Adjust a Mountain Bike Rear Derailleur Cable Suspension

Video Transcript

"Now, although there are two different manufacturers of shifters with two slightly different setups, I can pretty much teach you the basics just by going through this Sram system here. Cables and their tension are really key to this whole operation. You adjust the cable tension either up here on the handlebars, like you can here with this shifter, by adjusting it like that--and that's the only place on the Sram shifters you can do it. There is no barrel adjuster here on the Sram shift. The cable goes straight in. On the Shimano derailleur, you can also adjust it on the handlebar, I mean, on the derailleur, because, instead of coming straight in, like on the Sram style, like that, the Shimano one uses a loop of cable that goes back that way. So you get the advantage of more adjustability, but it's a less tidy cable run. So that's one reason why many people are Sram adherents over Shimano. But now, we're going to go through and make sure that this is properly adjusted. There are three adjustments that you have on a rear derailleur. You have your low limit screw, your high limit screw, and what's called "B" or "P" tension adjust."