Mtb derailer question

singlespeed

well im seriously thinking about it with all these stupid problems im having.

do it

gears are for pussies anyway

even though im all about the single speed, and have it on my trials bike, what kinda riding do u do?

its probably more than likely that you've taken a knock against the derailleur and its out of alignment. check to see if its straight. if its not loosen it off just a little and twist it back into line. then do it up just a little bit again. you don't want to clam it as tight as you can get it cause aside from stripping the thread it will also get fucked next time something hits it. you want it so that when something knocks against it it will twist with the force.

if that doesn't fix it, and your bike is new and the fiddling with the cables isn't making any difference check the limit screws on the derailleur to make sure that the chain is clearing. only do this if you're confident that you can fix it and have time to spare learning how to do it cause chances are that if you get impatient it'll go pete tong and you'll have to take it to your lbs to get sorted out.

check out park tools website for good maintenance tips

Check out parktools.com for a lot of good info on how to adjust/fix your derailer and pretty much everything else.

this happened on my dh bike where my derailleur bent and i took it off and bent it back and put it back on and it was fine

there are a few things you can do to adjust your derailer.

-tighten/loosen the cable.
-adjust the stop/limit screws.
-move the derailer. sometimes derailers can move where they clamp on to the frame and become to high, or to low, or turned at an angle. to adjust, loosen the clamp, move to desired position, and re tighten the clamp. you may have to re-adjust your cable and/or limit screws after you do this.

the only other possibility would be if the derailer has actually broken, and separated at the top or bottom. this has happened to me before on an older derailer, and is not a very common problem, and it took me a while to figure it out. if this is the case, you will be able to tell because both sides will be out of parallel, although you may have to test it by putting some pressure on it to separate the sides, as they will likely spring back together by the unbroken end. if this is your problem, you will have to buy a new derailer, or be really good at brazing.

i had this on my bike for the longest time, when in lowest in the back and middle in front, i kept having chain rub. i just undid the wire completely and reset the derailer and then adjusted it accordingly and that fixed it, but also yes just get a singlespeed, my gears never skip on it, i never have to deal with derailer problems, and singlespeeds are for badasses, so that's motivation in itself

when i adjust it, should i have my gears in either extremely high, or extremely low?