Today was not a good day.....

[Motozulu]

.....At Motozulu Towers .

5 minutes into follow the Dog at Cannock, my rear whell locked up on me, was'nt on a fast stretch so no off but looking down I saw my rear derailleur wrapped around my rear wheel.

Got home (eventually) and the rear derailleur and the rear hanger are wrecks - hanger snapped in two.
The only good thing is I am starting 3 night shifts tonight so would'nt be riding anyway, the replacement parts are ordered on line so hopefully won't take long. Only problem is I can't afford to pay a LBS to fit the stuff ( Crimbo approaching etc), gonna have a crack at it meself. Never done it before but fairly sure I can attatch em to the bike it's the setting up I'm not sure about - oh well, while I'm waiting I can try and sort the chain out - it's got more knots in it than a knotted thing.

Be prepared in a few days for loads of newbie questions on how to set up the gears. Hope some of you good folks can talk me through the landing.

 

[Lee_M]

New derailleur and hanger and no new chain?

Not sure I'd do that. Are you sure it wasn't damaged when the calamity happened

 

[Globalti]

Make sure you set the inwards limit screw correctly or it'll all happen again!

 

[VamP]

Blessing in disguise this. You will learn essential skills, and accept that the hanger on an off-road bike is a consumable. I hope you ordered a spare...

The derailleur more likely than not has survived the incident.

 

[Motozulu]

Thanks for the early advice - cleaned the chain and given it a quick check - no obvious damage. I'm hoping the new derailleur will come with some decent instructions.

 

[Motozulu]

Cage is bent all over the place - thought it better to just order a new derailleur - £23 from chainreaction

 

[Andrew_Culture]

One of the many times I had to replace a derailleur I was told there was no good reason to change the chain, but sadly the chain disagreed when I was halfway across a busy junction, leading to a further disagreement between my genitals and my crossbar.

 

[Motozulu]

I'll have the chain off and give it a good clean and lubing. At least it was a slow speed buggeration - no damage to spokes or wheel, just derailleur all over the shop. It's only 4 months old so I'll risk it as long as it looks fine - any doubts I'll change it. Going on nights now so won't be able to have a real good look until tomorrow, so while I'm waiting for hanger and derailleur I can give the chain my full attention. Thanks again all.

 

[lulubel]

It's pretty straightforward.

Fitting and adjusting the rear derailleur was one of the easiest parts of building my Surly. Important things are:

Make sure the chain takes the correct line through the derailleur.
Set the upper and lower limit screws so the chain just moves onto the small and large sprockets, but no further.
Set the B screw so there's just enough clearance for the chain to move onto the large sprocket, but no more.

 

[Motozulu]

Sounds simple enough, I'll have to get my head around it as like I said I can't afford anymore bills right now - plus I want to be able to do my own repairs anyway.

By the way - I have absolutely no idea what a B screw is. Hope it comes with drawings.

 

[Peteaud]

Setting the rear mech is easy once you get your head around it.

 

[lulubel]

Sounds simple enough, I'll have to get my head around it as like I said I can't afford anymore bills right now - plus I want to be able to do my own repairs anyway.

By the way - I have absolutely no idea what a B screw is. Hope it comes with drawings.

The B screw is the one at the back - at least it's at the back on the rear derailleur on the Surly. It pushes against a little tab on the hanger (which is much more robust than it sounds from that description) and forces the derailleur to stretch out to clear the big sprocket.

At least, that's how I remember it. It's one of those things you set and forget - unless you change to different size sprockets.

 

[bjellys]

You can always watch some of these on youtube.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KHpyuwIvxE&feature=related

 

[Motozulu]

great link, cheers

 

[billflat12]

.....At Motozulu Towers .

5 minutes into follow the Dog at Cannock, my rear whell locked up on me, was'nt on a fast stretch so no off but looking down I saw my rear derailleur wrapped around my rear wheel.

Got home (eventually) and the rear derailleur and the rear hanger are wrecks - hanger snapped in two.
The only good thing is I am starting 3 night shifts tonight so would'nt be riding anyway, the replacement parts are ordered on line so hopefully won't take long. Only problem is I can't afford to pay a LBS to fit the stuff ( Crimbo approaching etc), gonna have a crack at it meself. Never done it before but fairly sure I can attatch em to the bike it's the setting up I'm not sure about - oh well, while I'm waiting I can try and sort the chain out - it's got more knots in it than a knotted thing.

Be prepared in a few days for loads of newbie questions on how to set up the gears. Hope some of you good folks can talk me through the landing.

+1 for youtube & spare hanger ( mine lives in puncture repair kit with a spare powerlink )
it,s usually just a question of fine adjustment to get the gears to index correctly ,important one is that limit screw, you will notice the derailleur move in the required direction as you turn the screw , double check the end of the spokes where they attach to the hub on the drive side (behind the cassette) this is where the chain is most likely to chew lumps out of any spokes if it was jammed in the wheel .