r.i.p. front derailleur

[topaz]

I knew that the derailleur cage was in trouble this summer, when the bike shop folks showed me where the metal struts had been partly worn away by the chain pushing against it. Still, I thought I was going to get at least another year out of it before I'd have to replace it!

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Holy crap!

Do you have a way home?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure - I just can't switch into the big chainwheel, which I mostly don't do on the way home anyway. :-) (It's all uphill!)

Tomorrow I'll bring it in and ask the Broadway gang how long it should take me to install a new derailleur. :-)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh oh, now the picture makes more sense. I was thinking rear derailleur.

[ceo]

That looks like your front derailleur was out of adjustment for a long time. The chain shouldn't rub against it except when shifting.

Unless 30 years of just shifting will do that... wow.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

My thought process exactly.

"Wait, it totally shouldn't do that! Unless... daaaaaamn."

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I admit that it has spent more time out of alignment than it should have. This poor bike spent a long time receiving little or no maintenance, and I have not had a lot of time to keep it really carefully tuned-up since I took up maintaining it.

But the chain hasn't been rubbing against the cage the whole time, or even a majority of it. I've never seen this happen to a derailleur. I seem to have a special skill for abusing my equipment!

[jss]

And the bicycle, too.