Ouich - chain slip?

Sewinman

I pulled away from some lights today and was pushing quite hard. I think the chain then slipped or my gears changed suddenly. There was a cracking noise, my foot suddenly jerked down and I went straight over the handle bars!

Slightly bruised and bloody but thankfully Tiberius is looking ok. :P

Does anyone know what happened to me!?

iainment

Is this a contest?

You fell off your bike.

Cafewanda

I've got the right answer!!

Your chain had had enough of being treated so badly and decided to throw a tantrum


What's the prize?

Sewinman

Ok - to clarify, does anyone know why i fell off my bike, and is there something wrong with the bike to cause this?

Its practically brand new.

Sewinman

Having googled a bit it sounds like my rear derailleaur is slipping gears. :? Time to take it for a tune up.

Kieran_Burns

If your chain slipped I would say it needs a clean as a first port of call... it may not have quite fitted the rear mech as you applied pressure and jumped a cog.

As to what happened to you: the sudden release of tension meant that the rotational energy built up in your driving leg catapulted you over the handlebars. Effectively you jumped over them.

itboffin

Sewinman wrote:

Having googled a bit it sounds like my rear derailleaur is slipping gears. :? Time to take it for a tune up.

new bike = cable stretch

You need to tighten your shift cables by turning the barrel adjuster located on the downtube or on the rear mech it's self, not sure what groupset you have but mine tightens clockwise.

Sheldon is your man

cjcp

itboffin wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Having googled a bit it sounds like my rear derailleaur is slipping gears. :? Time to take it for a tune up.

new bike = cable stretch

You need to tighten your shift cables by turning the barrel adjuster located on the downtube or on the rear mech it's self, not sure what groupset you have but mine tightens clockwise.

Sheldon is your man

+1. Mine did the same.

girv73

Ooo, that happened to me when I was a kid and I smashed my arm rather comprehensively.

Sewinman

Thanks chaps. That all makes sense. I am due a free service from De Ver, so I think I will leave it to them this time.

Thanks to the guy who stopped and asked me if I was ok, no thanks to the taxi who tried to driver over my water bottle as it rolled about on the floor!

It is a weird sensation, sudden forces contolling your body that you have no control over! I was up and fine one sec, ata eye level with tarmac 0.1 secs later. :shock:

King Donut

cjcp wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Having googled a bit it sounds like my rear derailleaur is slipping gears. :? Time to take it for a tune up.

new bike = cable stretch

You need to tighten your shift cables by turning the barrel adjuster located on the downtube or on the rear mech it's self, not sure what groupset you have but mine tightens clockwise.

Sheldon is your man

+1. Mine did the same.

Yep sounds like it. If you bought from LBS they may well do a free service once everything is bedded in a bit

Stuey01

I've done very similar, but I had actually sheered a crank bolt and the cranks flew right off.

Probably just cable stretch knocking your indexing out as stated by the others.
It would be worth giving your chain the once over, recently my gears were slipping and when I inspected the chain I found that one of the links had almost completely disintegrated, amazing that it didn't snap. Unlikely to be this but can't hurt to spend 5 mins looking it over.

spen666

Sewinman wrote:

Ok - to clarify, does anyone know why i fell off my bike, and is there something wrong with the bike to cause this?

Its practically brand new.

Why did you fall off the bike?
You over balanced and were not able to rectify it

sarajoy

I did that as well on a newish bike some years ago on the way to my last ever degree exam.

Really annoying, was on my way back up a hill after a long gentle descent, so my gear was HIGH and I was tramping down hard on every push... BANG down went the foot, over goes me and the bike, we both skid along together for some number of feet. Looovely rash all down my right forearm, I took a couple of painkillers, stuck some paper to it (to keep it from sticking to the desk/my answer-book), ploughed through the exam and then went down the park and got very very drunk.

dUNC

Similar happened to me a few weeks ago although I didn't go over the bars - it was when first pulling away, leg shoots from the 2 o'clock position to 6 o'clock accompanied by a large clunk and grating noise. Bike hadn't moved, apart from sideways with me losing balance from the effort!

I figured it was something to do with the indexing or a worn chain but given yours is brand new I guess it would be the former. I took mine into the LBS (I wanted peace of mind and an 'official' diagnosis) - the missus was supposed to ask what it was when she picked it up but forgot. I'll bear this in mind for the future though.

Can be very scary, particularly with madened drivers behind you (and it started happening on mine a lot). Glad you're ok.

the_hundredth_idiot

Same happened to me last year - just a few weeks after I bought my new road bike. Pulling away from lights, next thing I knew I was flying over the handlebars to land in an undignified heap on the tarmac - I still wish I'd got to my feet and taken a bow to the watching car drivers and pedestrians. Still not really sure what happened but one of the guys I work with (keen roadie) suggested it was probably chain slip like you described.

I got away with no injuries but the bike had a bent rear derailleur - which I found out the hard way on the way home that evening when the chain dropped into the gap between the cassette and the wheel. Thankfully, as it's a steel framed bike, it only cost £20 for Condor to bend the derailleur back into place (plus £30 for a new saddle as the old one was torn and £15 for new hoods as I'd ripped the right one).

The irony is that when the accident happened I was actually on my way to Condor for them to remove my pedals as they'd apparently used the BIG pedal wrench to tighten my pedals and there was no way my little spanner was going to move them.

Sheldon has something to say about standing up on the pedals of a bike - i.e. don't do it unless you're absolutely certain of the bike. Wish I'd read that before my acrobatic display.

bigmat

Just to add, whilst new bike suggests chain slip more likely to be the cause, would be worth checking the freewheel as well. I had a similar crash earlier in the year and turns out my freewheel was on the way out, was out of the saddle in the big gear and putting the power down and all of a sudden, no resistance, lunge forward and down onto the tarmac like a sack of ****. All very painful, and lucky there were no cars following at speed.

leedsmjh

I had something similar on a new bike many years ago. It was chain slip due to a faulty chain ring (teeth were mis-shappen I think). Alas the LBS didn't decide this was the problem until it was out of warranty and I'd gone through rather a few chains

Sewinman

Turned out i had two cracked ribs. I MTFU today and cycled into work. Slightly painful and i felt a bit vunerable/nervous. Anyway, GREAT feeling to have cycled, was feeling really fat and lethargic. Woop! 8)

jonginge

Ouch. Good to hear you're on the mend. Cracked ribs are annoying, takes ages for the last stabbing pains to go away

Clever Pun

Sewinman wrote:

I pulled away from some lights today and was pushing quite hard. I think the chain then slipped or my gears changed suddenly. There was a cracking noise, my foot suddenly jerked down and I went straight over the handle bars!

Slightly bruised and bloody but thankfully Tiberius is looking ok. :P

Does anyone know what happened to me!?

no lady cushions to fall on this time?

Sewinman

Clever Pun wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

I pulled away from some lights today and was pushing quite hard. I think the chain then slipped or my gears changed suddenly. There was a cracking noise, my foot suddenly jerked down and I went straight over the handle bars!

Slightly bruised and bloody but thankfully Tiberius is looking ok. :P

Does anyone know what happened to me!?

no lady cushions to fall on this time?

Ha ha No! I felt somehow cheated.