Hot take: I thought frame alignment tools were a gimmick until I checked my "new" frame

I picked up a used frameset off Craigslist in Portland for $200 and my shifting was always garbage no matter what I did. Finally borrowed a Park FAG-2 from a buddy and found the dropout was bent 3mm. Fixed it with the tool and now it shifts perfect. Anyone else had a cheap frame ruin your tune-up work?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_hayes184d ago

man i was totally in the same boat. always thought those alignment tools were just a way for park tool to sell something nobody really needs. but then i bought a cheap motobecane frame off fb marketplace and spent like 3 weekends messing with derailleur adjustments and nothing ever felt right. finally grabbed a hanger alignment tool from a co-op and found it was off by almost 5mm. straightened it out in like 2 minutes and suddenly the whole drivetrain sounded like a dream. honestly feel kind of dumb for fighting with it for so long when the fix was that simple.

betty_ward4d ago

Did your buddy try wiggling the whole derailleur mount first?