Commuting - Lessons from a breakdown in the rain

I was at work after dark yesterday when it started raining heavily, after also having rained for most of the day. I decided to leave early to test the rain gear and new lights. I called home to report my departure and was warned about the possibility of flash floods. Things were going well, I was dry, the lights were operating, I got through a short section of flooded street. As I went down a hill near a shopping area I hit an unexpectedly deep patch of water, about a foot deep. I braked and downshifted and heard some sort of mechanical sound as the wheels stopped turning. I waded ashore and found the rear derailleur twisted into the rear wheel spokes. I lugged the bike to the shopping center and called home for an extraction. Today I drove in early so I can leave early and visit the bike shop.

Since I don't like it when things don't go my way, I analyze such events to see what I could do to prevent them from happening again. Here is what I came up with for this.

* Flooded black tar roads are hard to detect in the dark.

* A flooded street can be deeper that you expect.

* In a rain heavy enough to flood streets, any low area probably is flooded, so just don't go there. Adjust your route to stay on high ground.

* Check the bike over regularly to make sure all the little nuts and bolts are tight, so that nothing slips out of place without warning.

* In the tool kit, carry a rag in a zip-lock bag in case you have to grab a dirty bike part.

* If you don't have a cell phone, carry change for a phone call.

* I personally value waterproof-ness above all in my luggage, so I probably will upgrade my backpack to the Ortlieb messenger bag.

* If you have time, take some of it to sit and stare at your bike for a while so you know what the various parts are supposed to look like when they are operating normally. Then, if something breaks, you have a better chance of seeing what the problem is.

* Beware of overconfidence. Remember the Titanic.

RD in the spokes? Man that sucks big time. Like we say here in Oz, "Bugger!"

Looks like your extreme commute went bad extremely. ;) Very entertaining and wise read - thanks!

Wow tough luck on your commute!

I rode home in a downpour also last night, only mine was a much better turnout.

As far as Waterproofing...... "Ziploc Baggies"
I use them all the time, my Wallet and Cell are always in a baggy, even on nice days.

Hope ya get it fixed and not too painfull on the Wallet!

I am a network engineer and we recently ordered 1000 cat5 cables each with its own zip lock plastic bag. I grabbed about 200 of the bags. I put most every thing that goes into my bike trunk in a bag so it doesent bounce around or get wet. Good idea to use them as "gloves".

That is some bad luck with the RD. Did it come loose or get bent? I've bought some Lake Sandals that are great when things get wet. They have a ridge that comes up to protect the toes. My daughters think that they look goofy, but they rule! Cant wear them in the woods though.

So what did you determine had caused the RD malfunction?
Was it simply the act of shifting while it was under water?
That seems unlikely, unless your limits were set incorrectly...



<snip> zip lock plastic bag. <snip> Good idea to use them as "gloves".
+1

Watch out for puddles and potholes..

http://www.allowe.com/images/Pothole/pothole6.jpg
http://xo.typepad.com/blog/images/sinkhole.jpg

When the road is flooded it is often less deep right in the middle of the road. You also have to be careful of manhole covers that have been lifted off by overflowing drains.

Doh. Isn't it amazing how good Murphy is? The rear derailer was probably damaged already, not by the water, so it could have gotten into the wheel at any time. But it had to happen WHILE you were in the middle of a deep puddle! It boggles the mind. There ought to be physicists studying this stuff.

* Check the bike over regularly to make sure all the little nuts and bolts are tight, so that nothing slips out of place without warning.

* In the tool kit, carry a rag in a zip-lock bag in case you have to grab a dirty bike part.

For the former, beeswax is an excellent threadlock. Just smash a little into the threads and put the screw on. It will repel water, keep the screw in place, and act as a lubricant when you remove it. This stuff has worked wonders on my rear rack bolts, which were constantly untreading themselves through the vibration.

Carrying a bag in the toolkit is something I never considered. Excellent idea!

I went crazy with baggies last week too.

-spare tube is in a zip lock baggie with baby powder in it. (makes changing tire faster)

-mini bungie cords all in a baggie

-individual tools (hate multitools) all in a baggie

-wallet keys in a baggie.

Thanks to all for the supportive messages and the good ideas. The ziploc bags I will implement at once and the beeswax I will file away for my next bike mod. For those who were wondering how this might have happened, the final report follows.

The origin of the problem seems to be that the "derailleur hanger" was bent inward toward the wheel. For those who know as little as I, the derailleur hanger is a piece of metal that bolts to the frame, and TO WHICH the derailleur is bolted. A bend in that piece is a common enough problem that the bike shop actually has a tool for the sole purpose of unbending it. This part probably was bent some time in the past, because it seem unlikely that riding into water would be enough to bend it, and also because for some months now I have had trouble getting a clean shift between a couple rear sprockets, implying that something was out of alignment. Notice how a regular inspection of the bike would have turned up this problem, had I known what a normal derailleur hanger looked like. So it probably was a breakdown waiting to happen, and the water somehow helped it along, or maybe it really was that law of nature that says things like this must happen at times like that.

Then, when I got to the shelter of the shopping center, a security guard invited me to bring the bike inside into some better light so I could examine it. He was interested because he himself rides a mountain bike, but apparently knows not much more about the mechanics than I do. He found a rag for me, and I, with his encouragement, grabbed the derailleur and hanked it out of the spokes. That effort did not unbend the hanger, but instead bent the derailleur itself. So if the derailleur was not broken when it "broke," it definitely was broken after I "fixed" it.

Derailleur hanger: $9.99
Rear derailleur: $22.99
Installation: $16.00
One more step toward mastery of my tools: Priceless

The trick I've heard to unbend the derailer hanger on the road, without damaging the derailer (which you found out is pretty easy), is to place an allen wrench in the bolt that attaches the derailer to the hanger and use that to bend the hanger back into place. I havn't yet had the chance to try it but it sounds like a good idea.
Craig