I bought a used bike from the classifieds recently, and after taking the rear mech off too many times to get it in my bike bag, the thread is starting to strip. So I figure I'll go get a new mech hanger. The bike brand in question just happens to have a flagship store in Liverpool, which isn't too far from me so I took a trip. After getting lost and going through the Birkenhead tunnel twice, I arrived at the shop and asked if they had a derailer hanger for my particular model.

Not only did they not have the one I was after, they didn't have any at all. Bear in mind this is a branded store, with just about every conceivable part from this (huge, massive, enormous etc) manufacturer in stock. I know for a fact that the one I need is used on almost all of their MTBs since the late 90s, so it must be a fairly common request. But to cap it all, the girl behind the counter didn't even know what a mech hanger was!

Mech hangers aren't exactly big or expensive (well, they're expensive for being a small chunk of aluminium), so why don't shops keep more in stock? I know there are lots of them, but if you only keep one of each of the most common models from each of the brands you sell, it shouldn't be more than 20 or so for the average LBS; and if you're careful with labeling and storage it shouldn't be hard to find the right one when someone asks. Wheels Manufacturing and BETD both make over 130 so keeping them all might be a bit silly, but none at all? That's just dumb.

we have boxes of the dam things. but never the one we need. there are allot of different ones out there. lbs dosent sound so good……

And for the record, it's not just bike shops that are stupid. I was looking for a birthday present for my girlfriend at the same time, and the thing I wanted was cheaper in a large high street department store than it was in the maker's own factory seconds store at Cheshire Oaks. Surely that's why you have a seconds store, to undercut the high street.

Why don't you have a mech hanger in stock for the one bike you own?

20 different hangers x 2 each x £15 = £600 worth of stock, and there's a good chance they will never sell many of them. I always get a hanger when I get a frame, that way I am sorted if/ when the hanger bends. Maybe you should do the same?

Oh, and order today and BETD will get one to you by Tuesday, post permitting. Never used Wheels.

If there was a huge demand like baked beans then they would but it's recession-why would you stock something that doesn't sell weekly and only makes 50 pence profit and you're paying interest from day one on your stock.

I ordered my hangers in-had to wait 2 weeks but hey it was worth it for the price and don't wait for it to snap before buying one.

Maybe you should have phoned ahead?

I stock mech hangers, but never seem to have the right one in.

Did a stock take last month.

I have 89 hangers in stock of varying styles. Cost price of between £7-£13. Well over £1000 of stock in mech hangers at cost price!!!!!!!

I always stock the correct ones for the bikes i sell, always.

But with £90,000 of bikes in the shop from various brands, i need to stock a lot of hangers.

I take it as a given that every one who buys a hanger does so begrudgingly (having just broken their bike) and always questions the price £15 to £22, but we are there to make a living, and if i have bought a hanger from a supplier and then had it in stock for 7 months before needing it, i am very glad of my £5 profit that i make on it 🙂

I would strongly recommend buying one when you order your new bike, and especially if you are going on Holiday with your bike, keep one in your camelback. If you smash it while you're on hoiday where are you going to get one from?

More to the point, I've always thought – why isn't there some degree of standardisation of mech hangers?

I mean you have predominantly one type of rear axle, the mech always needs to go in the same place relative to that etc, so is it really necessary to have 130 different types?

I know some frames might have some little dropout design quirk which requires some mech hanger peculiarity or other, and there are a couple of different typers of axle which need to be catered for… but 130 different types??? come on!

Can I strongly recommend that when ever you (LBS, Dealer etc) sells a bike you sell it with a spare mech. hanger.

That would be a start, and also make people realise that they will need one, and they are hard to find/buy in a hurry.

I've never been sold one when buying a bike, but have always asked for one as a part of the 'deal'.

shops sell what they want you to buy, not what you want to buy

Surely that's why you have a seconds store, to undercut the high street.

Not really. It's to make more money. And when you've got enough people who think Cheshire Oaks is the place to go for a bargain, it's time to start putting up the prices.

That shop in Liverpool seems to be a style over substance thing, having driven from Manchester, I was hugely disappointed.

in mba (the american mag) part of the bike test was phoning dealers of the bikes on test anonimously to see the availabilaty of mech hangers, if none are in stock the test is scored accordingly
seems a good idea to me
i think they should do this with any propriaty wear and tear parts like lapiere bb's, mech hangers and suchlike
some manufacturers dont seem botherd once they have your money

I can understand why shops don't stock lots of them but it's a bit off when they don't carry spares for what they sell. However, for each bike in the house, I have a spare hanger in stock after being caught out once before. I don't take them on rides but I do take them on overnight trips (with the bike).

When we order bikes from dealers it seems most of them don't even know which one of 123 types of hangers they sell fits the bike. Standardisation would be useful for bike shops too.

ha ha! good luck with standardisation……everything we stock needs at least 4 variants…every year some manu comes up with a different bb/headset/disc braker that needs a new tool,different stock,different colours etc..

all the companies dont do anything standard…some brands just change the shape of the hanger yearly(cos they can!) im the same,must have over a £1k of hangers in stock and not the right one when asked!

and breathe…. but i would have called ahead also 🙄

seems to be two trends.
1) Call ahead
2) buy a spare in advance. (If you don't use it by the time your bike is broken/ sold/ mothballed then sell it on.)

But the two trends still rely on people thinking, so inclduing the 'poster' there are three trends…

One of my riding buddies has just been round, we persuaded (ie bent his arm) him to buy a spare hanger before we went to the Alps a couple of years ago. He didn't need it then, but used it last summer after he'd bent the original.

He's still not bought another ❓ and he rides a FS, so its not like we can SS it for him when we are out!

I'd be pretty suprised to walk into a single enormo-brand bike store and not find a full range of hangers from their single brand of bikes. A quick tootle through the BETD range would suggest that there are only about five diferent variations of hanger for the brand in question. How hard is it for a shop that size to have a dozen of each of such a small range in stock? Compare this to the poster earlier who sells several different brands of bike and keeps £1000 worth of loads of different hangers as stock. Just no excuse IMO.

fwiw, my local enormo-brand concept store does seem to be very well stocked with small spares for their enormo-branded frames, shoes, bearings etc. Between my riding mates and my experience we have always been able to walk out holding the random spare part we needed.

It's a similar situation to mobile phone chargers. Over the years there have been countless types of connectors at the phone end of all shapes and sizes. WHY? A power connector just needs a + and – contact, plus a couple of USB data pins. I will only buy products with a standard connector on. Thus my phone, MP3 player and satnav all have mini USB on them and any wall charger or standard USB cable lying about will do.

Use a proprietary connector? Sorry, not buying.

At last the manufacturers have got the idea, and are standardising to Micro-USB, albeit for environmental reasons rather than practicality. But availability and interchangeability are the real benefit for the users.

Why not mech hangers? I know they want a captive market, but I'm only going to buy a BETD hanger so they're not getting my money anyway.

My wife has a Nokia E63 and I have a Nokia E71, would you beleive that while they both appear to use the mini-USB for transfer etc, the cables are actually differingly configured.

Consequently while last week on holiday while I could connect my phone to the laptop, she couldn't connect hers…

And my digital SLR uses another standard, and my little camera another.

No wonder I need a (not so) mini USB hub plugged into the desktop!

Why don't you have a mech hanger in stock for the one bike you own?

That's what I was trying to do. The one on the bike is still use-able, I just wanted one to replace it when I inevitably strip the rest of the threads out. Sorry, should have clarified that.

I'm not averse to waiting for one, I was just shocked to find that a branded concept store didn't have spares for their brand. I should've asked about bearing kits and headsets too; every bike of that brand I had to get a headset bearing for when I worked in the trade was a nightmare (dealing with their warranty people on the phone was often a case of "What model? What year? What colour? We'll see if this one fits, send it back if not").

Top marks to Off-Beat Bikes in Fort Bill. Went in there years ago looking for a hanger for my Marin. They didn't have on in stock so nicked one off a display model for me.

Joe, Spec by any chance?

Ironically the only bikes I've ever had any luck with just walking into a dealer and asking for a mech hanger, are Halfords own brands. Had to do this 3 times over the years, twice they had them in stock, the other time they took it off a stock bike.

Kudubikes has come up trumps for me for my scale, after speaking with every evans branch who had nothing or needed to see bike.

Never bust a hanger in twenty years…

Well, I've twice walked into my local Specialized dealer (Cycle Kingdom, Fleet, Hants, very good LBS) and bought a Specialized hanger 'off the shelf'
So it does happen.

Although, it has to be said, I do generally buy a hanger as soon as I buy a new bike. I've broken 4 now IIRC, and it's twice saved me a very long walk home….
🙂

I try to keep mech hangers in for all the bikes I stock.
It really would help if a manufacturer could stick to a design for a few years to reduce the quantity out there.
I've always got a spare in my Camelbak, they weigh nothing and save a lot of grief.

Always managed to get Giant and Specialized off the shelf.

Don't most new bikes come with a spare? as they are designed to fail before the frame. I've got a spare for every bike I own….except my PX.

Can I strongly recommend that when ever you (LBS, Dealer etc) sells a bike you sell it with a spare mech. hanger.

very good point. If (some) bike shops have lots of hanger stock then this is a no-brainer. Up-sell, shift stock and (hopefully) impress the customer with your fore-sight

The cheapy mechs all come with integrated mech hangers that sit on the axle. Hone mechs do a similar thing. Why can't they all be like that?

Update: Respect to Edinburgh Bike Co-op. I went in, asked for the hanger, chap said "I'll just go grab you one", back within a minute, and best of all it was only £7, half of what I was expecting.