Derailer failer

First of all this morning my bike thermostat read -11.1C when I got on the train. My finger thermostat read “That’s cold.”

Next, on the way down the hill my rear derailer failed, or rather the cable failed and I thought it froze. I was stuck in my 11 tooth cog. For the unintiated that means it was really hard to pedal away from a stop and impossible to climb steep hills.

For the visuals in the audience; think about what it would be like to push your kitchen chair across the floor with a straw.

Anyway, once I got onto the train there were *amazingly* two other crazies bikes.

Great! Maybe one of them will have an idea that’ll help.

There was also this other guy I see a lot; just a regular passenger (read as “stealth” biker). So I attacked my derailer with a fervor to see if I could pull it into a less straw-breaking gear.

The thing about the rear derailer is that it is held in place by the cable and when the cable fails (not frozen) it “defaults” to bottom, the derailer spring is doing it’s work with no resistance.

So the biker says

You need some tension on that thing.

No chance and no help.

Then the stealth biker pipes up

When that happens to me I have just wedged a piece of wood in the mechanism to keep it where I want – in a “higher” gear.

Brilliant! I didn’t have wood but I had some tools. And a few short minutes later I am rolling in my 13 tooth cog. Much more managable for starting what is currently a single speed bike. Visually speaking, we just put a blanket underneath the chair.