Saw a guy with a mashed mech hanger on Sunday, and it occured ot me I've never bent a hanger beyond repair or smashed a mech!
I ride as quickly as the next person and crash just as often. Am I just better at judging gaps? Or is it that I ride steel frames with medium (shimano short) mechs?
nope, me neither. Some folk do seem prone to it though
I've done one mech and three hangers in about 15 years. All have been where the chain has got caught up in the rear wheel and ripped itself apart (once when a frame snapped, once caused by a stick, once a broken chain)
Yesterday 😳
I did my first on the last STW Exmoor ride, (X0 mech and hanger) but the mech was pretty worn out and probably the cause of the failure.
4 times in 35 years of cycling. 1st time in a time trial where I was standing up on a hill and changed down; the rear mech swung up into the spokes and bent the whole back end of the bike (pre-indexing days). 2nd time was on my Mk1 DB Alpine where a stick flew up and got tangled in the back end somewhere, bending the whole frame and snapping the mech. 3rd time in qualifying for the 2008 Megavalanche, and 4th time in qualifying for the 2009 megavalanche.
Last time I went to Wales. XTR shadow with Carbon cage. They seem to shatter when walloped with stones. Not great.
Luckily never, although my new frame has a replaceable hanger, which is good news.
Do they still do bolts that are designed to give before anything else does? Seem to remember them from way back in the day.
Last time I knackered a mech was 1999 in the wilds of Bavaria on an Apollo Equito - stick caught in mech, bent it a goodun'
Touch wood - I haven't done anything similar since, but always take a spare rear hanger to Spain with me to avoid a show stopper.
Always amazes me on fairly well groomed trails at races like the Enduro6 & 24/12 how many people you see with knackered rear mechs/hangers. Even the Thetford Winter Series gets a few casualties and I struggle to see how.
Only once in 20 odd years of biking.
Happened last season in a very muddy cross race. Wrecked rear mech, bent hanger and damaged hub flange and spokes (too vain to fit the plastic spoke protector). All in all quite an expensive race. Don't think 10 speed road groupsets like that much mud!
ScottChegg - Member
Last time I went to Wales. XTR shadow with Carbon cage. They seem to shatter when walloped with stones. Not great.
Eeek, don't say that; it's what my latest steed came with!!
Been at least 6 years or more for me now.
snapped a replaceable hanger after manualling over a bump then washed out on a stupidly tight corner that followed, mech dived into my back wheel for safety!
Last summer. Front wheel in a rut. Bike flipped. RHS shifter smashed to bits and rear mech bent beyond repair.
New parts CRCed and fitted before the cuts on my hands had stopped weeping. 😀
Old GT Zaskar and LTS rear mechs were made of monkey metal and snap just for the fun of it. Also done a Stumpjumper rear hanger though all the mechs survived. But I've had 2 Sram X9 mechs go for no apparent reason so don't use them anymore.
Not answering question due to sod's law.
Sympathies Coleman, I did the same cross racing although my hub was ok. Chain twisted like it was made of cheesestrings.
Wrecked a saint "low profile" mech in Spain last year when the rider in front of me dislodged a massive rock. Luckily I was able to remove what was left of the mech and freewheel back to the van. Mind you its bloody hard riding offroad without being able to push against the tension in the chain.
I've also wrecked two hangers on different bikes up the Sidlaws near Dundee, luckily the mechs survived. The trails up there run through heather and are really narrow. Heather grows at the perfect height to grab mech and try to eat them. The ninja of the plant world, you don't know they've got you until you hear the crunch.
Not done it for a long time, used to go through the odd road mech when i ran them on the mountainbike in the early 90's until i realised they really weren't designed to be used on an XC bike.
Did bend the hanger on my enduro a tad about 5 years ago, but had a BETD one on there since and its been solid.
Couple of years back. I'd like to say something like "Whilst dropping in on a really rad bombhole and some gnarly...." etc., but - cycling up the road to the B&B at the start of a weekend spent riding the SDW. Pulled in to a garage to pickup a sandwich for the next day's lunch break.
Pulled out (slowly) just as a jogger came at me from the right.
Had one of those "Oo-er" moments that you normally get first time you use spuds and forget to unclip before you stop. Fell over still attached to the bike.
Bent hanger.
😳 🙄
Never. Trashed a front mech, though - on the Pleney DH in Morzine. Not quite sure how...
2006 IIRC
How are folk bending frames when their mech goes?
I killed a mech and broke a hanger all at once but it was forever ago. Assuming it was the last alu bike I owned, I'm guessing about 1996. Never even bent the hanger of any of the steel frames I've had since.
snapped my hanger last summer at gisburn.I was "just riding along" aswell,honest.(although coming a cropper on the small gap jump at the downhill/freeride area may have weakend it though :oops:)
I bent my Chameleon's mech hanger at Kirroughtree (McMoab) last October. I tend to ride with an appropriate spare mech hanger in my pack these days, especially if it's a long ride. I've bent or broken quite a few.
I've damaged or bent plenty.
Two "memorable" occasions:
(1)I bent the rear mech and hanger on my three week old Kona AA - which was aluminium and didn't have a replaceable mech hanger 🙁
(2)On Kill Me Thrill Me in Whistler, I managed to bend and destroy two mech hangers on one ride. Luckily, do you my past propensity for bending them, I had two spares in my camelbak.
I hate derailleurs and will be the first in line for a reliable, efficient and reasonable light weight gearbox!
Already destroyed a hanger on Amasa Back and 2 rear mechs in the UK since Jan...none yet since I've moved to Saint Short Cage.
Packing loads of spares for the Alps this year just in case. 🙂
Never in 23 years on a bike.
3 on my Nicolai hardtail in the last 4 months at 35 notes a pop. In one case also ripped an X0 rear mech into two pieces into the bargain. Also bent one on one of my Nicolai full sussers at the end of last year as well. It's been an expensive business.
2 years ago...somehow snagged the loop in the cable on something while doing ~20 mph. First I knew of it was when I was showered in the parts of an exploded shifter. Guess it didn't much like that kind of force through the cable ❗
Mech wasn't too happy either...somehow the hanger survived though!
Replaced with XT shadow and no snags since!
Never break a Marin hanger in Switzerland if you wanna keep riding .... !!
On Saturday. Had a nasty OTB on the Lairig Ghru singletrack and the bike kinda flipped over and smacked into a rock, and me 🙁
Got a right keiker of a bruise on my arm though, it's going a lovely shade of purpley green 😈
About three years ago on a night ride. I had a big old branch flip up and take out my faithful XTR rear mech and bend the hanger right round.
The mech is now a bottle opener. 8)
The hanger/frame was a 456 so bent straight back with and adjustable spanner. Gotta love steel. 😀
Never.
Only thing I have "needed" to replace on my bike has been a rear hanger and rear mech (seperate incidents).
Rear hanger had bent ever so slightly after a ride and I couldn't straighten it. Meant I couldn't index gears properly. Eventually got sick of the odd grindy gear and replaced.
Also had to replace the cage on the rear mech as the cage round the bottom sprocket had snapped and the chain kept slipping off. Luckily some kind soul from here gave me his knackered bits and I rebuilt.
This is in the last year. Previous to this nothing
Broke my last one on Dartmoor. This thursday I'm going to Dartmoor. Eek!
Last three bikes I've managed to mangle either a hanger or mech, or both as on my Ti frame last month - with non-replaceable hanger...
All XTR too.
Weekend before last.
Mech hanger just snapped whilst I was climbing up a tarmac hill. Hadn't bashed it or anything prior to that.
Very bizarre, and I reckon I'll be writing a email to complain - looks much more like a brittle failure than a fatigue failure.
Only one I've ever seen snapped, rather than bent, too.
20 rears MTB including full on downhill and never broken a mech or hanger! Cue the broken hanger tomorrow!
Spooky bent one last month fitted a new one at last tonight
Happened to a brand new X9 last month. Things like that only happen with brand new components IME.
was having a breather at the top of Garburn chatting to a lad who was coming over from the other direction, we talked bikes etc and I boasted that my 6 year old Eldridge had never given me any trouble.
hopped on and statrted descent into kentmere when scrunch! rear mech relocated to 12 o'clock position. pushed back over summit and freewheeled back into Windermere for an early bath.
I've done a few over the years. Always carry a spare. Even managed to bend someone else's hanger when I wasn't riding their bike... was on a switch-backy bit of trail at Coedy and dislodged a rather large rock which rolled down the hill and hit the bike on the level below me thus detroying the hanger. Oops.
06/06/08 was the first and last time I bent a hanger
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