Chain, gearing, and brake issues on LWB recumbent

My original LWB recumbent has had chain, gearing, and brake issues its entire life. It's a Magna MTB with a long boom welded in the middle and a 20" wheel on the front. I'd like to start commuting with it so I'm hoping to get some problems resolved. Throwing this out there in case someone more bicycle savvy has any thoughts on any of these points:

Chain: it skips. This happens sometimes once, sometimes up to 3 times through the length of the chain, usually in the higher gears. I figured it was a bad link... but the thing is so long I haven't located one link in particular. Do I replace the whole chain? I have tried switching derailleurs but it doesn't help.

Gearing: the gears change on their own. I have to keep moving the lever back to the right spot. Additionally, I have to wiggle the lever to get the highest gear to engage.

Brake: no matter what I seem to do, the brakes are either rubbing against the rims or if I adjust them further away the stopping power is not very good. When I was a fear years younger I liked to live on the wild side and ran the bike with just a crappy rear brake, but nowadays I'd like to stop

chain skipping means the chain is stretched, or, the gears have worn out. Fix: replace the chain, check the gears for excessive wear.

Gear shifting problems would be a derailer out of adjustment. (or misnatched to the spacing of the gears) Fix: I think Shelden brown's webpage has info on adjusting a derailer.

brakes. it sounds like your wheel is out of round if you have to back them off that far before it stops rubbing. Need more info on brake type and symptoms, but it sounds like the Fix: true the wheels, readjust the brakes.

Drunkskunk said:

Gear shifting problems would be a derailer out of adjustment. (or misnatched to the spacing of the gears) Fix: I think Shelden brown's webpage has info on adjusting a derailer.

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Another culprit can be excessive friction in the shifter cable. New cables and a nice smooth routing should help. Ditto, Shelden Brown's website is a great source for this kind of info.

Brakes: Also see if your brakes and brake levers match. My Linear has old style levers with a relatively short cable pull and has been upgraded to V-brakes front and back. V-brakes expect more modern brake levers that pull about 2x more cable. I get super light brake action out of this, but they are harder to adjust.

Marty

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I will replace the chain on my bike as its old and rusty. The teeth on the sprockets look pretty good.

The brake levers are newer style ones going to old school brakes. The rear brake is a caliper (which I dragged back from Yodobashi-Akiba in Tokyo...) and the front is this annoying V style that has multiple pieces that need to be tightened simultaneously. I tried to upgrade the front to newer V brakes but the brake bosses don't work with the newer brakes.

The best solution for braking may be for me to replace the front fork with a newer one, or use the motor (since the bike is FWD) to brake.

My friend Victor, an avid SF cyclist, did help me adjust the derailleur. The process went like this:

1. Raise rear wheel off the ground
2. Have assistant turn the pedals
3. Have assistant shift to lowest gear
4. Adjust low gear screw on derailleur to set derailleur position (for my derailleur this was the outside most screw)
5. Shift to highest gear
6. Adjust high gear screw on derailleur