Why your bike shifts like garbage
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This is the tool: https://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge/ Although derailleurs can look intimidating, they’re actually pretty easy to adjust. We learned this in another video. The thing is, adjusting your cable tension, limits, and B screw doesn’t always do the trick. Old cables, improper routing, worn parts, and a whole host of other things can make your bike shift like total garbage. It’s no surprise that I had shifting problems after that crash. On the ride home, I needed to mess with the barrel adjuster just to keep it from ghost shifting everywhere. You can keep dicking with your derailleur to no avail, or you could get down to the root of the problem: the part it’s mounted to. So first of all, why does this happen so often? Well hangers are strategic failure points. They are designed to be weaker than your frame or derailleur so that they will fail. When your rear mech gets impacted, the hanger bends or snaps. This is better than the derailleur itself breaking, but even more importantly, it protects your frame. When an impact isn’t big enough to snap your hanger, it gets tweaked. You can stare at it all you want, but you’ll rarely be able to see which way it’s bent. Usually it’s tweaked in all sorts of directions, but we could just replace it right? Good luck with that early on a Sunday morning. Derailleur hangers are specific to your bike frame, so while shops will usually have a whole bin of them, it’s often times a special order item. Lucky for me, Alexander had a specialty tool that would save the day. This tool isn’t just for bike shops. Anyone who does a fair amount of mountain biking can benefit big time from a derailleur hanger alignment tool. The concept is simple; the tool threads into your hanger, and allows you to compare it to your rear wheel. Even if your rear wheel is bent, you can gauge it against a reference point like the valve stem as you move around the wheel’s radius. The trick is to make the gauge skim along the edge of your wheel at the same distance in all places. It’s easy to see where you need to tweak it out, or in. Now I actually keep replacement hangers around, since they’re bound to snap, but in this case I was unprepared. Hangers are also more expensive than you would think, making the cost of a gauge pretty palatable. This Park Tool model is what a professional bike mechanic would use, and it’s under $70. A cheap one barely costs more than a new hanger does. So even if you buy a top of the line model it could save you money, but more importantly it can get you back on the trail right away. Now I’ve bent back derailleur hangers by hand before, with varying levels of success. When Alex did it with the gauge, it was flawless, just like a new hanger. So if you’re scratching your head trying to figure out why your bike shifts like garbage, more likely than not your hanger is out of alignment. You could order a new one, go to a shop, or try your luck with the adjustable wrench trick. While those options sound great, I’m leaning towards buying that tool to avoid getting stuck again. Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time. Here is Alex's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfUGBBnxQYezwJM9wi3F-Lg And of course, check out Brian's channel too (other dude in the car): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3DFdy_qc-cqgKCyQTHLGzA
Comments
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What type of bike is the black one ?
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Awesome, spent years as a kid screwing around with my derailers trying to get them to work again, always just blamed the cheap bikes. Now about to get back into biking this gives me alot of confidence, will definatily be getting that tool. Thanks! Subbed.
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holy crap, this might be what is wrong with my derailer. I've been fighting it for a while. I don't think my bicycle collective has one of these. I'll ask and if not I might make a donation.
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you gotta spend money to make money
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this is why I swapped to bmx (too many wires on mountain bikes) not gonna lie mountain bikes are pretty cool
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nice tips in here... this stuff used to drive me NUTS!.
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Whats up downhill jesus?
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hanger industry is a big mafia. there are more brands than bikes exist. and they NEVER have the one you need.
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Thanks for this.. it helped me realize my hanger is bent.. about a centimetre and a half out. and I tried bending it back in so I could at least get better shifting till I get one of those tools but it doesent want to move
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I'd rather leave hanger repair to the pros, anybody can buy that tool but they'd have to know how to use it. I almost have all the tools to fix my commuter bike but I'd rather take it to my LBS for their expert opinion and experience. Put a tool in my hand and I tend to make matters worse.
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More videos with Alex.....fun guy
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Am i the only one who can hear a person eating chips in the background?
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jokes on you kona i can just mill out a new hanger on my Bridgeport
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Crazy. I need to buy this tool. Thanks for the info.
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it should probably be noted that aluminum doesn't really like bending more than once. hangers are made of Al because it bends easily, but bending it back will greatly weaken it.
These alignment gauges were great back in the days of steel frames - you could bend the shit out of them as many times as you wanted and they wouldn't break.
with today's aluminum hangers you should really only allign them to hold you over until your new hanger arrives. at the very least, if you have to realign it you should be considering buying a spare to have on hand because the next impact it goes through won't be good. -
Awesome, thanks very helpful.
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Check out that wobbly cassette! It's probably a bent axle from all those mad drops off of barroom tables ;-)
Thanks for the great vids, Seth. -
nice video , learned another trick on fixing my bike, thank you.
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how to do a bunny hop
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why isn't this talked about more? i've never seen that adjuster, that is awesome.
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