bicycle repair Tip Why your bike shifts like garbage > Bicycle Repair Tips

 

Although derailleurs can look intimidating,
they’re actually pretty easy to adjust.
We learned this in another video.
The thing is, adjusting your cable tension,
limits, and B screw doesn’t always do the
trick.
Old cables, improper routing, worn parts,
and a whole host of other things can make
your bike shift like total garbage.
It’s no surprise that I had shifting problems
after that crash.
On the ride home, I needed to mess with the
barrel adjuster just to keep it from ghost
shifting everywhere.
You can keep dicking with your derailleur
to no avail, or you could get down to the
root of the problem: the part it’s mounted
to.
So first of all, why does this happen so often?
Well hangers are strategic failure points.
They are designed to be weaker than your frame
or derailleur so that they will fail.
When your rear mech gets impacted, the hanger
bends or snaps.
This is better than the derailleur itself
breaking, but even more importantly, it protects
your frame.
When an impact isn’t big enough to snap
your hanger, it gets tweaked.
You can stare at it all you want, but you’ll
rarely be able to see which way it’s bent.
Usually it’s tweaked in all sorts of directions,
but we could just replace it right?
Good luck with that early on a Sunday morning.
Derailleur hangers are specific to your bike
frame, so while shops will usually have a
whole bin of them, it’s often times a special
order item.
Lucky for me, Alexander had a specialty tool
that would save the day.
This tool isn’t just for bike shops.
Anyone who does a fair amount of mountain
biking can benefit big time from a derailleur
hanger alignment tool.
The concept is simple; the tool threads into
your hanger, and allows you to compare it
to your rear wheel.
Even if your rear wheel is bent, you can gauge
it against a reference point like the valve
stem as you move around the wheel’s radius.
The trick is to make the gauge skim along
the edge of your wheel at the same distance
in all places.
It’s easy to see where you need to tweak
it out, or in.
Now I actually keep replacement hangers around,
since they’re bound to snap, but in this
case I was unprepared.
Hangers are also more expensive than you would
think, making the cost of a gauge pretty palatable.
This Park Tool model is what a professional
bike mechanic would use, and it’s under
$70.
A cheap one barely costs more than a new hanger
does.
So even if you buy a top of the line model
it could save you money, but more importantly
it can get you back on the trail right away.
Now I’ve bent back derailleur hangers by
hand before, with varying levels of success.
When Alex did it with the gauge, it was flawless,
just like a new hanger.
So if you’re scratching your head trying
to figure out why your bike shifts like garbage,
more likely than not your hanger is out of
alignment.
You could order a new one, go to a shop, or
try your luck with the adjustable wrench trick.
While those options sound great, I’m leaning
towards buying that tool to avoid getting
stuck again.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll
see you next time.