Rad Runner 3+: Gear Indicator is Different from the Gear I'm in

[Radding1]

Hello,
My daughter knocked my Rad Runner 3+ over while I had it propped up on it's kickstand. Lesson learned for me. Everything is okay except the gear shifter indicator number is incorrect. When I'm in 7th gear, the indicator says 6th gear (actually slightly more, like 6.25). When I'm in 6th gear, the indicator says 5th gear, and so on. When I'm in 1st gear, the indicator goes as far to the bottom left as is possible, where a 0 would be if it existed.

I know this doesn't actually cause issues with the bike, but I would like to have the indicator show the correct number just because it would be nice to have it do so. I haven't had luck finding anything about this online, but I believe that I need to use the shifting cable's barrel adjuster on the derailleur to adjust the derailleur's position. Before I go ahead and do this, I wanted to check if this is, in fact, what I should be doing. Also, if I'm standing behind the bike and looking towards the front, which way should I be turning the barrel as I make the adjustments: clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Thanks.

[Radio Runner]

Counterclockwise will increase tension and make the derailleur shift up to bigger cogs. Clockwise will decrease tension and make it shift to the smaller cogs.

This is for minor adjustments though. If you need a full gears worth of adjustment then the cable most likely got stretched and you will need to undo the pinch bolt, pull the cable tight, then retighten the bolt. (Then adjust with barrel adjuster)

There is also a chance the derailleur hanger got bent, this will skew the derailleur making it shift out of sync with the numbers.

Depending on what hit the ground first there are a few variables to what could have happened.

Tell your daughter next time to make sure and knock it over on the non-drive side only.

[handlebar]

You're lucky you can read it at all! Last year I bought a Six Three Zero ebike with 7 speeds. The indicator had a clear plastic bubble that served as a magnifier.  This bike had swept-back bars, which turned the indicator so that I was looking at it from the side. From that angle, I couldn't read the gear through the bubble. On my second day, that caused me to fall for the first time in 70 years.

I was turning around by the gate at the town park. My turning circle included a small rise. A bit of throttle would have been great, but it wasn't available. At PAS 5, this bike would put 500 watts on the wheel, which Radpower calls 750 watts. The trouble was that PAS 1 applied 350 watts, which would have been dangerous in slow maneuvering like this. PAS was turned off, and without PAS, there was no throttle.

I'd counted shifts. I thought I was in low, to provide torque for this situation. Whatever gear I was in, it wasn't low. Almost stopped, I steered hard right to keep my wheels under me. One trouble with swept-back bars is that turning them right moves your upper body left. I put down my left foot. Another problem with swept-back bars is that if you're to the left and the bike is turning right, it's hard to straighten the bars. The front wheel was continuing to roll out from under me, taking my right foot with it. The obvious solution was to step off the bike, but my heel got caught because the stepover height was a little higher than my Radrunner's.

I decided that this would be a good time to fall on my butt. In 18 months of pedaling my Radrunner every day, it had grown so enormous that I no longer needed a belt to hold my pants up. I enjoyed a comfortable landing.

That bike turned me off on external shifting. It also turned me off on aft-mounted side stands. They're too far from the center of gravity to be stable, so it wasn't your daughter's fault. Leaning the bike against an object is an option, but the front wheel might turn and roll out from under the bike, as it rolled out from under me.

My Radmission is stable when leaned against something because I carry a parking brake: a hook-and-loop strap with a "buckle." It works with my cable brakes. I don't know if hydraulic brakes would leak.

[Radding1]

Thanks for the tips. And I'm so glad that didn't happen to me on my bike either!

My daughter actually dropped it on the driver's side, so I didn't originally think anything of the derailleur and noticed it only later. Unfortunately there wasn't anything around to rest the bike on, either.

It looks like the tension is fine, and the cable isn't caught up in anything. The derailleur seems fine also. I played with the barrel adjuster and marked where I began while also counting the turns so that I could get it back to the original place. However the barrel adjuster only made things worse: skipping gears, rougher, etc.

I should mention that the bike shifts smoothly as it is. Also the shifter, itself, will indicate what I call gear 0 as in it'll show the 1 and then click on lower below any numbers, but not above gear 6. When I push the button, it doesn't even make the click feeling to go up to 7.

I could keep playing with it, but at this point I'm probably in over my head and should take it to my local bike shop who will fix it for $30. After it's fixed, I'll reply to explain what the problem was and what they did in case anyone else has this problem and sees this thread.

Thanks very much for your help.

[handlebar]

Maybe a bike shop couldn't fix it. Here are a couple of other reports of trouble with Shimano Atlus gear indicators.
In the first, three weeks ago, they decided that Shimano and Trek were at fault for the poor quality of the indicator.
https://forums.bikeride.com/thread-8482.html

In the second, six years ago, an advisor said he'd removed his because it was worthless.
https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/43274/shimano-gear-indicator-stuck

If yours shifts fine, no derailleur adjustment is necessary. I adjusted the derailleur on my Six Three Zero before riding it, as the assembly manual instructed. There were 2 screws. The Atlus has 3. There are instructions online.

I had trouble with the indicator because I loosened or removed it in the process of fitting other stuff onto the bars. I thought I was in over my head when I saw that it didn't work right. Whatever brand it was, it wasn't too hard to fix the problem. Great. If I stopped, it would show what gear I was in, but as before, I couldn't read it while underway.

Radpower customer service might be your best bet, but it may take time. I guess most riders tell by feel what gear they're in. With more experience, I might have realized in time that I wasn't in low.

[Radding1]

Thanks for the reply handlebar. I had considered that the indicator, itself, was broken too.

Thankfully I live near a Rad Service centre, but it's not super convenient to get there, and they were closed anyways, so I took the bike in to the local place. They called today to say they fixed it, but I was away today and can't actually pick it up and check on it until tomorrow.

They said the issue was the H-limit screw, which was one thing I didn't try on my own. I'm not sure how it got messed up from being dropped, unless the bike was always like that and I just hadn't noticed. I often don't look at the shifting indicator numbers, either, when riding. It could be that after the bike was dropped, I was just being more observant to see if everything was working fine and noticed it for the first time.

[Radding1]

They adjusted the gears but miscommunicated and didn't actually fix the indicator. They did it quickly though.

It was the indicator that was broken. They opened it up and fixed it in the shop.