Gear slippage when pushing hard...

[dave_s13]

youngsyr said:

dave_s13 said:

Just take the fecker back to Halfords and don't accept it back until they either sort it, give you a new bike or, ideally, give you a refund. You can then go out and buy a proper one!!

Only need to spend another 150-200 and you cold have something infinitely better. Spending that little bit more than you'd like on a push-iron makes a LOT of difference, up to a point anyway.

I think I may be out of the statutory refund period unfortunately, but they do offer a free check-up.

In any case, upgrading would double the cost of the bike, and I'm only using it for around 15 minutes a day, mostly on tarmac. It's not like I need an all singing, all dancing, carbon-framed, wonder machine and I doubt a bike that costs twice as much will be twice as good. I'd be perfectly happy with it if it could just hold all of the gears.

Honestly, when you're talking a £200 bike vs £400 bike they are pretty much twice as good, will last twice as long and just feel "better".

Good luck getting it sorted anyway

[youngsyr]

dave_s13 said:

youngsyr said:

dave_s13 said:

Just take the fecker back to Halfords and don't accept it back until they either sort it, give you a new bike or, ideally, give you a refund. You can then go out and buy a proper one!!

Only need to spend another 150-200 and you cold have something infinitely better. Spending that little bit more than you'd like on a push-iron makes a LOT of difference, up to a point anyway.

I think I may be out of the statutory refund period unfortunately, but they do offer a free check-up.

In any case, upgrading would double the cost of the bike, and I'm only using it for around 15 minutes a day, mostly on tarmac. It's not like I need an all singing, all dancing, carbon-framed, wonder machine and I doubt a bike that costs twice as much will be twice as good. I'd be perfectly happy with it if it could just hold all of the gears.

Honestly, when you're talking a £200 bike vs £400 bike they are pretty much twice as good, will last twice as long and just feel "better".

Good luck getting it sorted anyway

Well, for all I know maybe they are twice as good, but it will also hurt twice as much if it's stolen.

Will take it in to Halfrauds this weekend and see what they make of it. Failing that there's a couple of decent bike specialists around so I'll pop in and see them.

[hman]

my hardrock sport cost me £300.

my mates santa cruz with hope components and other assorted tat cost him £1300

his bike doesnt feel 430% better to ride than mine, and it hasnt made him 430% better rider than me.


As long as you are on two wheels its all good

[Nick_F]

The last time I had the symptoms you describe it was a tight link in the (worn) chain. The link stayed kinked out of the jockey wheels and around the lower part of the cassette, lifting the chain on to the point of the teeth in the process: when it came under load it straightened and the chain re-engaged with the gear with a bang.

[youngsyr]

Nick_F said:

The last time I had the symptoms you describe it was a tight link in the (worn) chain. The link stayed kinked out of the jockey wheels and around the lower part of the cassette, lifting the chain on to the point of the teeth in the process: when it came under load it straightened and the chain re-engaged with the gear with a bang.

Interesting, thanks for the info and I'll check it out.

[dave_s13]

hman said:

my hardrock sport cost me £300.

my mates santa cruz with hope components and other assorted tat cost him £1300

his bike doesnt feel 430% better to ride than mine, and it hasnt made him 430% better rider than me.


As long as you are on two wheels its all good

I reckon if you were to compare yours to the OP's Halfords bought and self assembled job the Specialized will feel 150% "better".

It's an exponential thing though. The more you spend, the less you gain.

Oh and I've simply made all this up based on owning a £195 Dawes Tekarra MTB, which didn't last more than 18months, to my current Specialized Rockhopper comp disc. Cost 4 times as much and it's genuinely 4x better. This is especially noticeable when your on a decent MTB trail where the cheaper bike would fall to bits. I'm off to Dalby Forest tomorrow actually and would not want to be riding my old Dawes bike, it would just die.

I've been very hard on my current bike and it still feels like it did when new.

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 13th November 18:28

[hman]

I think thats a specialized trait, mine is 5ish years old and still feels like new.

[Marcellus]

One thing noone appears to have mentioned is the indexing, given the description of riding style(lots of pressure) then the indexing will need to be 100% spot on.

Building on Snotrags comments - OP unless you have no gears left in the box you should never be having to "grind it out" ... I'm not suggesting spinning your legs at 120...... but if you "ease the pressure on your legs" you will reduce the possibiliy of damaging yourself and actually do yourself a lot of good in terms of fitness.

[hman]

Marcellus said:

One thing noone appears to have mentioned is the indexing, given the description of riding style(lots of pressure) then the indexing will need to be 100% spot on.

Building on Snotrags comments - OP unless you have no gears left in the box you should never be having to "grind it out" ... I'm not suggesting spinning your legs at 120...... but if you "ease the pressure on your legs" you will reduce the possibiliy of damaging yourself and actually do yourself a lot of good in terms of fitness.

Mentioned mid range adjustment earlier (adjuster either at the lever or the deraileur), thats the indexing.

OP explained about him using the correct gears somewhere later on.

[mk1fan]

I'd say the OP is using the wrong gear up the hill. I've had gears slip on a bike that was properly set up.

Pedalling technique is not simply pumping your legs up and down or standing on each pedal with all your weight. A good 'spin' is smooth and controlled - regardless of cadance.

I would still check the chain for stiff links. The easiest way is to turn the cranks backwards and look for jumping or the chainlinks sticking bent.

Regardless of the gears working right, improving your pedalling technique will put less strain on the bike.

Edited by mk1fan on Monday 16th November 13:21

[Spiraldep]

It may be nothing to do with your chain, teeth, or gear selection. Check your rear hub. I see it's a Shimano equipped bike - these rear hubs tend to wear out and slip, often quite dangerously, when a lot of pressure is applied. They are a cinch to replace but you'll need the correct tools - perhaps your LBS can help out for a decent price.

SD

[youngsyr]

Ok, quick update:

Have checked cassete and ring gears, no bent teeth, no obvious wear (the bike has probably only covered 20-30 miles).

Have run the pedals backwards through several revolutions and the chain is not jumping at all.

Still have to try derailleur adjustment and get it into Halfrauds for check up.

Just to be clear, the problem isn't *only* when I'm pushing hard up hill, that's just when it's worse. Even slightly up hill in the second gear ring and middlish cassette gear it when not pushing that hard it can slip.

[jhfozzy]

Hey youngsyr,

THIS website explains a bit about the rear derailleur and how it's set up, spent my youth in a bike shop building and messing about with bikes and when you get used to the settings, it's easy.

As mentioned above, it does sound like the derailleur could have had a knock and is slightly out of adjustment.

John.

[croyde]

I had this problem with the second hand bike I bought on eBay. Loads of vids on YouTube telling you how to adjust and fettle the gears. They taught me.

Good luck.

[youngsyr]

Quick update and it looks like I may well have to eat my words about expensive bikes not being significantly better than cheap ones.

The problem mentioned in the OP became more pronounced in recent weeks with slippage in more and more gears and in more and more flat conditions, but I couldn't get the bike to Halfords or a bike shop to have it looked at.

Last week the bike developed an intermittent clicking noise from the cassette area and on Monday this week something in the area gave way completely as I could pedal the bike in gear and it the rear wheel wouldn't move at all.

I took it back to a local non-bike selling Halfords this morning and got a full refund (10 weeks after buying the bike) with only a minor amount of prodding the young manager to do the right thing. He mentioned that the "flywheel had probably broken".

Thanks for everyone's help, I'm now on the lookout for a £500 bike that I'll get through the cycle to work scheme for around £300. Any suggestions for mainly tarmac usage but with some off-road thrown in over the summer months?

I'm thinking Specialised of some sort, but any advice will be gratefully taken on board.

Edited by youngsyr on Thursday 17th December 11:41

[Master Mischief]

youngsyr said:

Thanks for everyone's help, I'm now on the lookout for a £500 bike that I'll get through the cycle to work scheme for around £300. Any suggestions for mainly tarmac usage but with some off-road thrown in over the summer months?

I'm thinking Specialised of some sort, but any advice will be gratefully taken on board.

Edited by youngsyr on Thursday 17th December 11:41

As an ex Halfords bikeshop employee (student job way before bikehut / ripspeed) I am not surprised that regular use killed an Apollo. I remember puling the rear brake on one (that I had not built) on the way to the till with the customer and the weld clean broke on one of the brake bosses. Quite embarrassing!

Anyway on to my main point:

I posted this in another thread but think you may be interested if you are local ish:

I have a mate who decided to take up riding a couple of years ago, bought a Kona Blast with slick tyres and.... ....rode it about twice.

The new models retail at £600 but his was cheaper and he got a good deal so would probably sell it for £200. We have discussed ebaying it already.

I can swap the tyres for some old but serviceable MTB tyres and can get it to the west midlands (from Leicestershire) next Wednesday or after Christmas if you like.

Do you want pictures / full spec / me to put you in touch?

It is as good as new as far as I can tell and has certainly done sub 25 miles. I do not think you will get a better bike for the money.

[hman]

freewheel gave in then...

[steeveeboy]

Hey,
i had this problem two months ago with a giant boulder i have,
It had specialized alex rims with shimano setup and i phoned halfrauds who said that there could be a number of problems!
I ended up buying a new wheel, freewheel,casette and chain at a cost of 90 pounds.
after doing this i decided much to my parents dissapointment i wanted a different bike and i would recommend my new bike its an 09 GT avalanche 3.0 that i bought from someone who had it as a replacement for an 08 Gt avalanche 2.0 with a frame split
Hope i was helpful somewhere in the babbling

[AbarthChris]

A guy buys a bike 6 months ago and not one person on here has mentioned cable stretch??

yes, i know someone mentioned indexing before but I bet any money the problem is that the cable has stretch slightly and the indexing is now out.

Take it to a bike shop and get them to sort it out. Watch what they do and take some tips

[youngsyr]

Thanks for te response, but you really should read all of the thread - the 6 months figure was a typing error, I meant 6 weeks and the problem turned out to be the freewheel twisting and eventually breaking.

The bike has since been returned for a full refund.