Practice English Speaking&Listening with: How To Tune Your Gears On The Roadside | GCN Tech Monday Maintenance

Speaker 1: For God's sake, stupid gears, goddamn.

My gears just aren't working and it's actually starting to ruin my ride

but you shouldn't let it ruin your ride because it's actually pretty simple to adjust.

In this video, we're going to explain to you how you can adjust your gears during your ride.

There are a number of different reasons why your gears might not be working correctly.

You could have a bent mech hanger or other components could be worn or damaged.

Now, let's assume it's only minor adjustments that you're going to need to do, otherwise, you're

probably not going to have the tools and equipment that you'll need to fix your bike at the roadside.

Chances are, if you're riding along and you're finding that your gears are ticking and clicking

and making quite an annoying noise, you're only really going to need to look to adjust the

indexing. The indexing of the gears is actually adjusted using this small barrel adjuster at the

back here. It's quite simply a process of turning it clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on which

we need to do to adjust the gears. If you need to make any indexing adjustments to the front

derailleur, that's adjusted using the barrel adjuster in line on the cables at the front.

Most bikes will have these. Before you make any adjustments,

you're going to need to decide which way you've got to turn the barrel adjuster. Now, if your

gears aren't shifting up into an easier gear, you're going to have to turn the barrel adjuster

anti-clockwise. This will add some cable tension and enable the derailleur to move up into an

easier gear. If your gears aren't shifting down into a harder gear, then, you're going

to have to remove some cable tension using the barrel adjuster and turning it clockwise. That

will relay with the rear derailleur to move down into the easier gears. You're going to

have to adjust either way round and a little bit of trial and error will sort that out.

Now, I'd advise only making minor adjustments to the barrel adjuster before rechecking your bike.

I'd suggest maybe half a turn or so at a time. Another handy tip is you can always pick the bike

up, hook the saddle over the back of your neck, and then pedal and check the gears like so. Then

we can just check to see if our little adjustments have had the desired outcome-- which nearly.

This is not quite right so I've probably got one half turn left to go and then I think that'll get

the gears operating nice and crisp. [music]

The same principles apply here at the front barrel adjuster just the same as the back.

Make small adjustments at a time and then you can go and ride the bike to recheck it

or as I did earlier, hook it over your neck and pedal while staying in the same place.

It's important to only make small adjustments at a time and not get too carried away.

Best of all, these principles are going to work across Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo groupsets

so you'll be covered whatever's on your bike. Some people might be tempted to adjust the limit

screws whilst out on the road but it's probably best not doing that, wait until you're at home.

You don't want to run the risk of your rear mech going into your wheel. Then it's going

to be a taxi ride home. There you have it, how to adjust your gears whilst out on the bike,

meaning that you can ensure that everyone on your group ride has got perfectly working gears too

and with any luck, they'll buy you a coffee. I hope you enjoyed this video and if you have,

please, do give it a big thumbs up. If you've got any questions, as always, let us know in

the Comments section down below. Anyway, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my ride with my perfectly

working gears. See you later. [00:03:23] [END OF AUDIO]