Chain Skip/Ghost shifting

[TXRAiDR]

I took the fat tire bike out this weekend just to get a way from the road grind. All said and done, I had a good ride except for my shifting. I've got SRAM shifters and a SRAM 7.0 RD. It's an 8 speed set up. Problem I'm getting, and this isn't all the time, is the chain skips/shifts on the rear cog. Took a look at it and the cogs are straight. None of the teeth look chewed up. The cassette is XT. I'm running a SRAM chain on it too. Chain skipping happens when I'm single track, ghost shifting happens on climbs. I'm thinking I've got stiff chain link somewhere or one of my adjusting screws isn't tuned in. Worst possibility is that I bent the RD or it's hanger. Any other possibilities or things I should look for?

[Jeff]

There seems to be a lot of twisted chainlinks going around. my guess is from chainsuck. Check that out. Otherwise pedal the chain backwards until your rear der jjumps . Slowly feed out the links until you see the sticky culprit. Wash with degreaser a couple times. Let it airdry and relube. If that doesn't work Take the chain off and bathe it in degreaser.

[carlos]

jeff got the right idea. degrease that whole chain. while you're at it, remove the cassette and degease that too, if it's really dirty. chainrings too, if possible.

then, check out the MOJO Mag on der adjustment.

http://bikemojo.com/mag1201.htm

the only difference is that you'll need to use the barrel adjuster on the shifter cause the rear SRAM ders don't have one.

[TXRAiDR]

You ain't going to believe what the problem was! Apparently when I went through some of the brush, I got a twig or something tangled in the drive train. It got caught in the drive train and got chewed up. Just enough of the fibers got lodged into a couple of the chain links to stiffen them up. The cleaning is all it needed.

[carlos]

cool!

that's a new one to me! i've never heard of the twig getting chewed up.