Not being careful

I went for a short ride last night after a long trip. My spouse and I were slowly riding through our old home town neighborhood. I am so lucky I was going so slow. During the ride the rear derailleur caught the spokes and stopped me dead, with my rear wheel skidding out. I was going slow enough that I didn't fall but caught myself. My spouse managed to free the derailleur from the spokes and bend it into more or less the correct position. Likely my rear derailleur got bent when I had stashed my bike in my car and I did not notice it. Or, it happened when my niece dropped my bike earlier in the day when she did not properly set it on the kickstand. I try to be careful, but . . .

Now I know to do a safety check before riding after my bike has had any incidents.

Now I don't know whether everything is OK. It seems to shift fine. Should I be checking the spokes too? The wheel turns OK.

I'd have an LBS look over it just to be sure.

Agreed. You don't want to find out it was not ok while riding faster and it derails into the wheel again, destructing it and causing you to slide out and get hurt. The LBS should be able to verify the rear hanger is not bent, the derailleur is not bent, there is no damage to the wheel's spokes, and that the chain is also ok.

Definitely check and make sure nothing is bent after your fall, but most likely it happened to begin with because of a maladjusted low limit screw.

What kind of RD do you have? It's a simple adjustment.

Glad you're okay anyway!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

Definitely check and make sure nothing is bent after your fall, but most likely it happened to begin with because of a maladjusted low limit screw.

What kind of RD do you have? It's a simple adjustment.

Glad you're okay anyway!

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Ill take a look tomorrow to see what I have. I'll see if I can find a place to bring the bike for a look.

I found a local bike shop. The wheel was out of true, they fixed that. They adjusted the low limit screw--good catch OakLeaf. Now it is rolling and shifting nicely. They also adjusted my brakes. :)

No charge.

Continental Ski and Bike Shop
Duluth Minnesota
Great folks that let me ride in and they stopped what the were doing to fix my bike.

Wow!! It didn't bend the rear drop out :confused: and it didn't tweak the rear derailleur pentagram :confused:

You are very lucky!! I sucked up the derailleur into the rear wheel while on a training ride out in eastern sierra between mono lake and mammoth mountain. Ended up pretzeling the rear derailleur pentagram, bent the rear drop out. It was not a fun ride back to mammoth mountain...

If you have to lay down your bike, whether out on a ride or to put it inside a car, ALWAYS lay the bike with the derailleur side up!! and NEVER stack another bike on top even if you have a thick blanket to keep the bikes from scratching each other.

I think I was lucky to not wreck the derailleur. Guess because I was going so slow. Yup, I put it in the car derailleur side up.