The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Do it Yourself Discussion! => Topic started by: shelivesthedream on July 14, 2017, 01:47:54 AM
-
I have an older bike that has five non-ratchet gears operated by a little lever in the middle of the handlebars. Every time I try to shift to a lower gear it slips straight back into the highest one. (It's been like this for a while but I'm an occasional cyclist and have only just moved somewhere with a hill!)
-
My guess is that your rear derailleur needs adjusting. They can be hard to figure out to the novice but there are many good examples of how to adjust them on Youtube. If that doesn't help, a good bike mechanic can do it in a few minutes and won't charge much.
-
It sounds like the screw used to adjust the amount of friction in the shifter isn't tight enough.
If you took some photos it would help.
-
There is often a bolt or screw to adjust the tightness of a non-indexed shifter. Tighten it. If it's very loose, the derailleur will always pull down to the hardest gear because that's where your derailleur is pulling the cable. This is likely your problem if you can actually get up into the highest gears but it just won't stay there.
-
Sounds like your bike wants to challenge you!