[backroader]

I recently bought a Trek Navigator 3.0 with rapid fire shifters. It seems that when I shift in to certain gear ranges it sounds like it's between gears. I took it back to the dealer and he said it was because the chain is up against the edge of the sprocket in certain gears and that it's not meant to use all the gears, but mostly the ones in between. Has anyone else had this problem or is it normal?

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

[hophead]

It's best to avoid gear combinations that produce radical chain lines like using on the biggest chain ring and biggest cog. You can get the same gearing by shifting down to the middle ring and a smaller rear cog. Same goes for running the granny and the smallest cog.

[riderman14]

hophead's got it!! avoid the drastict angles of the chain on the outside to inside rings both ways.it cuts down tooth wear,and chain stress.just because bikes have anywhere from 10 to about 27 gears,dosent mean that you actually use them all.you use a combination of them,trying to keep the chain as close to "straight" as you can.hope that helps.ride on

[camilo]

Backroader - good advice so far. A couple of "rules of thumb" that might help:

Your Navigator probably has a "triple" in front - three front chain rings. If so:

In the middle chain ring, you can probably use every gear in the back. Some times you get noise with the smallest (outermost) and largest (innermost) gears in back, so you might have to avoid them on the middle ring.

On the large (outermost) front chain ring, you generally have to avoid the two or three innermost gears in the back. Let noise be your guide here.

On the small (innermost) front chain ring, you generally have to avoid the two or three outermost gears in the back. Again, let noise be your guide here.

You see the pattern here: outermost and innermost gears front and back don't work well together.

You also should become familiar with "trimming" the front derailleur. This means that for any given front chain position, you can make minor adjustments on the front derailleur to adjust for the line of the chain depending on where it's sitting on the rear gears.

If the concept of trimming doesn't make sense to you, take your bike into the shop where you bought it and ask them to demonstrate 'trimming the front derailleur' to you. If the person you talk to can't, ask to talk to someone else!

Good luck, have fun.