My chain is only 4 months old, but when I ride at higher speeds (around 35 km/h) in the highest or second-highest gear, it makes a cracking noise and doesn’t feel right. In the other gears, it runs smoothly. Does anyone know what could be causing this? (Chain: SRAM EX1 Motor: Bosch performance line cx)
by J0bettt
4 Comments
Probably not. Just looks like the indexing is off or hanger is out or alignment
But if you want to be sure, buy a chain checker.
Check cable adjustment and get a chain checker.
Also clean your jockey wheels, they look filthy.
Adjust b tension screw and you should be fine
This is an ‘adjustment’ issue, as Shimano will call it. I doubt your chain is stretched beyond the wear limit of .5% after only a few months, but it is a possibility. The only way to check a chain is to measure it. Any shop will do that for free. Again, wear limit is .5% on this systems (commonly mistaken as .75%).
[Here ](https://si.shimano.com/en/dm/MARD001)are all the technical manuals for installing, setup, and adjustment, of the derailleur you have, which I’m almost certain is Deore M5100. Everything in the ‘Adjustment’ box of this link will be useful to you.
More specifically, see the sections: “Adjusting the stroke on the high limit”, “Adjusting the stroke at the lower limit”, “Adjusting the B-Screw”, and “SIS adjustment”.
The likely problem here is a “SIS adjustment”. However, you’ll need to make sure the B-screw adjustment and the high stroke limit is adjusted correctly first. This also assumed the chain is the correct length, which is crucial to these systems functioning correctly. A chain that is too long or too short will always lead to shitty shifting.
In the future, if you ever need to work on or adjust a Shimano bike, refer to [si.shimano.com](http://si.shimano.com) Shimano has amazing technical documentation. Its a little clunky to navigate this site, but they have a tutorial to help get you started.