SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

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DrShifty
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SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby DrShifty » Sun May 27, 2018 8:44 pm

My bike is a 2015 Specialized Roubaix SL4 with SRAM Rival Double-Tap gears.
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/rouba ... 4568-65442


The front derailleur has been behaving oddly over several weeks. It's well maintained, has worked perfectly since new and this is the first ever problem.

The normal operation is a short tap to shift to the small ring and a long tap (as in distance) to shift to the large ring. Now shifting up is only randomly successful. It shifts to the small ring as normal. Shifting to the large ring often has me holding the lever inwards and the chain not responding. Releasing the lever and trying again doesn't do it either.

What I've worked out is that when a long tap fails to shift up, I release the lever and then give it a small tap as if shifting down again. Something seems to fall into place and then it will shift up as it should.

I've given the lever mechanism under the hood a shot of lube, and the deralleur is also lubed.

I've tried adjusting with the cable adjuster but this has not got it working successfully.

Anyone have experience with the Double Tap system?
Any ideas?

am50em
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby am50em » Sun May 27, 2018 10:32 pm

Worn cable?

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Duck!
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby Duck! » Sun May 27, 2018 11:42 pm

Worn (fraying) cable, worn chain or worn chainrings, or any combination of them.

Or the shift paddle is about to fall off, but that's more common with the right (rear) shifter.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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queequeg
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby queequeg » Mon May 28, 2018 6:11 pm

Duck! wrote:Worn (fraying) cable, worn chain or worn chainrings, or any combination of them.

Or the shift paddle is about to fall off, but that's more common with the right (rear) shifter.
I've had the paddle snap clean off on both shifters.

I'd go with the same order of problem solving as you though. It's nearly always a worn cable, but I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.

I haven't had this issue with the Powerglide rings, which I still have on my 10-speed, nor do I have it with the Praxis rings I run on my SRAM Rival commuter setup now.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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Duck!
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby Duck! » Mon May 28, 2018 6:58 pm

queequeg wrote:.... I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.
Yup, thre early rings were shockers. And if you set the high limit to allow for the chainring flex & let the derailleur go out far enough, once the chain picked up & released the side loading, the ring would spring back, then of course with the limit being so far out would spit the chain off the outside.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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queequeg
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby queequeg » Mon May 28, 2018 10:12 pm

Duck! wrote:
queequeg wrote:.... I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.
Yup, thre early rings were shockers. And if you set the high limit to allow for the chainring flex & let the derailleur go out far enough, once the chain picked up & released the side loading, the ring would spring back, then of course with the limit being so far out would spit the chain off the outside.
Yep - every day! It was horrible trying to get the thing shifting where it changed up nicely, but didn't throw the chain off the outside every other shift. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong, then I happened to look down while shifting and saw the rings move under load.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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DrShifty
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby DrShifty » Wed May 30, 2018 3:39 pm

Thanks for the info everyone.
Duck! wrote:
queequeg wrote:.... I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.
Yup, thre early rings were shockers. And if you set the high limit to allow for the chainring flex & let the derailleur go out far enough, once the chain picked up & released the side loading, the ring would spring back, then of course with the limit being so far out would spit the chain off the outside.
Can you tell me what 'early' means in SRAM years? This is a 2015 bike. Is that early for these rings or is it OK. Changing the big ring might be part of the answer.

I was out this morning and took special notice of it. It changed up without too much fuss if I unloaded the pedals but any sort of load and it refused. When it did change it took a much longer push of the lever than it should, about as far as I could reach. I'm thinking this indicates the cable failing as you've said above.

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queequeg
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby queequeg » Wed May 30, 2018 4:20 pm

DrShifty wrote:Thanks for the info everyone.
Duck! wrote:
queequeg wrote:.... I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.
Yup, thre early rings were shockers. And if you set the high limit to allow for the chainring flex & let the derailleur go out far enough, once the chain picked up & released the side loading, the ring would spring back, then of course with the limit being so far out would spit the chain off the outside.
Can you tell me what 'early' means in SRAM years? This is a 2015 bike. Is that early for these rings or is it OK. Changing the big ring might be part of the answer.

I was out this morning and took special notice of it. It changed up without too much fuss if I unloaded the pedals but any sort of load and it refused. When it did change it took a much longer push of the lever than it should, about as far as I could reach. I'm thinking this indicates the cable failing as you've said above.
I had the chainring issues on my original SRAM Apex group, which was 2011-2013 with a 50/34 chainring set. The rings were just stupidly flexible.

The rings were like these ones :-

Image

WHen I wore out those rings, I switched to a Cyclocross Ratio, which were a 46/38 setup. The rings were similar pattern, but I guess the smaller size resulted in less flex.

After that, I reverted to a 53/39 setup, but with these rings

Image

These ones don't flex.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby Duck! » Wed May 30, 2018 8:37 pm

DrShifty wrote:Thanks for the info everyone.
Duck! wrote:
queequeg wrote:.... I also had major issues with my original SRAM chainrings, which were so flexy that as the chain was pushed onto the ramps, the ring would actually bend outwards and prevent the chain from climbing the ramps to the top.
Yup, thre early rings were shockers. And if you set the high limit to allow for the chainring flex & let the derailleur go out far enough, once the chain picked up & released the side loading, the ring would spring back, then of course with the limit being so far out would spit the chain off the outside.
Can you tell me what 'early' means in SRAM years? This is a 2015 bike. Is that early for these rings or is it OK. Changing the big ring might be part of the answer.
SRAM entered the road component market in 2006. Unfortunately, unlike Shimano they don't use groupset series codes to easily track component evolution, so it's a bit of guesswork. First-generation is from '06 launch to around 2010. First evolution was from around 2010 to about 2014, but these were only a minor improvement over the first generation. The latest rings, which appeared with the update to 11-sp. drivetrains, are a massive improvement over the earleir models.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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DrShifty
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby DrShifty » Thu May 31, 2018 2:30 pm

Thanks again for the info.

Queequeg, that top ring does look flimsy. Mine is much more bulky. I have to work out how to post pics since Photobucket went nasty, but this is the same as mine.
https://es.wallapop.com/item/bielas-fsa ... 0-28340862

You can also see mind if you go to the Specialized archive site I've linked to in the first post.


Duck, my bike is 11 speed cluster so maybe I don't have the lighter rings.

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DrShifty
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby DrShifty » Thu May 31, 2018 2:38 pm

OK, testing a hosting site.

Image

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queequeg
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby queequeg » Thu May 31, 2018 2:39 pm

DrShifty wrote:Thanks again for the info.

Queequeg, that top ring does look flimsy. Mine is much more bulky. I have to work out how to post pics since Photobucket went nasty, but this is the same as mine.
https://es.wallapop.com/item/bielas-fsa ... 0-28340862

You can also see mind if you go to the Specialized archive site I've linked to in the first post.


Duck, my bike is 11 speed cluster so maybe I don't have the lighter rings.
You don't have a SRAM crankset or chainrings, so the issue we are talking about with the SRAM rings doesn't apply here. However, who knows, the FSA rings might be flimsy too, but I would look to other causes before assuming it is the chainrings.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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DrShifty
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Re: SRAM Rival front derailleur not shifting smoothly

Postby DrShifty » Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:45 pm

Something else has come to mind. I while ago I fitted a Klickfix handlebar bag for the bike. When I put the bracket on I ran the left side cables to the top. Yesterday I had a closer look and saw that turning the bars to the left strained the cables. So I've moved them underneath. I've not ridden the bike yet - this morning it turned out too cold wet and windy - but am hoping this might see some positive results.

Here's the before and after pics.

Image

Image

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