Aventon level shifting to 1st gear

[prozacattack]

I went to my local bike shop to get the shifting adjusted and he say's it won't shift well into 1st gear because its to great of a chain line angle. He is blaming the spacer on the rear wheel and bla bla, It makes the downshift but pops right back onto second. My argument is why would aventon sell a bike that can't use all gears. So to the aventon level owners how is your shifting into 1st going for you?

 

[Brockrock]

He's wrong, unless there is something very other than stock going on with your bike. There are three adjustments on the derailleur that apply here. The upper and lower stops, and the cable adjustment that allows it to shift smoothly through the various gears based on your selection via the shifter. There is also a chain tension adjustment, but that rarely needs to be messed with. When I set up a derailleur - and this can apply to tuning one as well - the first thing I do is set the lower stop (for the smallest, rear gear cog) such that the chain travels smoothly working the pedals forward and backwards. On our Levels, there is only one front gear cog, but if there were three - like my traditional bike - I would be doing this on the middle gear cog. I then fully tension the shifting cable to a point just shy of pulling the derailleur inward, and I shift upward to the highest - and largest - gear cog in the rear. Getting there may or may not involve adjusting the upper stop, but once there, I set the upper stop such that the pedals rotate forward and backwards with no issues, and boom. Job done. It sounds like your derailleur needs to be adjusted by someone who knows what they are doing. Mine needed adjustment when I got my Level two months ago. The upper and lower stops were set, but the travel between gears was not smooth, and that involved a simple cable adjustment. Plenty of YouTube vids out there regarding derailleur adjustments. Get it set up properly, and start having some fun riding..

 

[ki11a]

some bike 'mechanics' should not be mechanics at all.

 

[prozacattack]

thankyou all for your input, i figured he was wrong

 

[JuicePower]

thankyou all for your input, i figured he was wrong

You need to shift to a better repair shop.

 

[m8ricks]

Agree with the above comments.

Tuning a derailleur is pretty easy, barring two things: 1. A bent derailleur, or 2. A bent derailleur hanger.

My Level had a slightly misaligned hanger, which caused the shifting to be rough. Fortunately, I had a derailleur hanger tool and was able to straighten it, but would be out of most people's knowledge/skill base. A reputable shop should be able to fix that.

 

[theemartymac]

Also check the "B Tension", or how close the upper jockey pulley is to the cog. It should be 1/2" or not much more. That pulley is what determines the incoming angle and alignment to the cog, and if it's too far away, any slight angle of the derailleur away from the centerline of the bike will be exaggerated. It can also present as slow and draggy shifts. Otherwise, put the bike in the middle gear, and stand at the back and sight down the line. Chain line should be darn near perfectly straight with no deflection off either front or rear sprocket. If it's offset towards the tire by more than one sprocket, he's right and you aren't well aligned.

Here is an example off too much space between the jockey and cassette (this is in high gear, and there's almost 2" from jockey wheel to small cog). adjusting the B tension screw will fix this and can help reduce jumping off the large sprocket.

 

[Jason Knight]

I had similar issues with my Aventure, and there were two obvious causes:

The first was that the chain was too bloody short, by about 6 links to the point that in first the derailleur was stretched straight out forward enough to be bending the mount!

The second was that the upper jockey pulley was too close to the chainring providing little room for the chain to move over. Kind of the opposite of what @theemartymac was saying.

Playing with it and playing with it, the best fix I came up with was to drop it from the crappy 13 tooth plastic one to a smaller 12 tooth aluminum one I happened to have in my spare parts. I did the same to the bottom one not that the tensioner pulley really matters in that way. It also helped to switch to the spare derailleur mount they shipped with the bike after noticing how badly bent the one it came with was -- again likely due to the too short chain. And I've said it a few times, it's like they KNEW the derailleur mounts would get twisted since who ships a spare of THAT with a new bike?

Took a bit more adjustment, but I had planned on swapping to better cranks and a 52 tooth chainring from the beginning anyways, and that helped true-up the line so now I'm shifting smooth as silk problem-free. I had wanted to go to 58, but it doesn't clear the frame on the Aventure.