Do your gears get stickier in winter?

[MikeS]

My shimano derailieur is driving me mad. I spent hours trying to adjust the gears, tried changing the inner cable, took it to a specialist who couldn't get it right and said it needed a whole new cable. Tried that and it's hardly any better.
It's not that I can't use the bike, but back in the summer it was easy for me to adjust them so they clicked into the right gear up or down within half a second. Now it can take 2 or 3 seconds and sometimes it doesn't change at all but then changes two cogs next time I click the lever.
I'm just wondering if in cold temperatures friction is increasing everywhere and that this is normal for winter riding?
Mike

 

[davell]

Have you checked for wear on the chain? My gears were getting slow to change which was fixed with a new chain.

 

[JPGiant]

I've had this a few years ago.
1. Set RD to smallest cog. Release the cable from derailleur, check the lever itself is not sticking.
2. Make sure the RD cantilevers are free by pushing it toward the wheel, it should return under it's own spring..
3. Check the jockey wheels are free.
4. Double check the inner cable is rust and dirt free. For what it costs change the outer cable in case it has developed a groove.
5. Check rear hanger is not bent.
6.Check chain for wear and sticky links, clean and lube.
7. Refit cable and reset H & L screws. ensure the cable bobbin is fitted correctly. Fine tune with cable adjuster.

 

[MikeS]

Done everything in that list JP except item 5 which I'm going to get the guy to check next week. Under item 1 though - checking that the lever is not sticking - how can I tell - it clicks so does that mean it's working?
Also to check that the jockey wheels are free do you have to take the chain off?
Thanks
Mike

 

[JPGiant]

With the cable released from RD,the lever should make a positive clicks without any drag.
Whilst cable is released from RD and chain on smallest cog (or split it) try to get some chain slack on the jockeys and check they rotate freely.

 

[Deleted member 128]

I used to suffer from this on my pedal bike, the grease inside the gear select mechanism was too viscous at low temperatures resulting in the cable not being released when a another gear was selected.
I googled the problem and there were several YouTube videos showing how to squirt WD40 into the selector mechanism to remove the grease, I wasn't keen on that idea and dismantled the selector. It turned out to be very tricky to reassemble but after I many hours of head scratching I got it back together and it was like driving a new bike. The gears change so much easier and faster.
I recommend taking the WD40 approach rather than disassembly, at least in the first instance.

 

[MikeS]

I used to suffer from this on my pedal bike, the grease inside the gear select mechanism was too viscous at low temperatures resulting in the cable not being released when a another gear was selected.
I googled the problem and there were several YouTube videos showing how to squirt WD40 into the selector mechanism to remove the grease, I wasn't keen on that idea and dismantled the selector. It turned out to be very tricky to reassemble but after I many hours of head scratching I got it back together and it was like driving a new bike. The gears change so much easier and faster.
I recommend taking the WD40 approach rather than disassembly, at least in the first instance.

Do you mean squirting wd40 into the switch mechanism on the handlebars. Must admit this is a possibility, because with the cable disconnected the derailieur runs perfectly sweetly back to the highest gear after manually putting it on the biggest cog. Having said that wouldn't the fact that I hear the clicks perfectly well in both directions mean that the lever must be moving through its prescribed distance, and therefore the cable must be too (although that's not necessarily true in the dropping-to-smaller-cog direction)

 

[Barrio Barranco]

I've got a fleet of 50 mountain bikes at work that get horribly used and abused and muggins here has to keep them all working and safe. I've noticed that in doing the pre inspection road test many seem to have sticky/imprecise gears in the winter, but when i get them into stores and up on the stand and they creep back to room temperature (I'm in the Highlands remember, 57N, 260m ASL) they start working perfectly (well unless the kids have dropped the bike on the mech side and bent the hanger)... Even my own commuter hack has been doing this in the last couple of weeks...it was -8c the other day though...

 

[Deleted member 128]

Do you mean squirting wd40 into the switch mechanism on the handlebars. Must admit this is a possibility, because with the cable disconnected the derailieur runs perfectly sweetly back to the highest gear after manually putting it on the biggest cog. Having said that wouldn't the fact that I hear the clicks perfectly well in both directions mean that the lever must be moving through its prescribed distance, and therefore the cable must be too (although that's not necessarily true in the dropping-to-smaller-cog direction)

There's a ratchet mechanism inside with a sprung pawl operating on some teeth on a rotating plate. The pawl is mounted on a post and has a light spring holding it against the gaps between the teeth and I found that the grease on the post was too stiff for the spring to be effective when the grease was cold.
This resulted in the the mechanism not "clicking" in some positions. As you say, if you can hear the clicks then this is unlikely to be the problem but try holding onto the cable and check that it actually moves with each click.
This video might help, it talks about sticking shifters: