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Guy at a bike co-op in Tucson showed me why my derailleur was always off
I was at BICAS in Tucson last fall helping a friend fix up an old mountain bike. This older volunteer came over and watched me adjust the rear derailleur for like five minutes. He just said "your cable tension is fine, your hanger is bent 2 degrees to the left." I had been fighting that thing for three straight days swapping limit screws and nothing worked. He grabbed a cheap alignment tool from the wall and had it straight in 30 seconds. I never even thought to check the hanger before because it looked fine to me. Has anyone else wasted hours on a simple fix that someone with fresh eyes spotted right away?
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west.anna25d ago
Ugh yeah, that hanger trick is a lifesaver once you learn it.
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iris_davis9026d ago
Man I read something similar in a bike mechanics forum once where a guy said "check your hanger before you touch anything else" and it stuck with me but I still forget to do it every time. Its crazy how something thats barely visible to the eye can mess up shifting so bad. I spent like two hours once on my commuter trying to fix this clicky sound when I was pedaling hard, turned out it was just a loose chainring bolt that I kept skipping because I figured it would be something more complicated. Fresh eyes really do save you a ton of time and frustration man. That volunteer sounds like a legend though, straight to the point and fixed it without all the guesswork.
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