context: I don't know much about bikes. i like to ride/commute around the city but I've never really dived deep into how to maintain or repair them, hence the following stupidity.
so I recently moved cross country with my trek fx3. I hadn't gotten around to setting up my bike yet, until tonight where I tried to get my chain back on. I thought I had it "caught" back on the gears so I hopped on to ride. at some point I felt a crunch then looked down and saw this. Any idea what I will need to replace here? the entire derailleur? more? I feel very dumb.
by z0d14c
1 Comment
You broke your hanger which might have broken your derailleur but looks okay from the one photo. There are over 300 derailleur hangers (just because). Either go to your local bike shop or use https://wheelsmfg.com/pages/manufacturers to find your hanger. Easy part to get online and highly recommend getting a spare to avoid any future downtime. Once you replace your hanger you can really figure out what is going on with your drivetrain. Also not dumb, these hangers are sacrificial anyways and if your low limits aren’t properly adjusted your derailleur will make a trip into your wheel and snap the hanger (hint hint).
Get a new hanger, go onto YouTube University and adjust away. I prefer to remove cable, adjust high limit than low limit, and then reattach cable. If you are having issues, go to your LBS and if they are worth their salt they will show you where you went wrong. From experience 99% of the time it is from a bent hanger but in your case you won’t have to worry about that. A rule of thumb is that is the hanger is bent it doesn’t matter how good I am or you are at adjusting derailleurs, it will never work.
Also get yourself a chain checker now that you are commuting. Stop & Go is tough on chains and a worn chain will just burn through your drive train components. A worn chain makes adjusting the drivetrain difficult. To help prolong chain life high cadence is your friend, slow grind is what really wears out your drivetrain components.