Ember

I got my schwinn back from the bike shop today. I'm going to start commuting to my college, so needed a bike. I haven't ridden a bike in a real long time, so I decided to get my mom's old bike repaired and use that for now. When I took it in for repairs, the repair-dude said that the derailer (or whatever is on the back wheel to shift the gears) was broken and they wouldn't be able to find a replacement since the bike is so old. I told them just to leave it in one gear and I'd treat it like a single-speed.

I rode it a couple times, and on the last ride I heard a clank when I started pedaling and it got harder to rotate the pedals. I think the gear shifted some how. I don't know much about bike mechanics, but the chain is on the furthest ring on the outside. I tried messing with the lever that shifts the gears, but it isn't doing anything.

Is there a way to manually move the chain onto the other gear ring thingies? I can get some pictures if I'm being confusing. Thanks in advance ;3

JanMM

You can break the chain (take it apart), remove the derailleur, shorten the chain enough to go around a front chainring and a rear cog, connect the chain back together, and slide the rear wheel forward or backwards a little bit in the rear dropouts to put enough tension on the chain, adjust the brakes to fit wherever the wheel ended up, then ride it like a single speed. Whew.
Are you sure the derailleur can't be adjusted somehow to not move the chain from your singlespeed gears? That would involve adjusting the hi and lo screws.

Ember

I know next to nothing about bike mechanics, so I probably wouldn't know how to do anything you said without horribly maiming my bike. Should I just take it back to the bike shop and have them look at it?

prathmann

Take it to *another* bike shop - one that's willing to replace the broken rear derailleur (assuming it really is broken) and get it working properly. Your bike is younger than most of mine and I haven't had any problem replacing parts (incl. derailleurs).

Ember

I sat down with my bike and tried to figure out how things moved and stuff. I figured out that the pedals have to me moving for the gear to actually shift (hey, I haven't ridden bike in a while). I think the lever that switches the gears is sensitive. I got it to switch gears and stay in that gear. If I have anymore problems, I'll head back to the bike shop.

Thanks for the help ;3

Bikewer

The derailleur on that bike should be a rather inexpensive item, finding a replacement shouldn't be that hard.

Jeff Wills

Ditto. Heck, I spent 5 years as a Schwinn mechanic (1979-1984) and Collegiates are essentially upright-handlebar Varsities. The bike is darn near indestructible.

The derailleur can be replaced with a newer, cheap replacement item, such as this: https://www.bikepartsusa.com/bikeparts/item/01-102423 . It may be that the first bike shop doesn't know how to do this, but then they're incompetent and don't deserve your business.