Brian has written to us on many occasions about his Cannondale Caad 9 Optimo 4 and how much he likes it. He has a little problem with his front derailleur; it is rubbing against the chain when he is on the smallest sprocket. This is a common problem and one that we all have from time to time. There are two reasons this could be happening, here is the cures
Question: Hi Samuel,
I have enjoyed riding my Cannondale Caad 9 optimo 4 since I have got it, very sturdy, no flex & a very responsive bike.
Question - while the gears shift very smoothly from bottom to top & vice versa, when the chain is shifted to the biggest gear which is the smallest one at the back, the chain scrapes on the front derailleur. I cannot take the bike back to the dealer as the dealer is in Dubai & I live in Muscat 450km away. What do I need to trim/adjust to fine tune the gears & rid the chain touching the derailleur? Thanks for your time.
Hi again Brian,
It's good to hear that you are enjoying riding your Cannondale, but gear problems are terrible, so here are the things you need to do to sort yours out.
The front gear needs to move out a slight amount, but not very much. As I said there are two reasons or two cures. First does the front mech move out far enough, or should I say does the retaining bolt allow it to come far enough out so that it doesn't rub the chain. If you pull the mech out with your hand will it move sufficiently? If it won't move then you need to adjust the screw out a little to allow the mech to move sufficiently.
If it does move out far enough you then have to take in some of the slack on the cable, this can be done with either the cable adjuster on the cable, near the lever, or (if there is one) the adjuster on the frame where the outer cable stops at the front of the frame. Just a bit of a turn on the adjuster should do it and then test that it is clear of the chain, but not so far that the chain comes off. It's a bit of a trial and error, until you get it just right, so that it changes up without any problems, but doesn't come off.
As always we hope this helps?
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I however have a rear derailleur adjustment problem. When I change gears it sometimes takes two tries to get it to shift and then the gears sometimes shift without me touching them. I am sure all I need is a small adjustment. Would appreciate a read derailler adjustment tip.
Thanks and keep up the good work.