# Rival Front Derailluer



## C Dunlop (Feb 28, 2009)

Hello,
I revieved my Rival equipped bike today. The front Derailleur seems to be incredibly tempramental. I can only just get it to shift without rubbing in both the small and the big ring. I have never had any trouble setting up shimano, and this is not a problem that I have had before. Also, as I was making adjustments, sometimes the front derailleur was not shifting at all. The lever would do its thing, but not enough cable was being pulled to get the job done. It seemed that at this point it would not shift up, because the shifter was in its highest position, despite still being in the lower ring, but not shift down, because in the lower ring the derailleur was up against the limit screw and that it required a lot of work to get things going again.

My worry is that if i go on a ride and the front mis shifts, that I will be stuck in one ring all day. Is this just a SRAM quirk or is there something that I am just not seeing?


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## Cyclo-phile (Sep 22, 2005)

Take it back to your LBS and have them adjust it.


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## Becky (Jun 15, 2004)

Start over with the FD set up. IME, Rival FDs are a little finicky to set up. I probably set the limit screws and tension on mine 3 times before I was content with the way it shifted.


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## shanegatz (Apr 13, 2007)

Becky said:


> Start over with the FD set up. IME, Rival FDs are a little finicky to set up. I probably set the limit screws and tension on mine 3 times before I was content with the way it shifted.


I had to do the same thing with my Rival FD. Now that its dialed in it works great. I found that it was really sensitive to cable tension. Too much and the shifter sounded like it was going to break. Not enough and it didn't shift at all.


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## luffwoolly (Jan 13, 2009)

ditto for me on the FD installation. Now I'm trying to smooth out the shift from large
to small ring. It seems it has so much tension it almost pops between shifts.
Any thoughts? Still more tweaking...


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## ddallam (Nov 28, 2005)

Me, too. This FD requires WAY too much tweaking, and once it's fully tweaked, it still rubs a little. Maybe SRAM thinks this is no big deal, but it's seriously inferior to my Campy Chorus on my other bike.


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## Fattybiker (Mar 2, 2005)

SRAM's front derailleur's are the weak link in their group. Save yourself the headache and use a Shimano front derailleur. Set it up, ride, and never worry again. SRAM, are you listening???


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## de Ron (Jan 13, 2008)

I installed the SRAM Rival group on my cannondale CAAD 6 bike last week.

Everything fine, except the set-up of the Rival Front derailleur. 
I searched the internet, and found some threads like this one about problems in setting up a rival (and red) front derailleur.

I tried every advice I found:
- lubing the cable
- install an inline cable adjuster
- use a four-arm tool

I even replaced the Rival FD by a RED FD, and still the same problem: very hard to shift, as if the lever could brake any moment;

And then I found a posting and a picture on the parktool website, about installing the rival fd derailleur. And there I noticed a small difference in the set-up of my Rival front derailleur:
- the place where the shifter cable is tightened to the front derailleur by a screw, was on the LEFT side of the screw; mine was installed on the RIGHT side of the screw (from the viewpoint if the FD is positioned in front of you); I did this small change, and yes... it works as a charm. The shifting is easy as with other groups

I just wanted to share this experience with you, for those people having really a lot of trouble setting up their rival/red FD


Greetz
Ron


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## daniyarm (Aug 19, 2008)

I have a braze-on Rival FD that was installed by LBS and it works like a charm, trim and everything. My guess is they need to be installed by an experienced mechanic and then they function like they were designed.


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## TucsonMTB (Aug 3, 2008)

Wow! http://www.parktool.com/repair/readcalvinscorner.asp?id=153 Rocks! Thanks for the great tip!


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## K&K_Dad (Dec 10, 2008)

Does anyone have or know of a video showing how the left shifter in action(Rival). The more and more I see I think mine isn't shifting right but I have nothing to compare it to. And every video out there only shows the right shifter.


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