Platypus Complete and Derailleur Alignment

[Ben Miller]

on another thread I started here, I talked about the heresy I've been committing of converting my wife's new Platypus complete to dropbars :) Since she did not like the bar-end friction shifting, I also installed a pair of Microshift R9 brifters. After the install the shifting was pretty terrible. No matter how I adjusted things, there was always at least one gear that was off: it shifting into it slowly and did not want to stay, skipping between gears. 

I got tired of trouble shooting it and we ended up going for a ride. Well, the gear that I left as the "bad" gear was a pretty unfortunate choice on my part, it being the 8th out of the 9 cogs. Opps :/

Afterwards I thought "I never checked the derailleur hanger alignment, thinking it couldn't be that on a new bike, but it's showing all the symptoms of being out of alignment." Well, today I put it up in the stand and put the alignment gauge on it. It was out of alignment in the vertical axis by 14 mm and by 15 mm in the horizontal!! Gave it a few precision tugs and now it's within 1 mm everywhere. After readjusting cable tension and limits, it shifts great now. 

Of course, if it had been left in friction shifting we'd probably never noticed. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that the alignment was correct, even on a new frame. But the build quality of the Platy complete outta the box was so good (I barely had to make any adjustments after assembly), I guess I got lulled into thinking everything was dialed. 

In case it was not clear, we got a complete Platy but opted to not have Rivendell do the final assembly. Just picked up the complete still in the box. I still think those completes are a screaming deal and the partial assembly in Taiwan was still top-notch. Just a good reminder to check your hanger alignment when you have poor indexed shifting, even on a new frame :)

[Thomas Lynn Skean]

do you have a recommendation for a particular derailer hanger alignment gauge?

Yours,
Thomas Lynn Skean

[Nick Payne]

My alignment gauge is the one that came with my Campagnolo toolchest, but I think there are better ones available. Velonews tested various alignment gauges some years ago: https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/the-best-derailleur-hanger-alignment-tool-9-tested/.

It's also quite possible to make your own. Google "home made derailleur alignment gauge" (without the quotes) and you'll got lots of hits.

Another option is to use a spare steel rear axle, as most cup and cone rear hub steel axles use the same M10 x 1.0 thread size and pitch as the hanger (the exception being Campagnolo axles). You can thread a spare axle into the dropout from the inside and compare it's parallelism in different planes with another axle sitting in the dropouts.

Nick Payne

[Ben Miller]

Thomas,

Nick has some great suggestions, especially in terms of DIY suggestions. I have few things to add though 

1. I think there exists a minimum number of bikes you are servicing that requires a derailleur alignment tool. I'm not sure what it is, but a single bike might make more sense to take to a mechanic. It's mainly an economics thing. It's an expensive, large tool that hopefully you don't have much need for. 
2. I'm generally an advocate for buying the higher quality tool cause they'll perform better and last longer. But in the case of a derailleur alignment tool, they're pretty simple tools that shouldn't see much use. I'd recommend the cheapest one you can find. I have a "CycloSpirit" branded one, which is currently going for $45 on Amazon. But it looks like there is a VQP branded one for $40 on Amazon and I'd probably get that if I were in the search for one. 

Just my opinion,

Ben

[Steven Sweedler]

When I had a similar issue with my chain kumping between cogs, I bought a Park deraileur alignment gusge off of ebay for $50, new. I used it once so far and it solved the issue

Steven Sweedler
Plymouth, New Hampshire

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[Garth]

Having used the traditional hanger tools I decided to get this one instead, from Wolf Tooth. 

 https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/pack-hanger-alignment-tool?variant=14719026790435

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/pages/pack-hanger-handle-alignment-tool-instructions

Traditional hanger tools that extend to the rim are prone to a certain amount of wobble/play if not machined to a high standard and/or wear from use. The Wolf Tooth one is very direct, the longer rod threads into the derailleur hanger and the shorter rod threads into the end of the QR lever. Alignment is as simple as aligning the two rods, applying any force to the longer hanger threadded rod to adjust. The QR rod is the guide.