Broken chain or derailleur cable? How to get your bike fit!

Stefan Frey

· 07.09.2015

Photo: Daniel Simon

Broken chain or derailleur cable? How to get your bike fit!

When does a chain or even a shift cable ever break? Almost never! But if it does happen, the right spare parts are safe at home in the workshop. So you can get going again.

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Chain broken and no chain rivet or chain lock with you? Then you need to remove a chain link. Do not push the rivet completely out of the outer link plate. This will allow you to close the chain again. You should then check whether you can still shift all gears and then continue riding carefully.

Rear derailleur or derailleur hanger torn off? There's only one thing to do: convert your bike to singlespeed. Shorten the chain to the centre sprocket and centre chainring. The chain should run straight. With a fully, you also need to lock the shock to prevent the chain stay from stretching and putting too much tension on the chain.

You can fix a broken shift cable with a stripped lustre terminal. However, only if the derailleur cable protrudes slightly from the rear derailleur. Loosen the cable at the screw on the rear derailleur, then you can bring the two ends together with the lustre terminal. You may then need to readjust the shift lever.

If the derailleur cable breaks, the rear derailleur and front derailleur will shift to the smallest sprocket or chainring. The maximum sloping chain line makes it impossible to continue riding without grinding. Turn the respective limit screw in as far as it will go. This keeps the chain on the centre chainring at the front and on the third smallest sprocket at the rear.

The derailleur cable is broken and you have no tools with you Push a small stick or a flat object into the parallelogram of the derailleur. This will allow you to limit the swivelling range to any gear. The same works for the front derailleur.

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Photo: Daniel Simon

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Stefan Frey

Editor

Stefan Frey is from Lower Bavaria and loves the mossy, loamy trails of the Bavarian Forest as much as the rugged rock of the Dolomites. For technical descents, he is prepared to tackle almost any ascent - under his own steam. As an accessories specialist, he is the first port of call for questions about equipment and add-on parts, while as head of copywriting he sweeps the language crumbs from the pages of the BIKE print editions.

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Broken chain or derailleur cable? How to get your bike fit!

Stefan Frey

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