Yeah, never. I don’t even know how to use it. I just get my bikes tuned up at the local bike shop every year. FWIW I’m kind of embarrassed by my lack of bike mechanic knowledge, and I recently bought an old Diamondback for commuting with the goal of doing all the work on it myself.
No need to be embarrassed. Basically you turn it to get your gears to index properly, which prevents the need to push a bit extra on the shifting levers to actually get the gears to shift.
You can try it yourself by turning a bit in one direction and then seeing if the gears shift better - look for no sounds being present and the shift completing without any additional push. If it got worse, then turn the other direction. Seems a lot more intimidating than it actually is.
I used to be woefully deficient in mechanic knowledge, but then I started going to the local coop bike workshop, which is probably one of my favourite places in the world.
You’ve never used the barrel adjuster in 40 years of riding?
Yeah, never. I don’t even know how to use it. I just get my bikes tuned up at the local bike shop every year. FWIW I’m kind of embarrassed by my lack of bike mechanic knowledge, and I recently bought an old Diamondback for commuting with the goal of doing all the work on it myself.
No need to be embarrassed. Basically you turn it to get your gears to index properly, which prevents the need to push a bit extra on the shifting levers to actually get the gears to shift.
You can try it yourself by turning a bit in one direction and then seeing if the gears shift better - look for no sounds being present and the shift completing without any additional push. If it got worse, then turn the other direction. Seems a lot more intimidating than it actually is.
I used to be woefully deficient in mechanic knowledge, but then I started going to the local coop bike workshop, which is probably one of my favourite places in the world.