Bought my first bike since I was a kid and almost immediately crashed it and bent the gear shifter thing.
by CantPedalForShit
Bought my first bike since I was a kid and almost immediately crashed it and bent the gear shifter thing.
by CantPedalForShit
7 Comments
Bend it back. Its called derailleur hanger.
Looks like you only bent the derailleur hanger, not the derailleur itself. It’s the black piece that’s bolted onto the frame. It’s okay that you damaged it, its role is pretty much sacrificial : it bends so nor the frame of the derailleur do.
You can try to bend it back (remove the derailleur from the hanger before you do) but if it’s misaligned at all the shifting won’t be right. You can take the bike to your local shop. They’ll either correct the alignment for very cheap or they’ll recommend a replacement.
Wherever you bought the bike from may have spare hangers you can buy, it shouldn’t be over $15.
Best of luck !
What you bent is called a derailleur hanger, and it’s a hardware piece designed to save your frame, if you know, you crash and break it. If the frame and hanger were one piece, that would be a big oopsie … Aluminum is not like steel. You can weld it, but it needs heat treatment to be durable, otherwise it’s just cheese. So you can imagine the pain of fixing a one piece frame and hanger. Some hangers can be bent back, others are really tough and kinda snap when you try to. You can try to bend it back into shape, or visit a shop that has an allignment tool specially designed to straighten it back to perfect shape, but be sure to have a spare one. It’s not universal, so find a matching one. Most shops have a disclamer, that if the hanger breaks when they straighten it, the shop is not responsible. So make sure they, or you, have a spare one, just in case. Also, aluminum can’t be bent and straightened multiple times. It fails. So, if this hanger gets straightened, it may fail next time you bend it, or become really soft and get bent on anything (like having the bike resting on the derailleur).
✌️
Easy fix
Hanger is bent, bring it into a bike shop it’ll be a 20 minute job for them to fix it. Left my bike in for 2 hours to get it done the other week, and for cheap
Classic, childhood bike lasts decades without any issues or maintenance and the first expensive one makes problems nonstop
Lucky you, that’s not one of the most expensive derailleurs so even a new one wouldn’t cost you a leg or a foot. See if you can fix it and otherwise buy a new one and cycle on!