Update: I broke my Saracen -- But now it's fixed! :)

[JohnH]

X fingers Please picture once repaired

Will do, Tony!

That will repair fine as you have a frame made from a proper material (steel) heated up properly that will easily return to its correct shape

Yes mate, it's at times like this that I'm glad that I only ride steel frames.

ive straightened a mates mech hanger on a kona frame (iirc) back in the day, at the trailside, with an adjustable spanner, shortened his chain to make it a single speed and we replaced the links and then the mech once home and the bike was good to go again

The weirdest thing is that, as I was riding away from the house, I suddenly wondered if I should have packed my chain-splitter into my Camelbak. Then I thought "Nah, when am I really going to need that?". Oops. If I'd taken it with me, I could have temporarily turned the bike into a single-speed as you did on the Kona -- and I wouldn't have had to carry the bike 2.5 miles (4km) to get home. :roll:

Heat? You don't need heat! Just thread an old solid rear axle into the drop out, tighten a bolt on the inside to spread the load, and bend it back with a large pair of Molegrips; job done...

I dunno how much heat is going to be used. I'm kind of hoping it isn't enough to scorch my paintwork. Perhaps the guy at my LBS is just going to hold a freshly fried sausage next to my hanger!

A large vice or a big hammer and a strong bench will have that back in service

Yep, I think that the LBS workshop has all 3 of those available.

I'd be inclined to either get an 8sp cassette (same width as a 9sp) and set the rear mech up for only the lower 7, then it'll not go over the back.

Or set your current set-up to only the lower 6 cogs with the use of the 'stop screws' on the rear mech..

I'm no engineer, however if the limit screws are properly set on any speed cassette the mech will not shift into the spokes or stays

Yeah, to be honest, the gears were indexing badly (chattering rather than changing), but even so, those limit screws should have done their job and prevented the chain falling off the edge of the cassette. :?

 

[JohnH]

Drive train rule #47; Never hurl down a bank with your cassette in low gear.

Ah dude, I should have read the rules before setting out!

I fear user error, but it's entirely mendable

All I did was shift from the middle ring to the big ring (while in 1st) and then immediately back to the middle ring. I imagine that the sudden amount of 'slack' in the chain on the second shift allowed it to flop off the edge of the cassette. Or that's my guess, anyway... :?

That which they all say - don't think I'd apply heat.

I don't know what to say Dave -- I'm kind of in the hands of the guy at my LBS. But he says that he's straightened out mech hangers before, so I just have to have some faith...

i'm no engineer, but that drivetrain is FILTHY! :shock:

Aww, I was hoping that you'd be too busy looking at the damage to notice that!

Vernon Barker over in Chesterfiled straightened one worse than that for me last year

Did worse on a Marin Pine Mountain - ended up with the hanger twisted through 90 degrees and bent upwards after a twig jammed into the cassette. I bent it back trailside with an adjustable spanner.

8 years later Chas May jigged it up properly when he resprayed the frame.

Cheers fellas, these stories give me a bit of hope that I won't have to go out and buy another frame!

is that south downs bikes?

No, it's City Cycles on the Bognor Road in Chichester...

 

[Ally]

I had a similar amount of damage to a Kona which needed a trailside repair: managed to do a surprisingly reasonable fix by bashing it straight enough to get home with a rock.

 

[JohnH]

Ally, I like your style. Although in my case, even if I'd straightened out the hanger with a rock, the mech was still completely rodgered...

 

[chefmiguel]

If you don't have a derailleur hanger alignment tool, take it to a local shop that does and that knows what to do with it.

 

[02gf74]

That will repair fine as you have a frame made from a proper material (steel) ......

whearas on an improper material bike such as Al or carbon fibre, :? the mech hanger would* have snapped meaning on e or two bolts need undiong and £ 10 to £ 15 for a new hanger instead off faffing around trying to bend back the drop outwithout snapping it off.

anyways good luck with it.

* ofcourse sod's law taking effect it would be the stays that snap not the hanger!!!

 

[legrandefromage]

what size frame is it?

 

[JohnH]

what size frame is it?

From centre of crank to centre of top-tube, 15.5 inches.
From centre of crank to end of seat-tube, just over 17.5 inches.

I'm 5'11", so it's probably slightly too small for me -- but I've owned it from new, so... *goes all sentimental and soppy*

 

[JohnH]

The call came yesterday afternoon to say that my retrobike was repaired...

The hanger has been bent back into shape, but not without distorting its internal screw thread. So that's been drilled out, and a sleeve has been fitted with a hexagonal collar. And the new rear mech has been bolted into the sleeve...

On that second shot, you can see the silver-coloured spacer is still between the spokes and the cassette. The guy at my LBS didn't think that the 7-speed cassette on the 8/9-speed freehub was the cause of the damage -- but I still haven't ruled out upgrading to a cassette that doesn't require a spacer.

 

[hydorah]

Glad you are back in the saddle, but I'd say time to find a better LBS, or my preferred route: sort it out yourself!

Like a lot of the posters in this thread I have straightened rear mech hangers without 'proper' tools and never shagged up the threads... Or needed heat, just a bit of muscle! Good old adjustable wrench technique

Use of the proper tool or Steveo's rear axle suggestion would have prevented distortion of those threads, as the hole and thread are occupied by a bar of the correct diameter and thread which is what you use for leverage, the proper tool also allows the bonus of alignment checking

Of course you'll have no issues the remedy you have got there is perfectly serviceable, just appears they created another issue by poor technique/tool selection