Road Bike Rear Derailleur Adjustment
While pedaling the bike locate the cable leading to your rear derailleur and pull on it gently.
Road bike rear derailleur adjustment. With the bike held off the ground and the chain now on the largest cog at the back test the front derailleur by moving the chain between the smallest and next chainring using the gear lever. Thankfully adjusting a rear derailleur on a bike is a solution that is fairly simple and possible for most. Even if you are already in the smallest cog keep clicking your rear shifter to make sure there are no clicks left in the mechanism. The adjustment barrel is the knurled plastic piece that looks designed to be turned by hand.
The derailleur is moved by tightening or relaxing the cable tension. You can see the adjustment barrel in the photo above. If there s any doubt where it is on your rear derailleur find it by following the cable path on the back of the bike to where the cable and housing enter the rear derailleur. If the bike has multiple front chainrings shift the front derailleur to the largest chainring then shift the rear derailleur to the smallest cog.
The majority of rear shifting problems can be solved with basic adjustments to the limit screws and index setting of the rear derailleur system. The highest gear smallest sprocket on the rear derailleur is actually the point of lowest cable tension meaning the derailleur is doing the least work and is thus easiest to adjust. In this video.