Sram etap FD chain drops

[felshampo]

Hi
I have had sram etap now for four months and am having the intermittent chain drop problem.
I read the thread on "Sram etap.Six months in and how you getting on?" with interest as it seems several other etap users also have had this problem.
As far as I can work out the set up is correct. I have sram cranks, bottom bracket chain and cassette. The lbs that fitted them have adjusted them several times but it still sheds the chain on average once a 40mile ride.
I wonder if the people who have had this problem could tell me what they did to solve this problem. What to look for with the set up to make sure this doesn't happen as it is driving me nuts.
Thanks

[byron505]

YES. THIS. ME TOO.

ive resorted to putting on the chain catcher and am not too happy about doing that, but i ended up having to trash my chain because of a random bent link i can't find from dropping it into the bb.

[stien]

Please verify for posterity that you are using Sram 11s crankset, 11s yaw chainrings, and Sram chain.

Please also post what frame everything is fitted to. As the chainstays get shorter, this becomes an issue.

[si1ver]

I am having same problem and set screw clearance from the crank arm.
My set up is hollow gram crankset with absolute black oval chainring 53/39 set up.
The set screw clearance issue was reduce to minimum clearance by grinding the set screw but the again the clearance is only about 3mm . The chain dropping occurs on the every.
I have been reading that many are facing the similar problem and there is little or no attention from Sram side. beginning to feel that eTap isn't the right choice.
At least not flexible enough to run crank or chainring of your choice .

[felshampo]

I am using the sram red 22 chainset throughout on a Orro pyro frame

[1415chris]

I have been using e-tap now for more than a year. With the combination of the Rotor 3d+ and QXL 52/36, which I would call a quite demanding setup, not only for the e-tap. I was also experiencing two most commonly described isssues at the begining, no clerance between crank arm and limit screw and the chain drop when shifting from small to big ring.
Limit screw was replace by Sram free of charge.
Over shifting was solved by fine derailleur tuning, no chain drops any more.

[felshampo]

Over shifting was solved by fine derailleur tuning, no chain drops any more.

Chris
could you explain what you mean by this. What exactly did you change. I have set up the position of the fd by using the sram video on their website. Should I lower it, higher it or twist it? And if so by how much.

[1415chris]

I followed Sram video at the beginning as well and experienced chain over shifts.
But I assumed that it was due to my crank-chainrings combo.
So I decided to take my approach. It is very hard to say what I did compared to the Sram setup, as I suppose it is specific to my crank and chainrings.
Now, if I have to set FD from the scratches I do that in 3 steps:
1. Set up cage height, about 2mm above the chainring teeth when in the highest position (oval)
2. Adjust clearance between cage and crank arm, when on big ring. There is no much space, so I know if I keep it about 3mm, I'm good.
3 Finally adjusting limit screws.
Sometimes I need to move the whole derailleur in or out by a fraction, changing the angle.
Generally speaking, if your dlr is oversifting it means that in the first phase of dlr action, the cage is being moved outboard too much, resulting pushing the chain out of the ring.
If you are ok with the height, I would start from playing with the limit screw first (top one).

[aih312]

I finally gave up on etap on my 2016 Cervelo R5 for this particular issue. I kept on having chain drops from the lower ring to the frame. Even if I had it "properly" adjusted by my LBS (BTW is down the street from SRAM HQ) it never stayed for a reasonable amount of time. I have the full SRAM etap setup so there is no blame for mismatched components. I went back to Shimano Dura-ace and have had no issues at all. Kinda sucks because I really like egronomics of SRAM shifters and when it did work it was nice. My only summation is that it could be a combo of Cervelo and etap not playing nice together. I have taken the bike to a few shops and had the SRAM rep come take a look a few times and give it a green light on the setup. Not really sure what to do.....

[byron505]

Please verify for posterity that you are using Sram 11s crankset, 11s yaw chainrings, and Sram chain.

Please also post what frame everything is fitted to. As the chainstays get shorter, this becomes an issue.

quarq with red 11 speed chainrings, red powerdome, red chain - actually the last drops were on a kmc x11sl chain, but ive never had an issue with that chain dropping before. or maybe i have? did i just learn something?

[asiantrick]

I have the same exact issues with chain drop. Probably 3 times in about 4 months period. One time was on a downhill shifting from small to big in a crucial part of a road race. Got so pissed, ended up sold my ETAP and switched to DA9000. Never been happier!

[jeffy]

2. Adjust clearance between cage and crank arm, when on big ring. There is no much space, so I know if I keep it about 3mm, I'm good.

can you explain what you mean by this? Just seems odd. How do you do this, and how does it effect shifting?

[sp3000]

For the small-big shift I solved a couple of overshifts by bringing in the outer stop screw so there is basically zero clearance between the outer chain link and the FD outer cage plate when in 53-11, I have it so tight that you can just hear it touching when in 53-11, not through the whole rotation but when the chain rattles on the FD cage, realistically when under load it is silent but on the work stand it just touches.

[jeffy]

people iTT (as a general report / resolving issue thread) should differentiate between chain drop from oversight (outside drop), and BB side drop.

Interested to find out how widespread this is.

[1415chris]

I finally gave up on etap on my 2016 Cervelo R5 .....

About 4 months on Cervelo R5 vwd 2012, zero chain drops, over shifting happened from time to time.
Now on S5 for about 10 months, had few chain drops and over shifting, both issues sorted out by FD adjustment.

2. Adjust clearance between cage and crank arm, when on big ring. There is no much space, so I know if I keep it about 3mm, I'm good.

can you explain what you mean by this? Just seems odd. How do you do this, and how does it effect shifting?

That is not something I would recommend to follow. Just my way of setting FD pretty quickly now.
I know the "sweet spot" where the FD cage should be in relation to the crank arm, setting up the correct FD angle, which has a big impact on shifting.
One more thing, I added a Rotor shim (the thinner one) recently. It moved derailleur slightly back and lifted up the end of the cage (the shim is not flat, so placing it different ways you either moving the end of cage down or lifting it up). Few rides since then, shifting is crisp, with no issues.