Rear derailleur cable installation

Rear derailleurs use a cage fitted with two pulleys. The lower pulley pulls backwards to give tension to the lower section of chain. The upper pulley guides the chain to the sprockets. On mechanical-type derailleurs, a cable is secured at a pinch bolt. The cable is pulled to move the cage inward. A return spring in the linkage will move the derailleur the opposite direction when the cable is released.

Electrical systems use an electrical signal to trigger a motor to move the linkage. The derailleur is connected to a shift lever with a cable passing through housing. Bikes commonly use an index shifter that moves the cable a small predetermined amount with each click. Barrel adjusters can be located at the derailleur body or the shift lever. FREE U. Words by: Max Morgan. Being out on the trail with your derailleur not shifting through the gears properly can be an aggravating thing.

After reading this MTB How To , you should be an expert on how to install and set up your rear derailleur. Here we are going to be installing a Shimano XT M rear derailleur for a 1x11 drivetrain.

Installing a derailleur from Sram or Box Components follows a very similar method. Be sure to check the distance from the cog on all points of the cassette as shown. After you have the rear derailleur on your mountain bike installed and initial adjustments completed, it is time to install the shifting cable and fine tune your shifting.

At this point, you mountain bike should be shifting pretty well with maybe a little delay or clicking between gears.

Once you have everything installed correctly, it is time to fine tune the shifting on your rear derailleur. The barrel adjusters found on your shifting pods tighten and loosen your shifting cable and bring it to near perfect adjustment.

Shimano SIS rear derailleurs also have a secondary barrel adjuster on the rear of the derailleur. While spinning the cranks forward while the mountain bike is in the stand, click through your gears to see if you have any delays in shifting or jumping. Typically, you will have to tighten the cable tension 1 or 2 clicks to get things functioning properly. Turning the barrel adjusters counter clockwise will get you this affect. Only move the adjusters one click at a time during the fine tuning process.

We are done right? No…not quite yet. Unfortunately, most bikes shift differently in the stand than they do under load. It is always a good idea to get out and ride your mountain bike on inclines and flats in your neighborhood testing your shifting under load.

Make small adjustments with the barrel adjusters to account for suspension movement and chain tension. Shimano Rapid Rise rear derailleurs operate differently than your conventional rear derailleurs. Instead of naturally falling towards the smallest gear in the cassette, they pull inwards to the largest without any cable tension. When adjusting a Rapid Rise rear derailleur, you will have to manually push the rear derailleur to the smallest cog instead of the largest.

Adjust the high limit first and double check against the smallest as before, but to start with zero cable tension…you need to be in the easiest gear on your rear derailleur shifter pod.