So 7 miles into my 20 mile commute home last night my chain starting jumping all over the place and randomly shifting. Stopped and had a look and noticed the top jockey wheel had fallen off! Inspected further and the alloy jockey wheel bolt had snapped. The bolts been on there for a couple of years and I’ve never had any issues with it up until now.
Managed to find the jockey wheel lying on the road. Luckily my wife was at home so called her and she picked me up. Had she not been available it would have been a long walk or some sort of bodge. I hate having to give up but the temptation was much greater than my desire to faff.
Only bodges I can think of are shortening the chain and making the bike into a single speed or using something to keep the jockey wheel in place - stick, wire, ziptie, something from the side of the road. I also hate it when gaffa tape isn't the solution to a bodge 🙂
I now have a spare jockey wheel bolt in my seat pack but any other bodge I could have used to ride the next 13 miles?
Zip tie through the bolt hole and round the cage so it doesn;t foul the wheel
i've used a bottle-cage bolt to hold in a lower jockey wheel
I did the singlespeed thing once. actually enjoyed riding to work (12 miles or so) in third gear so much that I am now building a singlespeed bike. had to accept a slower pace and actually reduced the stress. thought "well I can't go any faster than this so I may as well enjoy the view"
Only issue I would have had last night with getting the jockey wheel into place was that the stub of the broken bolt was still threaded into the hole. It was easily removed with pliers but not sure I could have got out without.
All my bikes have an extra long bottle cage bolt for this reason - I've used this method a couple of times to repair people's bikes.
I also carry a teeny weeny leatherman tool thing on my keyring - a Buck Knives Minibuck. It has pliers that are just about good enough for removing snapped off bolts like that.