Video guide: How to adjust your gears
You might find that your gears aren’t shifting properly when you’re out on a ride. If your gears are making a crunching sound or are slow and unresponsive, it could mean they need a bit of readjustment – luckily this is easy to do.
The gearing system works by you operating the shifter – the controls on the handlebar that allow you to change gear – to move the derailleur which in turn moves the chain onto the correct cog on the cassette, which is the set of cogs on the rear wheel.
The front derailleur shifts the chain between the chainrings – the big cogs in the centre of the bike to which the cranks are attached. This guide looks at the rear derailleur, but the same advice pertains to the front.
For all this movement to work smoothly, the rear derailleur needs to be properly aligned with the cassette. If it isn’t your gears might make a horrible crunching sound when you operate the shifters, or you might find them slow to shift or not shifting at all. To fix this you need to adjust the position of the derailleur using its barrel adjusters.
Step-by-step guide to adjusting your brakes
First get yourself somewhere safe, out of the way of other road or trail users. You can cycle through the gears by operating the shifter, lifting up the back of the using the saddle and using your other hand to operate the pedal.
Locate the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur. Always use small, incremental adjustments, no more than a quarter turn, before testing the shifting again to see if you’ve resolved the problem.
If your gears aren’t shifting onto the smaller sprocket, or higher gear, twist the barrel adjuster in a clockwise direction. If shifting to the larger sprocket, or lower gear, is the problem, twist the adjuster in an anticlockwise direction.
After each quarter turn, test the shifting. When shifting is smooth and quiet again, the problem is fixed, and you’re ready to continue your ride.
If you have any concerns about doing this yourself, seek the advice of a trained mechanic.
