[PellConq1]

Mt. Fury Roadmaster - a set on Flickr

My pictures show a perfectly good Mt. Fury Roadmaster except for one thing. When the front sprocket is on the smaller two of the three front sprockets (and even some when it's on the other, just less), the derailleur rubs as shown in the picture (in other words, it's pinched up). So could the first step to solving the problem simply be:
1) Take some links out of the chain (this is something I'm good at doing, I've done it on several bikes now).

Or is there some simpler way to fix the problem?
Just curious.
Enjoy.
Pell http://www.twospoke.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Industry_Hack]

I'm not following you. Are you cross-gearing? When on the inner chainrings, you should be on the largers cogs. When you are on the outer chainring, you should be on the smaller cogs. If you try to use a small chainring with a small cog, you will run into clearance issues.

[PellConq1]

I haven't messed with anything yet on the Mt. Fury - at all. I was just commenting something like, "What would you do FIRST if you came across a Mt. Fury Roadmaster in a junkyard and it had the problem shown in the picture - ie. a rear derailleur with pulleys too close for comfort."

Anyway, I just read up on terminology on Wiki. So to rephrase the problem:
On the rear derailleur, the tension pulley (the lower one) is too close to the guide pulley (the upper one).

So here goes for my dumbest attempt to fix:
1) Cables too stretched, simply readjust the pinches of the cable (or more drastically, replace the cable or cut it shorter, just kidding, I wouldn't do that)?
2) Chain too stretched (I don't mind taking links out of a chain provided I
don't lose too many gears).

I just wanted someone to give me their opinion on the matter since I didn't feel redoing the chain yet, but frankly, many bike problems go away when we shorten those old, overstretched chains.

By the way, I'm not worried about this, I'll tinker with it and fix it somehow. Something will start working eventually, it's just no fun riding a bike when only certain gears ride smoothly and others rub.

Thanks for your kind response. I'll look into this after I change some tires on another bike.
Cheers!

[PellConq1]

Yes, yes, you're right - small/small is when the problem happens, you have it right! Sorry, I forgot to comment on what you said. Thank you.

[Industry_Hack]

Shortening a stretched chain doesn't fix anything. But as you've pointed out, it is merely an issue of cross-gearing.

You to bike doctor: "It rubs when I do this"

Bike doctor: "Don't do this"

[PellConq1]

When you speak of cross-gearing, you make it sound like it's something we shouldn't do. Isn't a 15-speed mountain bike supposed to work in any combination of front/rear sprockets so that there are 3 x 5 = 15 gears in all? Are you suggesting avoiding certain front/back combinations? Something is wrong with the bike and I want to fix it so I don't have to avoid. You said "Don't do this" - what did you mean? I'm confused. What do you mean by cross-gearing and isn't cross-gearing ok?

[Industry_Hack]

Small chainrings are to be used with large to middle cogs. Large chainrings are to be used with small to middle cogs. Cross gearing places the chain at an extreme angle, causing accelerated chain/chainring/cog wear.