That time a stripped derailleur hanger stranded me 8 miles from the nearest shop on a Sunday in Missoula

I was riding the Rattlesnake trail when my rear derailleur swung into the spokes, snapped the hanger clean off, and I had to bushwhack the bike back to my truck with a stick tied to the dropout so the chain wouldn't wrap around the cassette, has anyone found a reliable way to ghetto rig a multi speed to single speed on the trail without ditching the chain?

1 comments

1 Comment

matthewperry2h ago

Been there man, that rattlesnake trail can be brutal. I feel your pain on the Sunday thing too, nothing open. The best ghetto fix I ever found was to just break the chain to the right length for a single gear, then wrap the excess chain around the rear dropout and zip tie it tight so it doesn't slap around. You lose some gears but it gets you rolling. Another guy I met used a stick just like you did, shoved it through the dropout to keep the chain tensioned, then held it with a shoelace. It's janky as hell but it works for a few miles if you go slow and don't pedal backwards.