I have one of the first Planet X Nanolight frames (great to ride) and the other day the mech went into the rear wheel. Was a bit surprised this happened on a road bike and it was all set up correctly I think. When I first received the frame the mech hanger was badly out of alignment so I spent a fair bit of time straightening it with a derailleur tool which I guess may have weakened it.

Anyhow it was a costly incident with >£100 of bits required (ultegra mech, QR skewer, spokes, chain). More worrying is the frame itself though – it has some pretty big chunks out of it which I am hoping are just paint/lacquer rather than carbon. Also the dropout (i.e. the metal bit the mech hanger bolts onto) looks like bits have snapped off but I think it might just be a bit mangled at the point where the hanger snapped. The dropout also looks a bit bent inwards at the back and when I bolted a new hanger on it’s not flush with the dropout, although it could also be that it’s a bit mangled and just needs filing.

I was planning to email Planet X too but just thought it would be worth running past some the of the experts on here as it’s the weekend (also they have a web contact form rather than an email address so you can’t send pics and I never seem to get replies from those forms)

So has anybody ever had anything similar happen please? It’s happened to me quite a few times with mountain bikes but has never left a trace on the frame. Not sure it is possible to assess based on my fuzzy photos. I can’t afford to replace the frame so planning to keep riding it if I can.

Thanks in advance.

05012013104 by Pico50, on Flickr

01012013099 by Pico50, on Flickr

01012013098 by Pico50, on Flickr

As a basic assessment of potential tube delamination, tap a coin around and on a damaged area. Significant differences in resonance between damaged and non damaged areas and a ‘duller’ sound to the tap can be indicative of delamnation that you might not see from outside the tube.

Had a very similar thing happen to my Nanolight too, I couldn’t understand why the derailleur had strayed but wound it in a bit and straightened the wheel out.

Happened again, put the second one down to derailleur damage and replaced. It’s been fine since, though I’ve only recently let the derailleur shift onto the big cog (I didn’t use it much anyway).

Left some marks on the stays and took the end off the carbon nose similar to yours, no sign of bending though.

Planet-X didn’t seem overly concerned with the pics I sent them, I smoothed off the sharp end with a Dremel and have ridden it plenty since.

Have some pics of the damage somewhere, will try to dig them out if you need them?

NOt pretty but not structural damage is my guess

Here you go…

Obviously I can’t speak for yours but hope these help in some way.

If nothing it taught me to how to properly adjust limit screws and to carry a spare hanger…

Thanks for your replies and for pics Haze – looks very similar to mine.

I am always on top of the limit screws due to it having happened on mountain bikes and to stop the chain going down the back of the cassette. Also I wasn’t in the largest sprocket so I think it was possibly caused by hanger snapping first.

I’m a bit shocked by collateral damage to the frame though caused by the hanger snapping. Does this type of thing normally happen on this type of road frames?

First time wasn’t too bad, second time left a few battle scars up the seat stay.

flattyre – Member

I’m a bit shocked by collateral damage to the frame though caused by the hanger snapping. Does this type of thing normally happen on this type of road frames?

Mech/spoke interfaces can cause a fair bit of damage, yes.

I suppose I shouldn’t be too suprised about the chunks out of the seat stays but with the dropout I would have thought when the hanger snapped it would just all break away freely rather than messing that up too?

Its because your hanger is not brittle, so it would have bent and twisted a lot before it went.

Makes sense and certainley looks like that’s what happened. Does this mean that the dropout on the Nanolight isn’t tough enough to cope with this effect?

I presume you mean the hanger?

IMO/E 99% of hangers are shite. Not to mention overpriced, under-designed etc.

I’v love to see someone make steel ones.

My point was that the dropout wasn’t tough enough the resist the hanger twisting next to it and also got damaged in the process.

I thought hangers were designed to be shite to save the other bits. In this case I lost everything anyway…and if it hadn’t have broken I’d have probably been fine! So maybe you’re right.

To be fair to Planet X I bought one new hanger for £14.99 and there were 4 in the bag when it arrived.