Broken derailleur hanger

paulbnix

I was out with friends on a ride today. Half way through the derailleur hanger snapped on one of the bikes.
We didn't have a spare so tried to shorten the chain and cobble together something that could be ridden the 25 miles back home. We failed and had to abandon the bike and rider to the delights of a garden centre cafe. We rode home for the car and rescued him later.

The question is - can you make a bike work if the derailleur has snapped off?

Monty Dog

You can shorter the chain and singlespeed the transmission - it may take a bit of trial and error to find the right chainlength / sprocket combo. Worth carrying a chainbreaker / spare chainlink for this reason. You can get a repair hanger than is held in place by the wheel QR - provided of course the mech hasn't been trashed in the process.

paulbnix

We had a chain tool with us and we did shorten the chain but just spinning the pedals with the wheel held up and the chain did not stay on a spocket. Its not easy to tension the chain with vertical dropouts.
It was a cold day so we only tried once before abandoning the attempt.

I just wondered if anyone had successfully single speeded a 10 speed cassette with no rear derailleur and how they did it e.g which chain wheel and which spocket did you size the chain for?

Rodrego Hernandez

Carry one of these with you;
http://www.madison.co.uk/products/cycli ... ar-wheels/

desweller

I have done it - can't remember what combo I used, but I did have to be careful not to spin too quickly or put too much torque on the cranks as the chain tension was obv. very poor. It actually went to a lower gear on a couple of occasions when I went too fast; quite unnerving, I was worried about my chainstays!