I started a mountain bike ride on my carbon Giant XTC mountain bike and as I was switching gears, my rear derailleur and hanger broke off my bike. I think it even damaged my rear wheel. Is this frame toast?
Photos…
If you’re lucky, just the derailleur hanger will need to be replaced or the rear derailleur bolt. Depends…
As long as it was just the derailleur hanger, the frame should be fine. Snapped my last year and the frame was okay.
bump for pics.
From the looks of it you were most likely shifting to the largest cog in the back and your cage got sucked into the spokes. Most likely a result of a poorly adjusted rear derailleur. Should only need a new hanger.
Is that something a shop can do or will it need to be stripped and sent away?
From the looks of it you were most likely shifting to the largest cog in the back and your cage got sucked into the spokes. Most likely a result of a poorly adjusted rear derailleur. Should only need a new hanger.
Concur. Add one spoke to the shopping list as well (the one between the Chain and Seat stays in the pic)
Any shop with more than 10 minutes experience in the industry should be able to take care of this lickety-split. Might have to wait for the hanger to get shipped, though.
~Rob
From the looks of it you were most likely shifting to the largest cog in the back and your cage got sucked into the spokes. Most likely a result of a poorly adjusted rear derailleur. Should only need a new hanger.
Concur. Add one spoke to the shopping list as well (the one between the Chain and Seat stays in the pic)
~Rob
and another spoke at 10 O’clock: looks suspicious to me
This sucks. I noticed those spokes too. I raced the bike this weekend at the Deuces Wild Xterra and I noticed it wasn’t shifting smoothly in a certain and very common gear. It was also shifting without me wanting it to when I climbed. I played with the barrel adjusters but never quite got it. Derailleurs are something that I do not get.
The fact that the chain has fallen off the inside of the cassette makes me highly suspicious that the limit screw was too loose. Sure, it’s possible that the chain got pulled in there as the derailleur broke off, but it would have to have happened very quickly, before the wheel stopped spinning. More likely that the derailleur shifted the chain off the inside of the cassette and was caught in the spokes immediately thereafter.
Here’s a decent article on rear derailleur tuning:
http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/rshf-tun.htm
Three extra hints I would add:
Barrel adjuster: if you have trouble remembering whether you should be tightening or loosening it, just think of it this way - move the top of the adjuster in the direction where you want the chain to go easily. For example, if the chain shifts slower going to the bigger cogs, turn the adjuster so that the top of it is moving toward the bigger cogs (counterclockwise).
Limit screws: use Loctite blue or similar to keep them from vibrating loose.
If shifting is sloppy no matter how much you tweak the derailleur, check for other problems. Cables moving freely (esp. through the cable guide under the bottom bracket)? Is the cassette mounted tightly and correctly? I once had persistent shifting troubles that turned out to be from mounting a cassette improperly. In a hurried swap from one wheel to another, it turns out that I left the inside spacer on the other wheel.