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Finally cracked the derailleur hanger alignment trick that had me beat for 3 months | Bicycle Mechanics - Talk Freely

Finally cracked the derailleur hanger alignment trick that had me beat for 3 months

I've been fighting with bent derailleur hangers on older steel frames for a while now, and the standard Park Tool DAG-2.2 just wasn't cutting it on a couple of bikes that came through my garage. The problem was that the hanger looked straight when I checked it with the tool, but the shifting was still garbage, especially in the middle cogs. Last Tuesday I was working on a 1987 Schwinn and getting nowhere, so out of frustration I pulled the wheel off and laid a straight edge across the dropout faces instead of trusting the gauge alone. Turns out the dropout itself was twisted just enough that the hanger was reading fine but the axle was sitting crooked. I put the frame in my bench vise with soft jaws, gave it a gentle nudge with an adjustable wrench, and suddenly the whole cassette lined up like it should. Shifting went from clunky to butter in about 10 minutes. Has anyone else run into twisted dropouts on old steel frames, and do you check them before you even bother with the alignment tool?

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evanc929d ago

Man, this brings back memories of a Peugeot I wrestled with for weeks. Same exact thing, the hanger read straight on the tool but the shifting was still junk in the middle of the cassette. I finally got smart and checked the dropout faces with a straight edge and sure enough the drive side was tweaked from some old crash damage. Once I cold set it back in line the whole drivetrain woke up. Now I check dropout alignment first on every old steel frame before I even touch the hanger tool. It saves so much time and guessing. Those old frames take a beating over 30 plus years and the dropouts get twisted way more often than people realize. Good call figuring that out on your own.