Well, it had to happen sooner or later. After nearly five months of commuting by bike in the city and only having near misses roughly once a month (grrrrr, taxis turning right in front of me!) I have finally had a minor crash. The embarrassing thing though, is that I was not hit, I fell off.

After slowing down to let cars come towards me through a gap, I stood up to get some speed up again, took two pedal strokes and then the chain popped off and I went over and slid into a stationary motorcycle. The bike is fine, but my hip acted as a cushion for my keys and I am glad I decided to wear arm warmers this morning.

Moral of the story? Get bike serviced and gears indexed and consider, again, going to either a single speed or a 1xAlfine.

Hope you are not too sore

Knee is a little bashed up and so is my hip, but I am more upset about the rip in my shorts! Bike is fine too, which is the important thing really.

Get bike serviced and gears indexed and consider, again, going to either a single speed or a 1xAlfine.

I had a chain snap on me after having it fitted for less than a week on a brand new build so servicing/newness is no guarantee of success. Was on my commute to but fortunately I didn’t fall over and managed to cushion the impact by getting my balls between me and the crossbar.

single speed or a 1xAlfine.

I broke my arm because of an Alfine. It slipped whilst I was stood changing gear. OTB and broken bits for me.

Dammit. What other options are there? I have a beard, so would a singlespeed work if I don’t own sandals?

Can’t you just make sure your gears are in good condition and setup right?

A guy at work rides singlespeed for his commute but over the summer swapped to a normal geared racer. He now won’t go back despite extolling it’s benefits in terms of lack of servicing required.

Well, the cassette is effectively brand new, as is the chain. Both were changed less than a month ago.

The main problem is indexing. There are times when it does not change back down in the mid-range, so i start off in a higher gear than i think I am in and it changes down after a few pedal strokes. But…. In this case, I am not sure that happened. I was not going uphill, I had not downshifted recently and it just seemed to pop out of gear.

It was fully Deore from about 2011 and now has an SRAM 9x chain on with a base level HG Shimano 9 speed cassette on the back. The only other option I had was to go XT and that was too expensive for a commuter bike.

Is the mech hanger bent?

Depends on your commute but fixed gear has alot of merits.

With a big beefy bmx chain.

Not sure about the mech hanger. I’m going it take it to a local place and get it looked at properly at some point soon, but the problem with cycle commuting is that you need a bike to do it on…

slepping last night was hilarious. Every time I rolled over I woke up. Luckily neither my arm nor knee stuck to the sheets.

Combination of new chain with an old chainring mean the front could have slipped. Worth checking. And single speed FTW if you have a flat-ish commute.

Get an ebike, no need to stand up then.

Hush your mouth oldtalent!! I am still young enough to have some pride, although I lost some of it yesterday! I will admit that Ebikes make a lot of sense int he city, but it’s just not something that I can justify on such a short commute.

Chain ring could be an issue, but I will get it in for a check and see what a professional thinks.

If it’s a short commute, get a sensible bike with a basket on the front and ride slower.

Chains don’t just break… usually there’s dodgy shift involved somewhere. So, simply learn how to shift proper 😀

I have never not ever, in 20+ years of commuting, snapped a chain.

I think the only one I’ve ever snapped was a £3.99 singlespeed chain from Asda when I hadn’t set the chainline properly.

So, that’s you told innit.

ps. hope you don’t hurt too bad 😉

make sure you don’t ignore the maintenance I broke my ankle setting off on my foldy bike as the chain slipped off, I wasn’t covering the brakes and having no top bar I just fell and my ankle snapped.

That bike went in the bin and I got a 3 speed version which was good as gold.

I don’t keep my keys I’m my shorts anymore. Bought a clip to secure then on my bag. A couple of spills on the tram tracks in Sheffield thought me that. Hope you don’t lose confidence. Falling off is part of riding a bike!

Well, my time in this morning went from 14 minutes to 17 and I only changed gears once, so I think I have taken a bit of a knock. I would not mind normally (well, apart from normal moaning about teh painz), but this was city riding and it was a busy road that is double parked most days. Cue visions of tailgating cars running over my still twitching headless corpse…

One thing to note, the chain did not break, it popped off the rear cassette and, immediately afterwards, the front chainring leaving me on the floor wondering how I got there. I’m going to check the chainring tonight and see how worn it is. I may also take the mech off and see if I can see any damage to the hanger. The mech itself has some scratches

1xAlfine.

I love my belt drive Alfine but when it slipped on a steep hill while I was standing up pedalling it was the closest i’ve ever come to falling under a car.  Stayed upright, just, but bashed my knee hard on the stem.

Chains don’t just break… usually there’s dodgy shift involved somewhere. So, simply learn how to shift proper

I have never not ever, in 20+ years of commuting, snapped a chain.

I’d never snapped a chain on any bike in 20+ years of riding but managed to snap my road bike chain a couple of weeks back.  Bike less than a year old, chain about 0.5 worn. It happens.

As said, get the mech hanger checked, redo the indexing and ride. 👍