Brand New Cannondale Topstone

[KT004]

Hi i purchased a Cannondale Topstone two weeks ago and took it back to shop today as chain rubs on front derailleur. They told me all bikes rub on front derailleur when in certain gears although this rubs in more gears than it doesn't. They then took a link out of the chain as they said it was too loose. This is a brand new chain from factory can this be correct to shorten it and is it correct what they have told me about Gears. I find it really disappointing that this brand new expensive bike makes a pretty ruff clicking noise in so many gears. I'm a newbie so any advice would be appreciated. thanks

 

[Big John]

Did they make this bike up to your spec or was it a standard out-of-the-box model? If it was out of the box then they still need to check a number of things on the bike before they hand it over to the customer. Their reputation depends on this so it's important. It sounds like they haven't done a quality inspection to make sure the bike is exactly how it should be. As for the chain if it had too many links they should have picked this up on the final inspection but usually the chain that comes with the bike is the correct length. I've put together a few new bikes and it was usually a case of put the pedals on, straighten the handlebars and do routine checks on tyre pressures, indexing, brakes and make sure everything was tight with no loose nuts or bolts.

 

[Skiprat]

Sounds like your gears need indexing, google it to see if that looks like your issue. If the chains rubbing in any gear the length should be looked at. Either way LBS should be sorting. I have a topsone too and its a great all rounder, mine will rub a little in the highest or lowest gear but fine everywhere between so not an issue for me.

 

[PaulSB]

The comment about all bikes rubbing against the front mech is nonsense. Yes it takes some skill and patience to set up correctly but a good mechanic will be able to do this.

I'm with you on this all the way. A bike should be quiet any noise of this sort is an irritation. On a brand new bike it's unacceptable.

It's possible someone in the factory fitted the wrong chain. Mistakes happen and your LBS should pick up on this when the PDI is carried out.

You're in the right here. Make a fuss.

 

[weareHKR]

All the above... ☝
And welcome to CC...

 

[mustang1]

Sounds like your gears need indexing, google it to see if that looks like your issue. If the chains rubbing in any gear the length should be looked at. Either way LBS should be sorting. I have a topsone too and its a great all rounder, mine will rub a little in the highest or lowest gear but fine everywhere between so not an issue for me.

What skiprat said. Gears could rub in up to two (but usually one) highest and two (but usually one) lowest gears (big chainring and two largest cogs, or small chainring and two smallest cogs).

 

[T4tomo]

what spec is it, i.e what shifters? Clearly its not a 1X . a lot of front shifters now have a trim function, i.e. 2 positions on each of the front cogs to prevent chain rub?

the link removal is irrelevant, it may improve rear shifting if chain was too long, but doesn't alter the chain-line one sausage.

 

[Teamfixed]

Agreed that the chain is irrelevant.
Forgive me if this is obvious to you but it is the case with everything that I have ridden that on occasions when riding you need to "trim" the front shifter with a nudge (in the opposite direction) following a change on the back to stop this happening.
However, I would doubt the shops expertise on this from what you have said.

 

[MichaelW2]

Send photo of the front mech taken from directly above. May have wonky rotation on seat tube.

 

[KT004]

thank you all for the replies
The Bike was £2500 its a Topstone 105 and I just feel I'm being fobbed off by them. they clearly hadn't PDi, d it properly as several bolts were not done up correctly. it was a brand new bike so I was amazed they were taking links out the chain. ive tried by using the trim mechanism and it does give a bit of relief in some gears but certainly makes a racket in big/big &small/small. at one point they were bending the from derailleur with a pair of pliers.

 

[iluvmybike]

what spec is it, i.e what shifters? Clearly its not a 1X . a lot of front shifters now have a trim function, i.e. 2 positions on each of the front cogs to prevent chain rub?

the link removal is irrelevant, it may improve rear shifting if chain was too long, but doesn't alter the chain-line one sausage.

Absolutely. An amazingly lot of folk seem to be unaware of that trim facility - using it should eliminate all rubbing. The only other thing may be that if a couple of hundred miles have been ridden since new the cable tension may need a little tweak

 

[Teamfixed]

When you say "big big" do you mean big ring and sprocket or big gear big gear?
If its the latter ie big front ring and smal rear sprocket (therefore big gear) then that would create too much cross over and would certainly cause rubbing.
Bending the derailleur? don,t go back there.

 

[T4tomo]

thank you all for the replies
The Bike was £2500 its a Topstone 105 and I just feel I'm being fobbed off by them. they clearly hadn't PDi, d it properly as several bolts were not done up correctly. it was a brand new bike so I was amazed they were taking links out the chain. ive tried by using the trim mechanism and it does give a bit of relief in some gears but certainly makes a racket in big/big &small/small. at one point they were bending the from derailleur with a pair of pliers.

Big /Big and Small/ small (physical size of rings/sprockets) you might expect it to rub a tiny bit and you shouldn't use these (and immediately adjacent) ratio's anyway as it is "cross chaining" too much, but it should not rub at all in any other ratio if the FD is set up properly and you are using the Trim positions correctly.

As for them bending the FD cage to try to alleviate the problem (if that's what they were doing), I'd be wanting a replacement FD and be using a difference shop / mechanic to get it set up properly. All that will do it make the shifting poor as the cage internal width will be too much to shift both up and down crisply.

 

[monkers]

thank you all for the replies
The Bike was £2500 its a Topstone 105 and I just feel I'm being fobbed off by them. they clearly hadn't PDi, d it properly as several bolts were not done up correctly. it was a brand new bike so I was amazed they were taking links out the chain. ive tried by using the trim mechanism and it does give a bit of relief in some gears but certainly makes a racket in big/big &small/small. at one point they were bending the from derailleur with a pair of pliers.

I feel your pain. I've been through the same experience twice recently.

I bought a new Cube Axial last May via the net. They made me wait a few days before sending it in order to do the PDI. It had awful gear related problems - grinding, jumping, and chain rub. They told me to send it back for sorting, but that would have cost me £70 in carriage for there and back, and I had lost confidence. I took it to the local bike shop who are Cube dealers, but they refused to help, saying I should send it back.

I examined it myself. I found the incorrect front derailleur fitted and incompatible with the shifter. It was an 8 speed bike with a 6 speed chain fitted. The teeth on the chainset were damaged.

I went back to the LBS and part exchanged it for a Trek Domane. I left the shop as they were closing; on the way home, the first time I applied the brake, they was a terrible racket, the brake track was detached from the wheel. I got it home and found deep scratches on the top tube that hadn't been there the previous day when I viewed it. So that went back too.

Then in July came a Trek Emonda. It rattled terribly, so that went back. They diagnosed cable slap inside the frame, told me that was usual and I'd have to live with it. The gears were not good either.

By this time, I was pretty pissed off, so I took to looking it over myself. The spacer behind the cassette was missing causing the rattle and gear shift problems. I got a spacer from the supplying dealer and fitted it, but then I couldn't get the gears to work properly. They had given a spacer of the incorrect thickness. Vowing to never go back, I got the correct spacer from elsewhere and fitted that. Better but still not right. I then found the derallieur hanger screws to be loose. Better still but not right. The derailleur alignment looked incorrect to my eye so I fitted a new hanger, indexed the gears which made a big improvement. Chain rub was still an issue at the front, so I then set about that. The derailleur was too low, angled incorrectly. The cable was fitted to the derailleur in an incorrect way meaning that it didn't pull correctly. Having fixed all this for my self, I finally have a new bike that rides as it should.

My other half also bought a new bike, from a different shop. The next day a rear puncture produced a fountain of slime. The tyre compound was unbelievable soft, so new tyres and tubes were fitted to go slime-free. A few days after that on a ride, the front wheel collapsed, the rear wheel was also very poor. That was handled by that dealer very well who actually apologised unprompted for not picking these dangerous defects up on the PDI.

My advice is not to give up on the bike as I did with my Cube, but be determined to sort the bike out yourself. The kit is not all crap, it's just that in my experience some dealers are.

Good luck friend.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

After reading the tale of woe above, I'll keep sourcing mine used, even out of skips.
I've had minimal trouble with most of my acquisitions, and what trouble I have had is usually just down to cables getting stiff and needing a bit of lube.
I cant believe customers are paying serious money and the dealers are supplying bikes that essentially don't even work properly from the factory. They want shooting.