Techy Q: gear cable adjusters?

[Elliot M]

Anyone know if there's any way of adding proper gear cable adjusters to my Shimano equipped Cannondale? All the MTBs I've owned have adjusters on the shifters which means you can adjust while riding.

I know some road bike frames (Treks?) still have pre-STI style downtube shifter mounts which you can bolt an adjuster onto, but Cannondales have socket type cable guides here.

I do actually have a set of adjusters fitted inline with the gear cable where it comes out of the shifter, but they are useless!

So I have no working adjuster on the front derailleur at all and have to get off to adjust the rear.

I'm not as knowledgeable with road kit as I am with MTB but why did Shimano not stick adjusters on the shifters???

[Jon H]

Do the cable stops on the downtube have a thread in them? If so, you can get a type of adjuster that screws into there. In fact, you might still be able to do it with an unthreaded cable stop, as long as the adjuster is is two parts with a thread between the two.

I think the reason for not having adjusters on the shifters is that (in theory) once set up, a road shifter shouldn't need adjusting on a ride, whereas a MTB will get covered in muck which can affect the shifting so some tweaking may be required.

[Elliot M]

Pretty sure they're not threaded.

Take your point re less adjustment required but no adjuster at all on the front derailleur means you have to unclamp and reclamp the cable to adjust which is a bit clumsy.

Anyway I have tracked down an adjuster for unthreaded clamps:

http://www.b-t-p.de/BTP-English/product ... crews.html