Derailleur hanger straight tool

i reckoned this would be a once only ever purchase so splashed out on the Abbey tools one.  It does cost around £200 and is a piece of engineering bliss !

I bought a ztto branded one off Ebay for 16 quid i think. An engineering marvel it is not, but it does work.

I've got one of said ebay/amazon/china specials and it works absolutely fine.

I bought a ztto branded one off Ebay for 16 quid i think. An engineering marvel it is not, but it does work.

I've got one of those, yeah, it's OK, but I keep meaning to put a threaded hole and thumb screw in the end to clamp the measuring stick. Would be much easier to use with this simple mod.

Even the cheapest tool should be able to identify misalignment ok, but the idea is you can then use it to bend the hanger back straight. This needs a sturdy arm on the tool.

I have the park one - it's good, but their stuff in general is never great value. It's never top end tooling and you can usually get something 95% as good for half the money.

Another ZTTO here.

Bought it from AliExpress for very little money.

It's a bit wobbly but definitely good enough for me. You just need to get used to the feel of it.

Orbea hanger and shimano 12sp derailleur both seem to be made of cheese so the hanger alignment doodah is probably my most used tool at the moment.

I have the Park one. It's fine and does the job. Yeah, very far from top end tooling like Abbey etc, but does the job.

Being a tight arsed git I made one from a bit of ally sq bar and an old derailleur bolt ?

I can't pull on it so have to use some grips but it's spot on for measuring against the wheel ?

I spent the money on the park one, as no one was able to convince me the 'cheap' ones were really that great. Ouch, I see they've gone from reassuringly expensive, to majorly spendy! Have search for older thread this has been discussed numerous time,and some cheaper option are always recommended (should be fine)

I got an X Tools straightener for about £25 for home use. I rate it above the Park one I used professionally.

I bought the X Tools Pro version some years ago and use it for checking and straightening. Its been fine and I am now much more confident about using.

Though I can’t vouch for this site, the tool looks identical

https://www.bikebargains.co.uk/x-tools-pro-gear-hanger-alignment-tool/

ZTTO Hag-5 owner after reading this (may be paywalled). Not had cause to use it since though!

https://escapecollective.com/ztto-hag-5-derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-review/

I had a cheapo off Amazon from a few years ago.

Worked OK but had a load of play in it. You just had to take the play out when setting the distance arm.

I now have one of these.

Cost less money and is much easier to use.

No play in it and packs down smaller which was the reason I bought it as it's lighter in the bike bag for flights.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006340222478.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.30.47c91802boKRPn

If anyone's near the Tweed Valley and wants my old Amazon one for nowt drop us a message.

I've a Park Tool one that I've only used a couple of times, pm me if it's of any interest.

Gotta love this forum.

OP: I want a derailleur tool but can't justify £72.

First response: Get a £200 one!

Back in the real world the X-tools one is great, better than the Park one and available for £30.

^^^ I didn’t actually suggest that the OP should buy the Abbey one, just that it is very nice !

I luckily picked up the Super B Derailleur Hanger Alignment Tool for £22 on Amazon last year which was a bit of a bargain but would pay double. Decent bit of kit.

Gotta love this forum.

OP: I want a derailleur tool but can’t justify £72.

First response: Get a £200 one

And also recommendations for a really good tool for 12 quid.

Park Tool do two. The cheaper one is garbage as there is at least 3mm of play in it when it’s secured. The black one is better - DAG-3 I think.

I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one Skip, I’ve used mine plenty of times to good effect, you just have to be careful. *winky*

I also have the X Tools one, it works just fine and would happily recommend

Ages ago,I bought one of the Lifeline ones.

You could work around it,but the amount of play annoyed me,so I took it apart and shimmed it.

at least 3mm of play in it

Having a bit of play doesn't really matter in this application.

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Having a bit of play doesn’t really matter in this application.

Well no, not if you don’t want it absolutely straight I suppose.

I got the lifeline one after dropping my 9s commuter, I thought I d bent it back OK till I checked with the tool, I was miles out.  Sort of tool that sits there with v infrequent use, but really useful to have.

Well no, not if you don’t want it absolutely straight I suppose.

It's still perfectly possible to get it straight with a lot more play than 3mm.

It's just slightly more awkward than with no play.

Ages ago,I bought one of the Lifeline ones.

You could work around it,but the amount of play annoyed me,so I took it apart and shimmed it.

I had the same issue with a Lifeline one 5 years ago, lots of play, returned it for a refund and just bought a new hanger instead, that fixed my shifting issues and ive not needed an alignment tool since, in fact in the last 35 years of working on 100's of bikes that's the only time ive ever needed one (tempting fate!)

^ I found that true of 3x9 and 11 speed but with 12 speed I do need to keep on top of rear mech hanger alignment.

Yep there is a bit of play on my X Tools Pro tool which I work around. Though I am interested in how @fasthaggis shimmed it?

in fact in the last 35 years of working on 100’s of bikes that’s the only time ive ever needed one.

The opposite happened with me 🙂

Just because I could,once I had the tool,I ended up checking all my frames( and the frames of club mates).

Most weren't that much out,but some frames(PX) had a hangers made out of cheese.

It felt at times like a hard stare could knock them out.

Any shifting issues I now get,it's nice to be able to quickly check the hangers.

@nickingsley  I took the barrel apart and had access to a selection of steel shim to make it a tighter fit.

I know that the sloppy movement over the lever distance ,was not the end of the world, but it just bugged me that far away in some Asian manufacturing empire,they couldn't be arsed using better fit/tolerances 😉

had access to a selection of steel shim

Ah, I don't have that.

With the play I found just making sure I measured when the tool was at the 'same end of it's play' .. if that makes sense. Not a big issue but if easy to have minimised, I would.

With the play I found just making sure I measured when the tool was at the ‘same end of it’s play’

Yup,TBF, you are never going to eliminate the play completely,I just wanted it to be a lot less than the original setup.

Plus,I like taking things apart,always with half an notion that I can fix/improve them 😉

What @yak said. Bought an Abbey from Sigmasprt, I think it was £175 but even this tight Brummie thought it good value.
It’s the only decent one I’ve seen, beautifully made, a precision tool, all the rest are toys. It will last you a lifetime of bike fettling and will bring you joy every time you use it.

^^^ that's what I said on the 2nd post in this thread too ... smiley..

STW Serendipity strikes again! I've newly installed 11 speed on my old bike, and have an idea the hanger's just out of whack enough to throw off a couple of gears. My question is - how tf do you use one of these? I presume it's more high-tech than "use tool to see it's out of whack, use big spanner to bend it slightly straighter"? Tbf, that generally worked fine for 3x9, but I appreciate more sprockets means more accuracy required...

Use the tool to see where and which direction it's out.

Then use the tool to straighten it.

I always use the valve as a reference point on the wheel to measure from.

I bought the cheapest one i could some time in the late 90's. It's got about 1 cm of slop and the fittings at both end aren't square to each other.

It's been through 3 house moves in the bottom of a box of tools, probably 500 straightened hangers and still works perfectly. Accurate enough to set up SRAM and Shimano 10, 11 and 12 speed perfectly and (recently) Campagnolo Ekar.

A stick with a derailleur bolt on the end would also work perfectly.

The ztto one works fine and with a bit of fettling can be improved by changing grub screws to bolts and adding a depth gauge collar to the bar instead of o-rings, the ones made to slip over drill bits, 6mm one I think.
EDIT- I was referring to the old telescopic one, just looked on eBay, looks like they've really improved it with the newer version, I'm gonna buy one, too cheap not to.

It's a trip the LBS for me. I don't bend them often enough to justify owning the tool.