before setting the upper and lower limits.

Love your videos Doddy. The knowledge you have and the way you make it simple explained just does it for me. Thanks

Great video very clear! I have recently bought a Marin Nail Trail. It has SRAM 1x the bike is great but the gears dick around. The cable pops off the shifter when in first gear you have to take off the shifter cover on the handle bars and pop it back on. I fixed this problem with cable tension but now can't get the bottom two gears the highest gears. I am not sure if I have Fxxx it up or there's a problem with the gear system I can not fix without replacement parts.

“Align the mech hanger to the wheel” That’s the blind leading the blind on my bike.

Awesome video! Helped me tremendously! Thank you.

thanks for a great explanation.

5:51 jeez, so THAT'S why.... thanks doddy, I must have missed that/forgotten all about that when replacing the shifter cable

Thank you. Excellent video.

im new at biking, so guess i'll be bringing my mountain bike to bike shop.

I have just started mountain biking and I don't have a lot of gear. Is there any chance you could make a video of which accessories to get and in which order e.g. 1. Bike 2. Helmet................

Yea, my gears are having an issue staying in one gear, shifts on their own. The chain is new as well

I just installed a new groupset today and up-shifting is fine but down-shifting is really slow. What could be causing that? Everything is brand new including the chain, cassette, derailluer, shift cable and housing and shifter.

thank you. that helped.

I knew this.. just watched it cuz who doesn't love the sound of shifting gears??..

How to solve shifting problems in 3 easy steps: 1. remove shitty index shifters & throw them away, (or sell them to suckers on ebay) 2. install good friction shifters, the "ratchet" kind that go click click click when you turn the lever, this "micro-indexing" is all the indexing you'll need. Get vintage Shimano if you can, if not, SunRace makes some decent knockoffs of the old Shimano design. 3. adjust the derailleur travel. 4. (bonus step) enjoy how your derailleur keeps working without needing to be readjusted every 2 miles! Seriously I changed my rear derailluer about 6 yrs ago, (dumped the front derailleur entirely) I went from SRAM to Shimano & I hated the SRAM grip shifters, but new Shimano shifters were too expensive, so I put on an old Shimano thumby I had found to save money. I adjusted the derailleur once and have not touched it since, except to take up slack from cable stretch, it still shifts perfectly 6 yrs later!

I was abt to go on o 14 mile ride and saw that my gears weren't shifting this helped a lot thanks

Do you have a video on front derailure troubleshooting?

One big advice to slacken the chain before setting limit screws. Trust in the adjustment screws

Love your video's. very informative ! Learning so much 😄

Very informative and professional ! 👍

Thanks!

Can you do a video on how to tune/adjust your gears

Tysm it helped me adjust the gear to able to reach the 7th gear before it couldn't 😅

Thanks Doddy, a very good guide to a process that is often misunderstood. I do wonder why hub shifting hasn't taken off more for mountain biking though. I recently saw a road bike with an 11 speed hub shift which is only 1 less than a SRAM Eagle system and you have no derailleur to worry about. I admit to not being well informed about these things though, perhaps there isn't a good spread of gears? Or they weigh a ton? Seems an ideal system for the mud and grime of mountain biking. I assume there's a major drawback that's stopping it being used.

That Oakley watch is AWESOME!

THANKS U GMBN! 😂my gears actually work now👍

Learnt a lot - thanks!

Hallelujah a well made edited video

I like your bike.

Really helpful, cheers doddy 😁

Excellent bud, never adjusted gears before, currently grinding going up to the point i need to jump two or three up and then roll back down to find the gear i want. That's that one sorted. Never stop learning, even at my age ; } If one was building a touring bike, what size freewheel or cassette would one want?

A sixth shifting problem into the third and largest gear at the crankshaft: a front derailer problem. (Excusez que j'ecrivais l'anglais pour "derailleur", mais je n'aime pas emprunter les mots d'autre langues et en melanger parmi mon anglais.) The cable pulling down on my front derailer pulled it directly downward when on gear two, the middle gear of the set. In order for the cage to move away from the frame, the cable had to pull outward as well as downward. When I received the Decathlon-made bike from Walmart, the cable routing did not do that. It pulled the cable straight down in second gear and could not rotate the parallelogram linkage to move the cage outward. I was able to remove the cable from the plastic guide beneath the bottom bracket and reroute it around the outer projection of the bracket so that its tension now has an outward component. Now, it shifts into third gear.

Congrats for 600k subs!!!

If you’re going to put a wrench to the derailleur hanger I suggest you first remove it and put it in a vise. I was adjusting mine and tore the threads n the hanger. Had to order a new hanger

good job keep it up

Nice watch mate

Thanks

about gearing im using a grip shifters 3x7, and i hear 2 clicks before it gears is it the cable?

With me the low limit screw doesn't do anything. It doesnt touch the thing it's suppused to touch. And it it doesn't shift with 3 gears, it is already on the smallest cog (10th) when it's suppised to be on 7th gear. What do i do?

I have similar noises but I don't understand why. I only removed the rear wheel so I can put some grease on the quick release. and now the derailleur sounds like the example when the chain is too tight.