# Issue with Red Crankset



## js1221 (Aug 15, 2008)

My bike is a 2010 Specialized Roubaix Comp with SRAM components. I upgraded the S300 Crankset to a Red, the FD and RD are both Rival, as are the shifters. I have been having problems with the chain coming off the big ring and I don't know why. At first I was dropping the chain when moving from the big ring (50) to the small ring (34), the chain would miss the (34) and end up between the ring and frame. I finally figured out this was happening when I was in the big ring/big ring combination (cross chaining); bad thing to do anyway so I corrected my shifting. Now the chain is coming off the big ring and dropping on to the crank arm. I am concerned firstly about dropping the chain but also this could cause me to crash should it get caught on my shoe during the pedal stroke. It happened today twice, both time the chain was in the middle rings of the cassette (no cross chaining) and I was starting a climb. Is this a crankset issue or a FD issue? I was thinking of moving to a Force FD, would it help? I never had this problem with my Ultegra components.


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## jellis25 (Oct 6, 2009)

Sounds like the FD is not set up correctly. Also if the chain gets caught in the middle it could be because the small ring is on backward. It sounds like you sorted that out though. 

Check the limit on the big ring to fix the new chain drop. I have heard of people using force because the cage on Red flexes too much. I have not noticed this myself though.


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## skaruda_23 (May 8, 2009)

I was having a similar problem using a rival FD with a force crank - it would drop the chain onto the crank arm when going from small ring to big ring. 

I found that my FD was actually mounted too high on the seat tube; I just need to move it down vertically a few millimeters closer to the chainrings. Make sure that your limit screws are adjusted correctly too. It sounds like this is a FD issue, not a crank issue. 

A Force front derailleur will not help at all. It is mechanically identical to your rival FD but shaves off a few grams due to some titanium hardware.

Also, make sure to not shift the FD under a lot of pedaling power...


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## CO Road Bike (Jul 8, 2009)

I had this same problem and it turned out the LBS that installed my Red crankset forgot to install a wave washer, which caused my entire crank to move laterally and cause my chain to drop onto the crank (thank you Salvagetti in Denver for correctly determining and correcting the issue). I am not sure if you are missing a wave washer, but that was my problem for a similar issue.


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