Dura-Ace 9000 FD almost gave up trying to adjust

[Pierre]

I've adjusted 7800 and 7900 FD's without barrels without any issues so was feeling pretty cocky about slamming my new (to me) 9000 FD on my bike. It's a braize-on so I made sure the little alignment pin had a good solid place to sit and went about putting this thing on and installing the cable.

Man, I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until the cable was all but shredded and I was so close to giving up and dragging the bike into the shop when I finally got the tension just right so that the chain lifts up to the large cog without issue. Wow. Now of course I need a new cable because I chewed up the one on there. In my case, getting it right meant having the outside edge of the derailleur adjusted not parallel to the big ring outer surface (like shimano says) but a hair outside of it.

Oh and then the need to use an alignment tool to verify angle of entry for the shifter cable...come on, yeah, that's not happening.

[prototoast]

Yes, this gen front derailleur is really awful. I'm not sure how it ever made it to market, but thankfully Shimano has moved away from the design.

[nublar]

Yeah 9100, 8000, or 7000 are much better

[jtbadge]

I've had this generation of FD on a lot of bikes, usually 6800. The trick in this video was key to me being able to set them up: using an allen key to hold the derailleur in the big ring position before attaching the cable makes it super easy to get enough tension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jnNScKhRs

I like the extra tire clearance on the current generation (R9100/8000/7000) of FDs, but they are even more fiddly to set up. The built in barrel adjuster was hailed as a big improvement, but it has almost no range, so it's not really worth that much. I still need an inline adjuster to get enough tension on my frame with no brazed on adjuster.

[Veloo]

Not the first time I'm seeing complaints about this.
I'm not riding Shimano 11.
So a cable tensioning tool doesn't do the trick for the new FD design?

[ultraman6970]

I never cut the cables for the FD till IM sure i got that thing right, sometimes I ride the FD cable rolled and taped for months before I cut that thing, the other reason is because I tend to move groups around, so why to cut that darn cable, specially when testing frames.

[berserk87]

I realize that it's no help, but I bagged my 9000 FD and bought the 9100. I spent the better part of a year and a half trying to get my 9000 to play nice, and got sick of it. I've had zero issues with the 9100.

There are videos on how to adjust a 9000, and plenty of threads on PL about it. None of the online help worked for me. It was worth my sanity to spend a few bucks and go with the newer version.

[steelbikerider]

I had a 9000 FD for about a year and never could get satisfied with it. As soon as 9100 came out, I bought just the FD. By a stroke of luck, I sold the 9000 to a friend upgrading from 7800 and nailed the adjustment on his bike. I didn't know I could get 9000 to shift that well.

[Big Dan]

You need cable tension, lots of it.
Do a search here , we have talked about it.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by Veloo

Not the first time I'm seeing complaints about this.
I'm not riding Shimano 11.
So a cable tensioning tool doesn't do the trick for the new FD design?

Even if you Jack the cable tension waaaay up, depending on the cable angle, it's still quite difficult to get it so that it doesn't rub at one end at the other.

[dddd]

The only problem that the 6800 and 9000 FD's gave me has been occasionally shifting up and not having the derailer move at all.

They apparently tried for more leverage at the point where the chain is pushing the chain against the chainring, but less leverage (faster movement) as the cable pull initiates cage movement.
The result though was that it took much more cable force than before to initiate movement, which tends to fool me into thinking that the chain is already on the big chainring, since it feels like the derailer is hitting the hi-limit screw and doesn't want to move.
I've been riding with these early 11s front derailers for two-plus years now and still have this happen.
The 9100 is better in this regard but still can be very fiddly during the first 2 or 3 installs.

[saab2000]

I've finally figured them out after years of ridicule by those "in the know".

The cable must be under high tension to start with and must use a barrel adjuster to tension it even higher to get it properly adjusted with the limit screws. It's not a bad design once you have this figured out but it can be an extreme challenge if you've never seen it before.

I've tried the next gen design in the 5801 and found it to be even worse and yes, this was after hours of fiddling. It's a POS design with a cable braiding system that is bizarre and convoluted in the extreme.

I use Shimano practically exclusively these days but the Campagnolo front der designs of the past years was better. Three clicks up and three clicks down. No rubbing and no trimming. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Yes, it used a bit of force, but it was better. Plain and simple.

Shimano 9000 front derailleurs work fine when they're set up properly but there is a learning curve.

[Gummee]

I just updated my 2 gravel bikes to the r8000 derailleur. They're even nicer than the R6800 that were on there.

The 9000s I have on my other 2 bikes are nice too, but they take more 'technique' than the new new stuff to adjust. Good thing they stay there once you've got em right.

Set up right, that long arm derailleur is wonderful. Key words are 'set up right.'

Set up right, the new new R8000 derailleurs are even nicer

M

[rePhil]

Besides a lot of cable tension another difference is that both high & low adjustments are done with the chain in the big cog.

Do you have the instructions?

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-RAFD001-05-ENG.pdf

[b021c]

Just a big thanks for the timely thread. The youtube and manual links helped me resolve a frustrating and sloppy shop install.
Cheers all!