was out on a wee jaunt this morning and one of the riding partys rear mech hanger burst and the mech fell off,my question is would we have been able to shorten the chain and temporarily make it single speed to get home??would be good to know for future reference…
thanks for any advice

yes, Easy if it is a hardtail but a lot harder if it is a full suss with a chain length that changes during travel.

you can buy emergency mech hangers too. Worth carrying amongst a group.

Yes, assuming its not a full sus that has chain growth.

Now that the conditions are proper gloopy, a spare hanger is a bit of a no-brainer but betd do a universal mech hanger, pop one in the bag and everyones covered…

This http://muckynutz.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17_43&product_id=102

It’s not really possible to run SS even as a get me home on a full susser I’ve found. It is however perfectly possible to have to walk a very long way home pushing the bike.

thanks guys,it was a hardtail.i’ll need to get my spares upto scratch.dread to think what the bill will be to fix it,hope he knows a reasonable mechanic and not one of these robbin gits.

yes, done it a few months ago on a ht and ended up running the bike like that for a month or 2. New mech hanger should cost around £15, problem with me was that i mangled my wheel and derailler at the same time which made it alot more expensive, eventually got the bike back up running with X7 stuff for around 80-90quid, that included, new chain, cassette, derailleur, mech hanger and getting the ripped off spokes and wheel trued(only got the bike shop to do the last wheel truing and spokes though.)..

I had this happen to me once on my full susser and I walked a long way to get home at night. I was later told that I could have completely removed all the air out of my rear shock thereby effectively converting it to a hardtail, and making it a singlespeed by shortening the chain.
I will hopefully never have to try it but its one trick to keep in the back of your head.

Happened to me a few weeks back on my Zesty when I managed to break my mech hanger and my spare… the run from the top of Ben MacDui is particularly rocky…………..

I managed to singlespeed back to the van after the 2nd hanger went (about 3km).

If you put the chain on so that it is not taught, there should be enough slack in the system to account for any chain growth.

EDIT: But definitely that should be a last resort. Spare mech hangers all round!