Freewheel/gear slipping

Question

I have a new bike which is roughly 6 months old and has not been used much. I've ridden roughly 120 miles on it and the gears or freewheel has started slipping when I'm in the lowest gear while putting quite a lot of pressure on it. I am not sure where to start looking as its been over 15 years since I had been on a bike before getting this one and been a while since I've messed around or fixed them and I never have had this problem before.

I don't mind spending money, I'm just not sure if its something that could be fixed as the bike surely hasn't had enough wear and tear for any parts to break.

Answer 1

Before throwing money at it, you need to figure out what's slipping.

Only 120 miles means that its unlikely to be caused by wear. It feels like the bike wasn't quite setup right at sale.

Is it the chain slipping over the cassette, on the smallest-toothcount rear cog only? That sounds more like an indexing issue, or the high-limit screw is just out of position.

Check with your bike shop - many offer a "one month tuneup" for free, and if you haven't used that then it might be worth doing.

Answer 2

might be a sticky link in the chain, I've had this with a brand new chain in the past. Once replaced, the slipping and noise was eliminated. Might be a cheap fix :-)