Detailed deraileur question

[Kenneth Litwak]

I have taken my wheel of my Trek Madone to replace tubes countless times. I have not had trouble with the derailleur going back to its normal p[position and working. Not this time. I am attempting to mount it on the skewer of an indoor trainer. I don't know what happed but it is sticking out sideways, not vertical. A;also, there seems to be some sort of "hook" hanging down. I've never seen that before, but it surely belongs around or through something. I believe it is an Ultegra d. I have never had this issue before and I have no idea what to do. I haven't found a Youtube video on the details of a derailleur. I'm not mechanically-inclined. I was a computer programmer for many years and my knowledge of the details of a derailleur is small. Any suggestions? I can't lug he very heavy trainer and the bike to a shop to get help. I'd have to take the bike off the trainer before going back home. I don't know what to do. Thanks.

[Frank Krygowski]

On 1/9/2022 6:54 PM, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> I have taken my wheel of my Trek Madone to replace tubes countless times. I have not had trouble with the derailleur going back to its normal p[position and working. Not this time. I am attempting to mount it on the skewer of an indoor trainer. I don't know what happed but it is sticking out sideways, not vertical. A;also, there seems to be some sort of "hook" hanging down. I've never seen that before, but it surely belongs around or through something. I believe it is an Ultegra d. I have never had this issue before and I have no idea what to do. I haven't found a Youtube video on the details of a derailleur. I'm not mechanically-inclined. I was a computer programmer for many years and my knowledge of the details of a derailleur is small. Any suggestions? I can't lug he very heavy trainer and the bike to a shop to get help. I'd have to take the bike off the trainer before going back home. I don't know what to do. Thanks.

Your description isn't very clear to me, but I'll bet the "hook" hanging
down is your rear derailleur hanger. See https://tinyurl.com/2awwwtvu

Your derailleur should not be sticking out sideways. If the derailleur
hanger is bent or broken, it's easily replaced. If the carbon fiber
portions of the frame are broken, it's a more complicated repair.

I'd suggest either:

1) taking the bike into a competent shop (no need to take the trainer), or

2) taking a photo of the damage, posting it to a photo hosting site like
Flickr, then asking your question on rec.bicycles.tech

or both. (I'm copying to r.b.tech)

--
- Frank Krygowski

[Kenneth Litwak]

Thanks for the advice, Frank. If the frame is bent or broken, that would be horrible. I can't afford to buy a new frame. I hope it's just the derailleur. I know it should not look like it odes but I haven't been able to figure out, after watching many videos on derailleur installation, what to do. I'll take it to a bike store. Since this has never happened before, and I've had this particular bike since 2012, I'm puzzled why trying to put the frame on the skewer of an indoor trainer I haven't used before would do this.

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Mon, 10 Jan 2022 11:16:38 -0500, Frank Krygowski
<frkr...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>Your derailleur should not be sticking out sideways. If the derailleur
>hanger is bent or broken, it's easily replaced. If the carbon fiber
>portions of the frame are broken, it's a more complicated repair.

If the derailleur is sideways, I would take a very close look at the
hanger and the frame:
"Trek Madone Dropout and Seatstay Repair"
<https://ruckuscomp.com/news/featured-repair/2016/12/16/trek-madone-dropout-and-seatstay-repair/>
My guess(tm) is that the hanger or seat stay partially failed during a
previous ride. The trainer finished the job causing the partial break
to crack open.

>I'd suggest either:
>
>1) taking the bike into a competent shop (no need to take the trainer), or
>
>2) taking a photo of the damage, posting it to a photo hosting site like
>Flickr, then asking your question on rec.bicycles.tech
>
>or both. (I'm copying to r.b.tech)

3) Provide the rest of the Trek Madone model number and year, such as
"Trek Madone SLR 9 2021". Also, the maker and model number of the
trainer.

--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[John B.]

You might look at
https://tinyurl.com/2p9499ua
for examples of bent rear derailers
--
Cheers,

John B.

[Antti Luode]

Youtube has great tutorials on this sort of stuff.

Once you have it all figured out you should get a rear derrailleur adjustment tool to
adjust it. Park tools has a good video in that:

https://youtu.be/tXfvW0L3iLM

It is like a magic wand. I have found that most shifting problems are due
to badly adhusted rear derraileur.

Antti