Carrera Subway won't go to highest front cog - just clicks when you press shifter

Participant · 28 May 2020 at 14:06

Hi all

One of our bikes has a problem that I don't know how to solve.

Basically it's fine moving between cogs 1 and 2 at the front, but when I try to move to the 3rd large cog at the front, there's tension on the lever but then it just makes a click noise, the tension goes, and it's still on the second cog.

Would anyone have any ideas what this is and how to fix it please?

grudas · 28 May 2020 at 14:09

yeah adjust the cable properly! will probably need a few extra turns and it'll pop on to 3rd cog.

like that.

Jonny ///M · 28 May 2020 at 16:23

If I'm thinking of the right bike then it has a Sram shifter with a sort of wishbone shape/one piece up and down lever?

If it is actually clicking and slipping then it'll be the ratchet inside that has failed. Pretty common for them to break.

Get some to pedal whilst you pull the cable at the downtube so it goes into the 3rd cog, set the bike down and shift whilst gently pulling the cable. It will go into number 3 as there isn't much load on it but if you pull it tight it should slip confirming the fault.

Participant · 28 May 2020 at 17:59

grudas said:
yeah adjust the cable properly! will probably need a few extra turns and it'll pop on to 3rd cog.

like that.

Jonny ///M said:
If I'm thinking of the right bike then it has a Sram shifter with a sort of wishbone shape/one piece up and down lever?

If it is actually clicking and slipping then it'll be the ratchet inside that has failed. Pretty common for them to break.

Get some to pedal whilst you pull the cable at the downtube so it goes into the 3rd cog, set the bike down and shift whilst gently pulling the cable. It will go into number 3 as there isn't much load on it but if you pull it tight it should slip confirming the fault.

Thanks both. Great vid above and I followed it to the letter, after which it still wouldn't work so I took the shifter apart and discovered that Jonny is right - the internal mechanism is broken so I've ordered another one.

Thanks.

Participant · 28 May 2020 at 18:21

Jonny ///M said:
If I'm thinking of the right bike then it has a Sram shifter with a sort of wishbone shape/one piece up and down lever?

By the way that was correct too. It seems to have an SRAM X4 shifter (though it doesn't say X4 anywhere on mine):

mattyfez · 29 May 2020 at 17:01

If it's SRAM, the shifters are quite interchangeable, as long as it's a 3 speed shifter for the front. I upgraded mine from x4 to a second hand set of x9 shifters, but you could use x3, x4, x5, x7 or x9 etc.

Jonny ///M · 29 May 2020 at 17:05

For front you can use pretty much anything.

Rear ones you have to use numbered shifters for sram and the named sram shifters for shimano.