UPDATE: inner ring dropping under high power; 2012 CAAD10 - replace rear derailleur cable, upgrade to etap, or get a whole damn new bike, bro

Triathlon Forum
1

Update:

Bike is shifting great, except that the chain drops off the inner ring when I am standing on a really steep climb and put down anything north of 350 watts. The FD is correctly adjusted… I bought the rings used a few years ago from another STer, so I don’t truly know know many miles are on the rings. Do they look like they need to be replaced?

https://i.postimg.cc/m2jqtcB1/IMG-3335.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/PqTPKF0R/IMG-3389.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/8CXf5mnX/IMG-3388.jpg

Anticipating a very large ride today, 13 miles into it, my rear derailleur cable snaps.

Fortunately, all but 4 miles were descending back to my car.

Needless to say, on my walk up the back side of Flagstaff, I really asked myself why I was still screwing around with mechanical shifting.

Options:

(1) Stop being a baby, replace the rear derailleur cable, and ride the bike until it blows up.

(2) Install etap (no internal routing option, so I’m vetoing di2). (But this seems kind of… stupid on a bike from 2012).

(3) Buy a whole damn new bike with electronic shifting already installed.

Obviously, 1 is the cheapest and 3 is the most expensive.

I’ve never purchased a brand new bike… All my bikes I’ve purchased used, for less than $600. I have a 2012 Speed Concept that I’ve raced for 7 seasons. I have no desire to have a superbike, nor do I need to keep up with the latest tech. Frankly, I hate that mindset. This CAAD10 has been very good to me, with the exception of never properly shifting. I have constantly been dropping the chain off the chainring, despite my multiple attempts in fixing it.

Would love the ST collective’s opinion.

2

You have a great bike. Buy a new one if you like, but learn to dial in the derailleur properly and you’ll be absolutely fine on that bike. Videos on YouTube are your friend here.
Other possible culprits are cassette and chain wear—Id look at those as well.

3

I mean if you want to buy a new bike sure but you will still have to maintain it.
I am still racing (well not right now) and 2012 CAAD 10, still goes pretty fast…

4

I have a 2012 CAAD10. Probably best bike I’ve ever owned. Still rocking the 105 10 speed group on it.

Never ever going to get rid of it.

Just replace the cable. Not a big deal. I have 10s of thousands of miles over the years and never had a cable break. Must just be bad luck.

All that being said, I LOVE my Di2 on my SC. If I ever upgraded on the CAAD I’d go eTap to minimize wires.

5

First I’d figure out why the cable snapped.

6

Any of the choices won’t garantee any mech or electronic fail ride ever.
I did a 65 mile ride once on either 39/11 or 53/11 because of a RD cable snap. It never occured to do anything different on my bike. $hit happens…
If you want to try something different, than this is another story.
After only 13 miles I would have changed the cable and back to my long ride project.

Louis :slight_smile:

7

I would def just replace the cable. That’s a weird thing to happen - you should take a look make sure nothing weird is going on through the path of the cable, and obviously replace the housing with the cable. That is not a hard fix for the most part, just route it through, and dial in the RD cable tension so it shifts cleanly.

Going etap is good stuff but is such a big upgrade that I’d seriously consider a new bike at that point. If that floats your boat, go for it, but I doubt your bike is worth retirement over a snapped cable. I love my 2008 Cervelo, and I don’t favor retro bikes at all - it’s just a great bike all around.

8

The housing was super corroded when I took it off. I guess that explains it.

But damn, that brand new Canyon is looking sweet.

9

But damn, that brand new Canyon is looking sweet.

Forreal
.

10

Just replace the cable.

11

  1. Cables are a consumable. I got in the habit of replacing mine every 7500 km/5000 miles to prevent breaks. Shifting improved each time I replaced the cables. Replaced the housing every 2nd cable.

  2. As a get-you-home hack in the cable break situation, tie off a remaining piece of cable against the cable stop/frame and your rear derailleur. Turns your bike into a single speed (well, 2 speed with the FD). Don’t laugh - Rigoberto Uran won stage 9 of the 2017 TdF like this (well, electronic shifting, but same idea). It beats walking.

12

I realized this after I got home… wish I would have known. Oh well, lesson learned!

13

I realized this after I got home… wish I would have known. Oh well, lesson learned!The CAAD10 is a great bike. I have one as my spare bike (also for on the trainer) and love it. Recently upgraded it to 11 speed. Keep it!

14

New bike.

If the housing is corroded and the cable snapped, you probably haven’t kept up on maintanence. You also said it didn’t shift well and you had problems with dropped chains. Sounds like the group is pretty well worn. You could replace all the worn bits, butt the cost for consumables tends to be more than you realize.

Something like eTap is an option but 12 speed is going to require rebuilding the rear wheel because the dish is wrong. You probably also have very narrow rims that don’t work well with wider tires and tubeless isn’t an option.

I think you are at the point that incremental fixes are kind of a waste of time and technology has really made a new bike much more enjoyable. Someone was saying they picked up a new di2 Tarmac for 4000$ so there are deals to be had on really nice bikes

15

New bike.

If the housing is corroded and the cable snapped, you probably haven’t kept up on maintanence. You also said it didn’t shift well and you had problems with dropped chains. Sounds like the group is pretty well worn. You could replace all the worn bits, butt the cost for consumables tends to be more than you realize.

Something like eTap is an option but 12 speed is going to require rebuilding the rear wheel because the dish is wrong. You probably also have very narrow rims that don’t work well with wider tires and tubeless isn’t an option.

I think you are at the point that incremental fixes are kind of a waste of time and technology has really made a new bike much more enjoyable. Someone was saying they picked up a new di2 Tarmac for 4000$ so there are deals to be had on really nice bikes

Cables - $20 for a full set with housing off amazon
chain - $25
cassette - $60
bar tape - $15
(maybe chainrings, but those don’t wear very fast) . even if they are worn out, $60-100 for rings.
tubes - $15
rim tape - 10
high end tires - $150
BB - $35

That;s $430 max, assuming that every consumable on the bike needs to be replaced all at once. You aren’t getting anything nicer than that Caad10 for that.

16

I have a CAAD 10 as well. Started with the Rival one, and upgraded to Force 22 with the longer derailleur for climbing purposes - have a 34/32 gearing option currently as my granny gear. Love the bike when I get out on it. I’d keep it and fix what needs to be fixed. I had a fun experience two years ago at what used to be Rev3 Quassy when my tri bike broke the week of the race. I put a disc and deep front wheel on the CAAD10 and had the fastest bike split of the day on it!! Certainly not an aero bike, but does the job when needed.

17

This is a maintenance problem, not a bike problem.

I change cables once every 6 - 8 months and have no problems.

18

Dude, have you ever replaced the gear cable?

They will break eventually. Shimano shifters around that time wear through the cables as they rotated around the barrel mechanism inside the shifter. I had the same experience as you.

It’s just a cable. I suspect the bad shifting you had before was due to the outer strands in the cable progressively snapping off inside the shifter.

Shifts get worse, eventually the cable snaps off. And I have had this happen to me.

It is not a problem with your bike or the shifters. Cables wear out and need to be replaced at some point - now is a good time to replace the cable now that it is broken.

19

Dude, have you ever replaced the gear cable?

They will break eventually. Shimano shifters around that time wear through the cables as they rotated around the barrel mechanism inside the shifter. I had the same experience as you.

It’s just a cable. I suspect the bad shifting you had before was due to the outer strands in the cable progressively snapping off inside the shifter.

Shifts get worse, eventually the cable snaps off. And I have had this happen to me.

It is not a problem with your bike or the shifters. Cables wear out and need to be replaced at some point - now is a good time to replace the cable now that it is broken.

I mean, this kind of is assumed, right? haha

20

Anticipating a very large ride today, 13 miles into it, my rear derailleur cable snaps.

Fortunately, all but 4 miles were descending back to my car.

Needless to say, on my walk up the back side of Flagstaff, I really asked myself why I was still screwing around with mechanical shifting.

Options:

(1) Stop being a baby, replace the rear derailleur cable, and ride the bike until it blows up.

(2) Install etap (no internal routing option, so I’m vetoing di2). (But this seems kind of… stupid on a bike from 2012).

(3) Buy a whole damn new bike with electronic shifting already installed.

Obviously, 1 is the cheapest and 3 is the most expensive.

I’ve never purchased a brand new bike… All my bikes I’ve purchased used, for less than $600. I have a 2012 Speed Concept that I’ve raced for 7 seasons. I have no desire to have a superbike, nor do I need to keep up with the latest tech. Frankly, I hate that mindset. This CAAD10 has been very good to me, with the exception of never properly shifting. I have constantly been dropping the chain off the chainring, despite my multiple attempts in fixing it.

Would love the ST collective’s opinion.

I have a CAAD10 also and I’m looking at new bikes. I love my CAAD, especially since I have it in the not often seen blue/orange Gulf Racing color way. I hate the idea of getting rid of it, but the only way I can get a new one is to sell the CAAD10. It’s a bummer.

But…one of the reason I’m looking at a new bike is because I’d like to get into carbon and disc brakes. So I personally think the tech upgrade is worth getting a new bike. If you have the money of course.