rough shifting

[Jesse845]

I am new to doing my own maintenance on my drivetrain. I have new XT shifters that I can't quite get dialed in. At first, the chain wouldn't shift onto the largest cog, and kept dropping off of the smallest cog. I was able to fix this by adjusting the set screw on the rear derailleur. I adjusted the barrel adjuster on the rear shifter to get it to shift smooth in my basement. My problem is that when I get it into the woods, it shifts fine until I'm crawling up a hill in the granny gear, then the chain shifts to a smaller cog without me telling it to. Does this mean that there is too much tension on the cable? Would backing off on the tension with the barrel adjuster fix this?

Problem 2: Again, the front shifter / derailleur works nice and smooth in the basement. Once I'm on the trail, when shifting from the small chainring to the middle, I have to shift, then push a little bit farther on the shifter for the chain to shift completely up to the middle chain ring. Is this a cable tension issue also? This is a pretty minor issue, but it still irks me.

Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.

[smctigue]

The first problem could be one of these things or some combo of them:

Not enough tension or your high stop is not allowing the derailleur to travel out far enough. Whacked derailleur hanger.

[Jesse845]

Thanks. I'll play around with it some more before I bring it to Mario.

[ProfessorCracker]

Don't rule out bent (even slightly) del. hanger.
_________________
I like big bikes and I can not lie.