Hi everyone, I stacked it and bent my derailleur hanger. The hanger is built into the frame. Can I just bend it back with some pliers? I know it's not recommended, but I need my bike working asap and it just has to work for two weeks. Any advice is much appreciated.
by No_Cover_5743
15 Comments
You can bend it back however, but it will be hard to get it aligned perfectly straight without an alignment gauge. It would be a quick and hopefully cheap job for a shop, though
How many gears do you need as a minimum for 2 weeks, as you can set the limit screws in the meantime to use a couple/one. Then you can take it to a shop to get them to use a Derailleur hanger Alignment Gauge to set it correctly (best options).
Or you can use an adjustable wrench and attempt the magic your self 🥲
An adjustable wrench may be a safer bet than pliers.
Honestly in the past I’ve used an old derailleur as a lever to bend it back. You could also try taking off the derailleur and bending with some pipe grips, protecting the hangar from the jaws with some tough fabric or something
https://preview.redd.it/3kbs8ks6n5mf1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f58148d984a2172251a24ecc78e2560640bb6981
You really should use one of those alignment tools cause you’ll drive yourself insane with getting the shifting precise again.
That said you can use an adjustable crescent wrench as a lever on the hanger and tweak it back via your eyeballs as a gauge. It can be done but it might involve taking the RD off multiple times to get the shifting just right and that is an art in of itself. This will be a guess check sort of thing.
Get the alignment tool and it will be easy. There’s budget ones on Amazon.
You can bend a hanger back straight with a large crescent or pipe wrench. Put some pliers on there and you’ll only make it worse.Â
But you should just pay a shop to align it for you.Â
It will not shift properly until it’s aligned very precisely. A misalignment that you can’t see visually will still cause it to shift badly.
And every time you bend it you fatigue the metal and risk snapping it off.
Have a shop bend it once and do it right.
Big adjustable wrench. Not sure I can diagnose the derailleur. Hanger is easy. Perfect requires other tools (you don’t have.
You can use another quick release rear wheel and thread it into the derailleur hanger to align the hanger
You need to protect the threads of the hanger itself while bending. I do those adjustments with a sturdy 5mm wrench inserted into the derailleur mount bolt. If it needs to be removed, it is wise to put a bolt in the empty hole before attempting a bend.
Don’t remove any of the components, move the chain out of the way and slowly, carefully pry with a big flat head screwdriver between the cassette lockring and the derailleur bolt.if you take the derailleur off and use a adjustable wrench you run the risk of ovalizing the the hole thus the derailleur won’t go back in.
Remove the rear derailleur but leave the rear wheel in the bike. Use a large adjustable crescent wrench to slowly and gently bend the drop hanger back.
Take it to a shop for real. You miiiight be able to do it in your first try but I would want to leave the wheel in place so the dropout doesn’t accidentally get twisted in the process. You say you really need it operational for two more weeks then do the right job so you can cause if you accidentally screw up the fix like you accidentally screwed up the straight hanger then you’ll be without anyway.
You wrap your hands around the body of the derailleur, then brace your shoulder against the rear triangle/rear wheel and slowly and carefully apply pressure with your shoulder and pull on the derailleur until straight. Slow steady pressure. Again slow and steady.