Racing Dan

Did like this today. Worked great.

Schlafen

Wolftooth offer a similar tool called the Pack Hanger.

Great in a pinch, if you don't have the tool or you can't get to the lbs. In my opinion it will get you in the ball park for up to 9 speed, possibly 10. For 11 and 12 speed a Park Tool DAG or similar is a must as the spacing is narrower and a very small deviation at the hanger can cause issues.

A derailleur hanger adjustment tool is the best bike tool investment I've ever made. Hangers are ALWAYS bent.
Especially when people decide to go 1x and use clutched mechs, it will eventually bend the hanger just with normal use.

As a side note, I used to own one of those Defy 3.5. Contrary to what people used to say about stiff old aluminium frames, it was great to ride hydroformed aluminium tubing and came with a carbon fork and dropped stays, in 2009. Way ahead of it's time it was very light as well.

Lazyass

A few years ago I bought a brand new bike. After riding it many miles and not being able to get it properly tuned I realized the hanger was slightly bent probably from shipping. I just eyeballed it from the rear and got it perfect in a couple of minutes. I personally wouldn't go through all the trouble of trying to fab up an alignment tool unless I couldn't get it shifting perfect with the eyeball method.

davidad

You can also use a spare rear wheel screwed into the hanger. Most have the same thread 10 X 1 mm. Use the spare wheel to bend the hanger until wheels are parallel.

Iride01 

Neat! Pretty good DIY thinking I think.

If adjustment is needed then make sure the hanger is what you are bending and not the all-thread.

grizzly59

Some hangers change alignment when a wheel is clamped in the dropouts vs no wheel

HillRider

Where did you get a length of all-thread threaded M10x1.0 mm?

Racing Dan

I didn't. Used two pieces of m8, six nuts and some washers. Threaded m10x1 is not available in a normal hardware store.

I used it for realigning the hanger after a stick got jammed.

Racing Dan

I suppose this is true to an extent. I used four nuts on rod in the rear wheel dropouts to simulate the length of the hub and the usual clamping of the qr.

Racing Dan

I honestly think its better than just for a pinch, as long as the rods are straight. A 500mm overhang is way more than the ~310mm rim radius that a normal gear hanger tool uses to gauge against and I would assume its at least equally good. Depending on the length of the rods, you should be able to easily detect a small fraction of a degree deviation. For instance a 0.1 degree deviation between the gear eye and the wheel dropouts translates to 0.9mm misalignment at the end of the rods,- easily detectable by eye.

HillRider

Exactly, which is why I asked. For that matter, I've never seen metric threaded all-thread rod of any diameter in my local hardware or big-box home stores. However, in place of 8 mm, 5/16" or 3/8" all-thread would do equally well since you aren't actually threading it into anything.

Schlafen

There's a reason why every seasoned mechanic prefers 9/10 speed drivetrains because you can slap them together and be out the door in a lunch break without even touching the indexing barrels. 1mm off at the hanger is nothing in this case.

I've been running 11 speed since it basically came out, that's about a decade now, and, I know from experience that 1mm off misalignment is unforgiving and can make you pull your hairs our sometimes. First thing I check when building a bike.

I also check my hanger everytime the drivetrin is off for cleaning (ultrasonic cleaner, parts come off) and while more involved than the old 'rub a toothbrush on the chain' routine, the next cog is always 1 crisp click away.

That may be just me liking my drivetrains to work as designed, not just leaving it to 'it works', which is not good enough.
Same applies when I see people miss matching components and leaving it to 'well it works'. Smh unimpressed.

While 11 speed is pretentious, 12 speed is tight yo, luckily people go electronic these days, we can leave those eyeballs to rest now. 3D alignment of 2 parallel rods may give some people a run for their eyes. I'll stick to 'in a pinch' with this one.