0

Hoping someone can help out here.

I had originally had a 2016 Kona Deluxe hybrid. Over the years I changed to bullhorn bars with the original shifters etc. I love this bike, but I wanted drop bars and brake shift levers now.

Yes I know I should just buy a road bike, but I like this bike and would rather spend the time doing this as I enjoy it.

The bike still has the original front and rear derailleur which was Shimano Acera 3x front and Shimano Alivio 9 speed rear.

I purchased the Shimano Sora dual levers, right 9 speed and left 3 speed.

I installed everything, installed the new cabling and have successfully got everything to work, including the rear derailleur.

However, I am having problems with the front derailleur. It almost seems as if the cable pull is not enough to make it shift. I can get it to shift from the 1st ring to the 2nd. or the 2nd to the 3rd. I even installed a inline cable adjuster to get fine tuning and nothing seems to work.

Question: Is there a different derailleur I need/new crankset or is there something I need to do to adjust the levers?

I was googling and trying to figure out compatibility was confusing. I just assumed because both Shimano they would be fine?

Thanks :)

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

You’re right on. The road shifters have different pull ratio, so you need to use a road front DR. A Sora triple front DR will likely work.

Improve this answer
6
  • Thank you :) Will give it a go.
    – Jeremy Volk
    Jul 27, 2020 at 14:36
  • One thing to be aware of is that the Sora triple derailleur's (FD-R3030) are designed for a 50t large chainring and 11t large to middle ring tooth difference. In addition the Sora will prefer a chainline near 45mm, but your mountain set-up will be near 50mm. The take home of all this is that your FD set up will be crucial to get unproblematic shifting and still, you'll be trimming the derailleur often at each end of the cassette
    – Jeff
    Jul 29, 2020 at 23:03
  • Hi. Yeah the new derailleur did not solve the problem. Its shifting exactly the same as the old one. If I replace the current crankset with a sora crankset, will that work? Is the 5mm difference in chainline really causing this?
    – Jeremy Volk
    Aug 1, 2020 at 1:34
  • @JeremyVolk - Are you certain that you set it up correctly? Pay close attention to the routing of the cable at the attachment point. If you get that wrong, it'll reduce the leverage. The chainline difference shouldn't mess you up very much, especially since you probably have 135 mm dropout spacing in the rear, so your cassette is also shifted out a bit from a standard road bike (130 mm spacing). The spacing between the chainrings on an MTB and road crank are the same, so switching cranks shouldn't be necessary.
    – Andrew
    Aug 1, 2020 at 15:47
  • @Andrew Pretty sure. It has the cable grooves on the derailleur around the bolt that would show you where the cable is to go. Goes up on the left side from the bottom and slightly around the screw out right at an angle. Is there a chance this could be a faulty shifter? I attempted to measure the amount of the cable pull on the shifts. It pulls 2-3mm from 0mm on the first shift, then about 6mm from 0mm on the second click. Is that about right? I don't really know much about this stuff, but it almost feels like its not pulling enough cable to even move the derailleur?
    – Jeremy Volk
    Aug 1, 2020 at 17:50

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.