Derailleurs are not supposed to look like that.

[johnridley]

And while the red accent is bold, it doesn't really fit the color scheme. Only minor injuries to myself. The bike is going to require more attention than I am. I guess the winter bike is coming off hangars this week.




Lessons learned:
If a tire is low or flat, stop in a straight line to fix it.
Don't experiment with a malfunctioning bike while riding at speed.

Events: I hit a sharp stone on the shoulder on N Territorial. About 2 miles later, just as I was about to take a turn, I realized "crap, front wheel is flat." Stupidly continued with the turn. Went down on a VERY screwed up corner with broken pavement and loose gravel. Main road rash is on my right forearm. Replaced front tube. Continued ride, shifting was wonky. Adjusting the barrel didn't do much, decided it would be a great idea to downshift and see if the gears lined up. Hint: it was not a great idea. Downshifting threw the derailleur into the spokes, ripping the derailleur apart, bending the crap out of the hanger, breaking a spoke and wedging the chain hard between the spokes and the cassette. Somehow I didn't quite abrade all the way through the rear tire, but it's trashed. Apparently the earlier crash bent the derailleur more than I thought.

Comments

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

My derailleur once went out of line when I was just riding along - hit the spokes, bent the dropouts (!), and snapped the top tube (!) out of the frame (at the front).

This wasn't fun, and I needed a new bike... then again, that was about 30 years ago, and I've still got that "new" bike.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

YIKES! Glad you only suffered minor injuries. Bikes can be fixed or replaced.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Ah, the new horizontal dérailleur system. It seems less efficient than the classic vertical.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Yikes, glad you are mostly okay.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I'm healing, just going through a lot of large adhesive pads (1 or 2 a day).

The bike is back up again. I took it out this evening and got it up to speed, shifted through all the gears, it's running smoothly. I didn't want to get on the road tomorrow and find out something was wrong with no time to fix it.

I rode the winter bike the one day last week after this event that I rode to work. It's actually not all that bad, about 2 minutes slower on the commute, but it's nowhere near as fun to ride. OTOH, I can ride it all year and never have a flat tire.

I think next time I buy tires I'm going to go for 25s. These 23s seem to pinch flat way too easily.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have a hybrid with "medium" tires (don't know the numbers), and a road bike with skinny tires. I greatly prefer how the road bike feels for long rides, but I can ride my hybrid anywhere. Potholes, dirt trails, whatever. Plus I only pump up its tires now and then, where my road bike needs pumping before every trip to keep it from a pinch flat.

Road rash is no fun though, so I hope it goes away quickly!!

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I realized just now that my bike specific userpic is especially appropriate for this post, and switched it.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

hahaha!