LarrySellerz

Dropped my chain today and completely destroyed my wheel, kind of mad. Was going down a hill and it just took out all the spokes on one side. WTF. Just got the bike tuned up like 100 miles ago and the derailleur is already bad enough that this happened? Do I have a case to go back to the shop and ask for a wheel? $500 spent at sports basement.

Andrew R Stewart 

I hope you didn't fall. The bike is cheaper to fix than you are.

There are a few possible reasons why this happened, Some from negligence, some from bone handed mechanicing, some from trail "snakes", some from previous incidents. Unfortunately the causes can overlap and damage can obscure the true reason.

Do you know what rear cog you were in when going down the hill? Do the der cage/pulleys show spoke contact/snagging? Did the chain get twisted? Was the road smooth? Or was this off road and if so were there branches or "snakes" about? Had you shifted the gears just before?

It would be easy to assume that the wheel replacement lacked a check for/adjustment of the der limit screws but these only affect the action when in the biggest or smallest cog. The smallest is far from the spokes. The biggest isn't what most are in when descending. Presumably you were pedaling... As a former (love that term, former) shop service guy I would try to reconcile these with what I see when the bike is in front of me. Taking out many spokes (another assumption in that the spokes are broken out of the hub or rim) suggests a pretty immoveable object got tangled up in them. Chains are not usually this. Der cages can be as too sticks or other snakes.

More info and pics might help us with further speculations. Andy

LarrySellerz

I live on a steep hill and was coming down, realized I forgot something and went back up. Before going up I switched all the way down to my lowest but might not have been as gentle with the shifting as usual, if that makes sense. Then on my way down again something went wrong with my chain and my wheel exploded/got taken out. Was really scary, just held on but didn’t crash somehow

Chuck M 

Those pics don't look like a 100 miles ago tune up. And $500 for a tune?

Trakhak

As shown in the photo, the derailleur was scraped along the ground in a previous crash; the impact bent the derailleur inward toward the spokes.

Having heard the "It wasn't my fault" defense plenty of times in my bike shop days, that's the first thing I always looked for in cases like this one. Open-and-shut case.

In the future, always check the rear derailleur and dropout for damage (or take the bike to a shop to be checked) when you crash a bike on its right side.

smd4

I think that bike is maybe too high-end for you, Larry. Something from Walmart or Target might suit you and your bike riding/mechanical skills better. When something like this happens on a less-expensive bike, it won't hurt you in the pocketbook as painfully.

It might be worth it for the shop to give you a new wheel, with the understanding that you never set foot inside the shop again.

Kontact 

All rear derailleurs end up with marks like that. How are you so certain the hanger ia bent from that photo, and how do you know it didnt bend from the event that mangled the spokes?

Kontact 

Do you have some running beef with rhe OP to explain this dramatic and incredibly rude response?

LarrySellerz

The entire drive chain was replaced, it was my fathers bike that was gifted to me for christmas and I just started riding it a few weeks ago. I have not been rough with it and any derailleur damage should have been spotted because they literally changed the front and back gears and chain. This could have easily been horrible for me if I was going faster

LarrySellerz

Honestly I don't even mind, its obnoxious but whatever, doubt he was trying to be as mean spirited as it came across.

smd4

"Dramatic?" Really? What, exactly, is "incredibly rude" about it? Trying to save the guy some $$?

As someone who has worked in bike shops, it would be worth the cost of a wheel not to have to risk being on the receiving end of a frivolous lawsuit someone with Larry's history could potentially bring. That's not being rude--it's being honest.

Andrew R Stewart 

Andy

Andrew R Stewart 

It is nice to have more of the story for us to blab about.

So it seems that the shop did do some installs and thus would be responsible for the parts (and interfacing other parts that remained on the bike) working correctly and not cause damage in use. But as I mentioned there are other reasons why a der can entangle with the spokes, than a bent hanger. That the shifting hasn't been mentioned yet to me suggests that the shop did do the work well enough for an indexed system to shift well enough for the OP to not go back right away. It is this aspect, the bike was picked up and used for about 100 miles without issues. Only when shifting on a hill did anything bad happen.

As smd4 said there are times when a shop needs to eat their work, refund the $ and walk away from future involvement with (thankfully) a very few customers. When both sides claim they are in the right and there are no vids showing what really happened most BBBs (is the shop a member of their local Better Business Bureau?) will side with the customer. That has been my (again thankfully very rare) experience. Andy

wheelreason

Yeah, you can't speak to someone like that without knowing how much seat post he has sticking out....

Andrew R Stewart 

I completely agree. This is a part of the cost of doing business. A cost that most here likely don't think about, until they own their own business and run across a similar situation. With so many potential customers using social media to pre judge their shopping experiences and that so few will post positive ones the cost of publicly turning away a customer is much higher than when I started out in the LBS world. But there are ways to not deal with specific customers that are not directly blamable on an incident that went wrong. Every shop I have worked in has been "out of stock" of a product or service for some who walk in the front door. Andy

LarrySellerz

Dont double down, move on and do better next time. Stop being a jerk

smd4

I'm not the one posting every other week about some part of my bike I've completely destroyed, then trying to blame someone else.

LarrySellerz

Bike shifted fine before this

LarrySellerz

Probably because you dont ride very much or very fast, you certainly dont do it as a career. stay in your lane.

Mr. 66

Sort of a confusing story, you say it happened on the down hill. The hanger probably got bent after the service. Honestly, just because you had all that replaced does not mean that your shop is responsible, weeks later. It is your responsibility to observe when something has happened before there can be a catastrophic situation.

That said, is the cable supposed to wrap like that at pinch?

shelbyfv

Karma and all that....

Trakhak

The scraped area is grimy and oily. You'd see freshly scraped metal if the impact coincided with the breaking of the spokes.

I suppose it's possible for the rear derailleur to rip out the spokes on a just-crashed bike that is now lying on its side, but it's unlikely, in the absence of pedaling power.

smd4

Nope, I don't ride for a career, like you apparently do. I'm a "science and engineering technician" at a lab. But at least my bike works.

So maybe you kicked the rear derailleur once too often?

Kontact 

Everyone seems oddly certain that the derailleur broke the spokes. My experience is that the opposite is normal, and the derailleur and hanger would be trashed with the spokes intact. This seems like something else - like the chain cutting the spokes.

Which could be from a bent hanger or not.

smd4

Larry himself says the chain dropped and destroyed the wheel. What caused that to happen is anybody's guess at this point.