Spent 6 hours chasing a ghost shift on a 9-speed bike

Turned out it was a worn out cable housing at the shifter head, not the derailleur or hanger like I kept checking. Has anyone else had a shift problem that turned out to be something totally stupid?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_shah1mo ago

Ask @amy_anderson if you checked the ferrules on the ends of the housing too. I had a similar ghost shift nightmare on my hardtail last year and it ended up being the little plastic cap at the shifter end that was crushed. Replaced that tiny piece and it was like magic. But the real kicker was when I took the whole bike apart and found a split in the housing right under the electrical tape wrap from the factory. Cost me a whole Saturday and a trip to the shop just to find some cracked plastic and electrical tape.

alexbennett1mo ago

Man I did the exact same thing last summer on my Trek 520. Three weekends wasted checking the derailleur alignment and the hanger. Ended up being a corroded section of housing right where it bends into the shifter. Replaced that 6 inch piece and the bike shifted perfect again. Sometimes you just gotta replace the cheap stuff first before diving into the expensive parts.

amy_anderson1mo ago

Spent a whole afternoon once replacing a derailleur cable three times before realizing I somehow threaded it through the wrong side of the shift housing each time. Took my bike shop buddy about 30 seconds to spot what I did and laugh at me. Felt like a total goof, but hey, at least I got really good at threading cables that day.