Mountain Biking - My rear deraileur came apart!

I went to take a ride on my MTB into town to get a few things. Before reaching the end of the driveway, I hear a clunk and my chain hanging loose. I look closer and see that the upper pulley of the rear deraileur was popped out of place. I was really disappointed as this was the first really nice day since fall. It's 80 and sunny. Tomorrow it goes back down to 40's and rain. I popped the pulley back in place, but figured it wasn't a good idea to ride. So I ordered a Shimano XT rear deraileur. I go on vacation in 9 days and will be visiting my parents, where I recently had other bike parts shipped to. Now when I get there I'll have XT shifters and rear deraileur, and Avid Arch Rivals. I know my Diamondback Response isn't a top of the line bike, but after these upgrades and a few I have planned for after my tax check, this bike will be a much better bike.

Had you tried removing the pulleys recently to clean them? Are you sure you just didn't tighten them incorrectly?I just don't see how one could just pop out...
Either way, the new setup is going to be nice.

-Moab

I have never taken the rear deraileur apart ever. Granted the thing has 200+ road and trail miles, plus who knows how many hours on the bike trainer. It was the original Acera or Alivio deraileur so probably not the best thing Shimano has ever built.

You can't go wrong with XT level stuff. If I didn't get an employee discount, I'd only get XT, not XTR.

L8R

Ahhh it hapens,if you pump on it hard it sometimes rarly does that. it matters what kind of rear deraler. or check if a point on it is bent or proke.or it could just be the screw is striped.


what ever happend i dont know but i like to see the new system if your able pm me a pic of the new system.

Going back to the first post. I'm with you dude; I feel the sorrow of the weather change as well. It was close to 85 here in NY today, and tomorrow it goes back to 50's. How’s that for a change? And I thought that I could finally start hitting the trails daily. :(

heres worse in norway mi,We had in the 80 degree range farenhight.then the next day 32 with freezing rain.:( sucks

Originally posted by moabrider47
Had you tried removing the pulleys recently to clean them? Are you sure you just didn't tighten them incorrectly?I just don't see how one could just pop out...
Either way, the new setup is going to be nice.

-Moab

I had the same thing happen to me it turned out when I put them back on when I was done cleaning I had switched pulleys :crash:

I think it has something to do with the screw that holds the pulley in place.

Since all the work will be done at my parents where I'll have access to a digital camera, I will definitely take pics. It won't be for about another week until I get there though.

I'm really stoked about this setup. I know Diamondback is just a base model, but that frame has taken a beating and worth upgrading. Plus it looks bad being black with silver and white accent stripes. Can't wait to work on this machine. Will be a huge learning experience. Figure my first day off after finishing my night shifts I'll put everything on and run the new cables. The next day after getting a good nights sleep, I'll do the fine tuning of the deraileurs.

Any tips on installing and tuning these parts? I've been to Park Tool's web site which will be of help, but didn't know if there were other things to consider.

install is pretty straight forward, if you get lost just look at how they were on the bike before =].

btw i had that pulley thing happen to me before. i finished cleaning the pulleys and put my derailleur back together. riding to a buddy's house for our ride, the cage snapped and out came the pulley. must torque down those bolts and nuts!

holy crap! That just happened on my huffy! I was riding along when I stood up to crank up this hill. I hear a clinck, and instantly, I was on the ground, my right leg under the bike (the bike is on its drive side) and I had wacked my nose into the handlebar. My visor was lying like ten feet off. I thought I had a stick in my spokes at first, so when I tried to get going again, I was surprised to find that my rear mech was in pieces! I had to carry the bike about a mile, then I just got savage with the chain and pulled it out of the spokes whee it was lodged. I could walk my bike then. I never found the pulley though. I now need a new derailler, since I manged the other one, and it is missing a pulley. What do you guys think of getting an altus rear mech to replace the generic?

haha! an altus would be fine although if you go to the LBS they probably will try to sell you a POS derailleur for as much as a quality one off the net. by the way, this reminds me of another incident- i was on my just-assembled SS project and i used a large cog as a tensioner since i wanted to avoid using a rear mech/singleator. well the chainline apparently wasn't as perfect as i thought... after a problemless hour or so, i went down a hill and hear this sound and my chain derailed, and the large cog flew out. i put the chain back on the cog and put the large cog tensioner back on and think it's okay. couldn't get one revolution before the same thing happened again. this time i examine more closely and saw that the large cog was snapping my spokes! sorry off topic...