What cassette spacer?

BTW, if your inside limit screw is properly adjusted it should be almost impossible for your chain to fall off the inside.

Do you have a compact-specific front deraileur?

Re check your limit screws on the the front deraileur, your chain should not fall off.

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Suffer Well.

Is your derailleur cage (outside plate) parallel to your large chainring? Also, check that the outside plate is spaced about a millimeter from the large chainring teeth.

Like on your regular set up, this is not a correct gear to be in. You are crossing the chain and should be in the little ring, down the cassette farther to get the same gear. If this is your favorite gear, you should have a 25 cassette so you can be down a cog and have a straighter chain. You can do it, but it is better not to be in the extremes of your gearing, like a 39X11. You should be able to adjust the derailluer to correct.

- The spacer goes on the inside of the casette when you put a 10-speed cassette on a 9-speed hub (shimano). At least that's what the instructions said to do.

- I have a IRD Compact front derailleur

- It sure looks like the derailleur cage is parallel to the chainring.

- The front derailleur limit screw I think is well adjusted. Even when I have it set so that it runs against the chain (too tight), the chain can still fall off.

- The chain falls off when I'm in the small chainring. There should be nothing wrong with being in your smallest chainring and largest rear cog, right?

Thanks for your help.

Francois posted, to me, that when you are in the small ring and the second largest cog, there should be 1 mm between the front deraileur and the chain. (I think I have that right--Francois? What say you?)

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_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

You need one of these puppies.



Chain Deflectors/Anti-Derailment Devices

Go to this link. Halfway down the page.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/chains.html

Harris Cyclery has 3 different types to choose from.

I've read great things about those. Kind of makes me question my opting for an aero seat tube on my custom tri bike- had I gone round, I could use one of these. Whatever aero advantage is provided by the seat tube would surely be negated if/when I drop my chain (as far as losing time in a race is concerned). Granted, I always keep my equipment in good health and adjustment, shit can still happen during a race.

Yeah, just ask ol' David Millar about dropping chains.

Well, at least I have a front derailleur on my bike! :)

You are correct, I am not. The only problem with being in the listed gear is that the hill is pretty steep. The chain should not come off.

If it's doing it when you shift down to the lower ring it's f der adjustment. Otherwise the only thing I can think of is using a 9 sp chain with an old/bent inner ring could lead to it derailing itself when you shift into low gear in back.

It sounds like you're doing everything right. What bike is it on? I could see this being an issue perhaps on a bike with very short chainstays (i.e. P3)- that chainline can get pretty scary, even from small ring to big cog.

What crankset and chain? What chainrings? Are the chainrings installed correctly? I once saw a bike come into the shop with the inner ring installed backwards- it was shifting all kinds of crazy. We monkeyed with the thing forever and finally realized that the lettering on the chainring was facing the wrong side! Also, some chains have a "wrong" and "right" direction to be installed. Same with Wipperman links (just the link). That's all I can think of right now; I'll post again if I come up with anything else.

I'm riding a c'dale R800. Just installed a FSA Carbon Pro Compact with an ISIS BB. Ultegra 10-speed chain. Haven't checked the chainring orientation, I'm pretty sure their on in the right direction (or at least I haven't changed it since I took it out of the box!). I think I'll try one of those chain deflector monkeys but thanks for the help.

Try a 10-spd specific (Shimano) front derailleur. The cage is about 0.6mm more narrow than the 9spd derailleurs. I switched a friend's bike from 9 to 10spd (with an FSA compact) and tried to use her old front derailleur and had a devil of a problem getting it to shift properly. I think it would stay on the little ring ok, but I couldn't get it to reliably shift between the rings without dropping the chain to the inside or outside. I tried her original 9spd double, a 10spd triple, a 10spd double, and the IRD compact-specific derailleur. The best one by far was the 10spd double. I was not impressed with the IRD derailleur construction in the least. And, come to think of it, I seem to remember running out of needed travel on one of the limit screws - maybe that is contributing to your problem.

also check your chain for bent links from the installation. I've seen that cause the chain to drop when the bike is in certain gear combinations and it hits the bent link just right with the chainring teeth.

I also recall hearing that FSA was having shifting problems with their chainrings and 10spd chains - their rings were a touch too thick. I heard that they made the rings slightly thinner and that cleared up the problem - perhaps you got an older set of the cranks with the thicker rings? I don't have personal experience with this one, but you could look into it if nothing else works.

good luck

J

yet another reason why nine gears is enough.