That my friends, is pretty damn ugly. Wasted '97 era XTR derailleur, chain jammed behind cassette, and severely bent derailleur hanger. It took me awhile to untangle the mess. Plan was to remove the derailleur and convert to emergency single speed to get home. I had all the required tools in my messenger bag. After pulling everything apart, discovered the derailleur hanger was bent enough to rub against the cassette. Incredible. I tried a few cave man methods to bend the hanger back. Insert Dream On by Aerosmith for the correct soundtrack.A stream of bike commuters buzzed by, since Eastlake is a popular commute route. A few asked if I needed help - including a dude riding a recumbent - I asked if he had an adjustable wrench on him. Score! He had one in his mighty tool bag. The stubby wrench clamped around the hanger gave me the leverage to bend it just enough to clear the cassette. I'll never make fun of recumbent riders again. Well, at least for a few months. Recumbent Dude saved my ass for sure.
Post road side derailleur-ectomy, chain now shortened into pseudo single speed mode, allowing the remaining 15 or so commute miles to be powered by me. Except for the last super steep mile into my neighborhood, that I had to walk; couldn't pull it off with my new "single speed". I was also afraid to really torque on the cranks with the damaged chain, could have easily snapped. That would have just added insult to injury. Or maybe in this case, injury to insult.
Post road side derailleur-ectomy, chain now shortened into pseudo single speed mode, allowing the remaining 15 or so commute miles to be powered by me. Except for the last super steep mile into my neighborhood, that I had to walk; couldn't pull it off with my new "single speed". I was also afraid to really torque on the cranks with the damaged chain, could have easily snapped. That would have just added insult to injury. Or maybe in this case, injury to insult.Jokes aside, I'm incredibly bummed over this. The entire drive train of this bike needed to be replaced anyway - cassette, chain rings, chain, BB bearings - are all shot. Being tight on dough, I was dragging every mile out of it. Now I've paid the price. Out of all my bikes, this one is the most used by far and my favorite all around bike. It's also the only one currently fitted with fenders, a must for commuting here. Damn, what a pain.
The derailleur hanger is really tweaked, but being steel, think it's repairable. I could probably wrestle it back myself, but I may have a local frame shop perform that operation to be sure everything is back in line. I'll call Davidson tomorrow to get a quote. When I add that cost, plus the drive train replacement, then factor in the flaky left STI old school 8 speed shifter, plus the rear XTR cassette freehub is sticky - a new bike make be cheaper. Ouch.
A new bike in that price range won't be as trick as the old school '97 Ibis Hakkalugi however. I built this bike up in '97 part by hand selected part. The speedo died and was removed years ago. I'm guessing the frame and fork have 20,000+ miles on it. Probably more. Many, many commute rides, some fun rides, and even a 'cross race. It's a damn cool bike. I'll have to weigh out my options.
Bizarrely enough, my carbon Ibis ate a derailleur a few months back, when the replaceable hanger broke off. I've been riding forever and never had this happen on a road bike. Now twice!
I'll wallow in my tears for a short while, then figure something out. Meanwhile, I hope it doesn't rain. Cue up Dream On for an encore...