My Full-susser and both my lads’ bikes had been showing consistent and troublesome shifting issues for some time

Went through all the usual routines; changed to full outers, new cables, re-indexing etc but to no avail. All three prove difficult to index (get it right at the top end, bottom end farked and vice-versa) and ghost shifting.

Suspected bent/misaligned hangers so went to my LBS. £20 per bike (reasonable enough I guess) probably could have got all three for £50. Inquire as to cost of tool; £65 for the Park Tools alignment tool, so ordered. Got it at the weekend, an hour or so I’ve checked and re-aligned hangers on all three (all were out by 1/2 to 1 inch measured at the rim by the tool).

All now working beautifully.

Cost me £5 more than the shop doing it but now I’m fully capable of the fix forevermore.

So while the tool seems expensive (and probably is, for what it is) it WILL save me money.

If you suffer regularly get one. Better still club together with a few mates and ‘pool’ the tool

Make sure you don’t snap the hanger…
Did you replace them or just bend it back? It will be weaker now so make sure you have some spares with you when you head out.

Park DAG 2.2 is one of the next tools on my list. I’ve had a handful of derailleurs straightened by the LBS over the years.

Make sure you don’t snap the hanger…
Did you replace them or just bend it back? It will be weaker now so make sure you have some spares with you when you head out.

Bent them back.

I have a spare for my FS which I carry but not for my lads’ bikes.

I’m not over-worried as I don’t believe this is trail damage (I’m a wheels on ground type rider). I think the hangers are getting bent carrying the bikes IN the car with the wheels off.

I’m not over-worried as I don’t believe this is trail damage (I’m a wheels on ground type rider).

Where most of my bent/snapped hangers came from.

1 or 2 cm out at the rim is about as much as I’ve seen brand new frames out by. It’s really not a huge amount of bend. Unless you do it several times.

It’s probably possible to get the indexing spot on with brand new kit. But once it all gets a bit used, it gets harder. And easier to just straighten the hanger.

I usually check mine every time the rear mech comes off.

Heres one for £25

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-derailleur-hanger-alignment-tool/

essential if you work on old bikes.

I’d guess at 25-40% of new bikes having a hanger that is misaligned enough to be worth straightening.

Some brands it’s almost guaranteed.

Even if the actual replaceable hanger is straight, how flat is the dropout (not very in some cases)

My hanger tool is a bit of 10mm bar and an old cup-and-cone rear axle, they have the same thread as mechs. So, thread that into hanger, stick 10mm bar into dropouts to give a straight edge, straighten.

I got a wee bit obsessed with hanger straightness so I basically check it every time I have a bike in the stand with the back wheel out, now. And more often than not it’s bent, except on the really massive burly hangers. They have a pretty hard life.

DAG 2.2 is a joy to use, then wind out B screw as much as you can to get top jockey near but not touching cassette. Really makes a difference.
Also, with no chain set the mech limit screws so it lines up below high and low cassette cog. This stops any mech spokes or chain into frame and cassette gap possibilities.

Every “gears thread” that pops up on here gets my standard response.

“Is the mech hanger straight?”

A new hanger is no guarantee of it being straight.

Glad to see more people are buying and using a proper tool. It saves so much faff when setting up gears.

Park DAG 2.2 is a fantastic tool, and one of those ones that pays for itself after a couple of uses.

There is no greater joy than using the right tool for the job.
Thats why I spent £30 on a set of Shimano cable cutters 20 years ago after years of buggering about with mole grips and pliers.

Yeah, i spent a similar amount on shimano cutters about 25 years ago. Went and bought some proper commercial ones about 3 months later. Which, despite having been used to cut spokes several times, are still in service today. Only as a back up pair though, have some Wera (?) ones as my main ones now.

Not as bad as the park ones i’ve had at more than one place i’ve worked.

“Replace weekly, send the old ones back”

Repeat.

My Park cutters were absolute bollocks. Replaced them with some wire rope cutters off ebay which cost £7 and are still going strong.

(I know buying non-bike tools offends some people but calm down, you can buy literally the same cutters as I have but with Pedros branding for about £30. Or from Xtools for £13 if it’s got to have blue bits)

The Cylus or Lifeline tool are half the price of the Park and make no difference to the job that they do. Having worked in a shop with the full suite of Park Tools, a lot were very average and you can buy better quality, general workshop tools for less money IMO.

I’ve got the Park one. As above it doesn’t seem to be any better made than the lifeline. A lot of Park Tools are overpriced and very average IMO.

The complaints in the reviews about the Lifeline, excessive play, exist in the Park one too! You have to tighten the grub screw in use. Now if the replacement parts from the Park fit the Lifeline, it would definitely be the way to go. Having said that it would take a lot of use to wear components out, the grub screw and the shaft it bears onto seem to be the bits that will wear out first.

Teng 8″ Side Cutters doing the biz for me cable wise.

Can anyone tell me if the hanger tool will suit boost frames please?

Shouldn’t be a problem Wrecker.

Thanks!

Was having some issues with inconsistent shifting performance, and playing around with cable tension etc to no avail led to plenty of head scratching. After reading this post decided to invest in a Park alignment gauge and it’s done the trick. The hanger wasn’t out by much so couldn’t really notice the problem before.

Gear hangers can get knocked about when transporting in the car as well as when riding so I see this as a good long term investment (at least that’s what I’m telling myself).

My hanger tool is a bit of 10mm bar and an old cup-and-cone rear axle

Any chance of a pic Northwind?

I don’t have any but it’s pretty straightforward tbh- you just bolt the axle into the hanger, sticking outwards, then you stick the bar (or whatever other straight edge you like) into the dropout/axle holes, and they should be perfectly parallel.

Ah I see, so you’re checking the hanger hole is parallel with the dropouts rather than the hanger face being parallel with the rim like the tool linked above? Makes sense – just a different way of measuring the same thing.

Yup, exactly. Possibly a better way since it doesn’t matter if the wheel’s straight, or perfectly located in the dropouts. Though it does mean you have to take the wheel out obviously. Much of a muchness in use.

Just picked up the lifeline hanger checker and dishing tool using my silver discount at wiggle before it expires. Seems okay made, I do like Park stuff but for the amount I will use this the £22 Lifeline should be fine.

I did wonder about using the rim to check but you are supposed to use the same point – ie next to the valve and keep rotating the wheel with the jig. If the wheel is not in the drop out correctly or something else is wrong then this should highlight that and I hope people look for other reasons for misalignment before tweking their hanger. Plenty of frames have excess paint or incorrect machining of drop outs that can go unnoticed for years.