For a couple of days now, I am no longer possible to shift to the smallest chainring of my bicycle. There is simply no response at all (no resistance, no click-sound, nothing happens. The indicator at the gear shifters placed on the handle only moves half the distance between the two gears...)
I have no idea about bicycles but I did some testing and research. My guess is, that the return spring at the front derailleur is broken. The cable is pretty loose (I can easily move it several centimeters by hand) and I can also turn the derailleur by hand. Especially the latter part lets me believe that the spring is broken since (at least to my understanding) the derailleur should be in tension and not easy to move by hand...
I might be using some terminology wrong here, thus, I have attached a picture:
The cable highlighted in blue is very loose.
I can rotate the thing in red by hand (which I assume should be under tension).
My questions are the following:
- Does my diagnosis make sense or is it more likely that something else is causing the failure?
- Is it easy to replace the spring with basic equipment or is it likely that I mess up and cause some damage?
I found some questions talking about having grease or mud in the derailleur that can be removed with WD-40 but I think in my case, something is more likely broken since there is no response at all.