Unresponsive bicycle gears - how to fix/diagnose?

[Morsty88]

Morning all,

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but for some reason one of my bicycle gears has now become totally unresponsive in the fact that whilst the gear itself moves there is no actually change with regards to the chain moving up and down. The other one is perfectly fine, so I was wondering what could be the problem?

The bicycle has disc brakes, and has shimano gears.

I would love to be able to fix it myself but if its too complicated I don't want to risk it and would rather take it to a shop to be fixed.

Thank you for your time and help,

Samuel

 

[vickster]

What bike? What gears? STIs? Trigger shifters? Twist grip shifters?

How old is the bike?
When were the gears last adjusted?
When were the chain and cassette last checked and/or replaced?

Have you had a look on YouTube for videos than might help you out?

 

[Ihatehills]

Gears do go out of index occasionally, its usually a simple procedure to correct


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ


You don't give enough info for anymore specific help e.g type of gearing , number of gears, whether the trouble is with the front or rear derailleur. Post a more descriptive version of your issue and you will get loads of help from the people on here

 

[RichK]

Not certain from your description but I might start with fitting a new cable

 

[Levo-Lon]

Sounds like cable slip..
is the bike in a hard gear..ie the smalest cog?

 

[EasyPeez]

one of my bicycle gears has now become totally unresponsive

By this do you mean one of your derailleurs is unresponsive? i.e that you can change up and down gears on the smaller cogs at the back (cassette) but not on the bigger cogs at the front (chainset), or vice versa?

If so, and if it's the bigger rings that are the problem, it could just be a cable tension issue, or that your inner/outer limit screws need adjusting - both easy enough to sort.

We'll need more info from you about what kind of gears you have and which ones are not working to be able to help though.

Cheers.