norwegianRoadie

DAMMIT!
First ride today after assembling my new Bianchi Impulso with a Campagnolo Veloce groupset..amazing.

LOVE THE BIKE, but only managed 20 minutes before the dropout mounting for the rear derailleur snapped off on a very slow incline where I shifted all the way up on the biggest cog on the rear, BANG! and the whole rear derailleur followed the cog up clockwise before stopping at 12 o'clock, twisting a couple of chain rings, chipping the paint on the chainstay and damaging a spoke.
As this is out of the box I'm trying to get it on warranty, but am worrying about the Veloce now. Should I upgrade the rear mech to a Centaur which seems to be the most expensive 10speed from Campy ?
Am I expected to do a full gear adjustment when assembling the bike, i.e. is it my fault ?? Surely not.

Holden McNeil

UnfilteredDregs

What do they call that clear plastic thingamajig?

norwegianRoadie

Dunno. Thought it was silly, but am SURE GLAD it was there to stop the Cage of the rear mech getting into the spokes and f'ing up even more.

Sasquatch16

I am no expert but if you assembled the bike it should be your problem to adjust derrailleur's. Doubt you will get warranty but consider yourself lucky you did not get hurt.

gregf83 

Yes and yes. Next time RTFM. The instructions Campy supplies are clear and would have prevented your problem.

In case your bike didn't include instructions, here is the relevant section from Campy:

Homebrew01

Yes. Yes Since you say you assembled it. If it came assembled from a bike shop, then they would be at fault.

The derailleur was just doing what it was told.

If you hit a baseball through a window, do you blame the ball ?

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...nts-derailleur

Looks like you just need a new hanger & derailleur. Possibly a chain if there are bent links.

thirdgenbird

There is nothing wrong with veloce. 100% the fault of the mechanic.

i would also recommend mounting your bottle cages to the frame and not the seatpost. Those styles of bottle holders don't have a great reputation for security. I would only use one when you run out of proper mounts.

norwegianRoadie

okei.
Well... it is the first bike I got from a bike shop - not physically collected at the shop.

Out of the box everything was assembled except for seat/seatpost, front wheel and bar tape.
SO.. Not being too naive, I thought that as everything on the rear of the bike was already assembled, that I could at least do a couple of test rides before maybe doing some fine tuning, not that the rear derailleur was so badly factory-setup it would self destruct ;-). Everything was working as it should except for some minor clicky-slightly off perfect sounds on the extremes of front / rear chain angle.
I was plainly naive.?

And as for the seat cage; I use a fairly small bottle and prefer the look/distance. Obviously the carbon cage was extremely important weight-wise...

Homebrew01

Hmmm ... I suppose it depends a bit on how the bike shop presented it. As "ready to go" , or "Here's a bike, good luck".

Even if it was perfect when they shipped it, it could have got banged up a bit in transit. Now you know to check first, ride second.

hueyhoolihan

i've always maintained that a smart guy that has made a few embarrassing, dangerous, egregious and most of all costly errors stands the best chance of really reaching their potential. if so, this may be this best the thing that could have happened! too bad no sympathy here, i guess.

OTOH, if one WANTS sympathy, understanding and compassion, and who doesn't? get a lawyer, that's what they are, in part, paid for. to spin born, they are! *Yoda*

i have had cause in the past to retain legal council once and before i went in to see them, i felt pretty bad, and down on myself for what i had thought i had done. after the meeting, i came out convinced i was an innocent dupe and everybody and their brother were at fault but me. spinners i tell you, spinners extraordinaire.

copswithguns

1) I call the "plastic thing" a "dork disk".

2) I'm no expert bike mech but how the hell did you do this? I'm thinking you didn't tighten the skewer and when it went to wobbling it dominoed.

gregf83 

No, it's simply the limit screw on the rear derailleur isn't adjusted properly. There is a very fine line between the correct adjustment and letting the rear derailleur touch (or in this case jam) the rear wheel spokes. Mines rubbing at the moment so I just don't shift into the biggest cog, and if I do I'm just very careful.

Homebrew01

Derailleur into spokes. Improper low limit screw adjustment.

shelbyfv

Since you will need to order a derailleur and hanger, may as well get a chain. Your chain has experienced some unusual stress, no way to know if it's damaged.

SpeshulEd 

For what its worth, the rear derailleur could have been fine when the bike was shipped, but could have also been bumped during shipping, or even pulling it out of the box.

Be happy you had the dork disk on and you weren't going so fast that the derailleur swung around and nailed the seat stay, cracking it in half. Been there, done that.

On the upside, learning the hardway means you never make the same mistake again.

thirdgenbird

Why don't you fix it?

gregf83 

I just noticed today. I don't normally use the big cog. It's fixed now though so you can rest easy tonight

BoSoxYacht

Either the chain was/is too short, the derailleur hanger was/is bent, or the derailleur was/is improperly adjusted.

In the future, have a professional mechanic assemble your bikes, or at least have one inspect your work. Your bike is broken because you made a mistake or 2 in assembly.

gregf83 

In that case it's a little different. If the shop put the bike together they should have adjusted the derailleur properly. I would expect the shop to take care of you. This is likely the reason on-line bike sales have never taken off.

Campag4life

Guess you learned the hard way, you never ride a bike straight out of the box. First to the stand. Best way to adjust the rear derailleur inboard and outboard stops and indexing initially is with no chain. So take the chain off. A lot of Bianchi bikes with Campy come with KMC chain and Missing link. Pinch the link remove the chain and set the rear derailleur. Also don't forget the rack screw that adjusts cage height for best chain wrap and clearance to the big cogs. Truth is the front derailleur always takes more attention for flawless shifting. Also just changing the way the wheel axle sits in the rear dropout affects shifting.
As mentioned...we all learn by our mistakes. Yes some are more costly than others. But it is the guy that is willing to make the mistakes that becomes most proficient. Btw, Veloce derailleurs are fine and very little difference with Centaur derailleurs FWIW.

MinnMan

I did something similar once. The cause was the rear derailleur touching the spokes.

BoSoxYacht

The cause was an improperly adjusted dérailleur or a bent derailleur hanger. The derailleur hitting the spokes is part of the result, not the cause.

Just splitting hairs.

MinnMan

You are right. Consider my hairs split. The derailleur was not properly adjusted. But just to elaborate, the adjustments seemed OK when shifting up and down on the repair stand. But riding at the bottom of a roller, downshifting quickly from a small cog to the largest (and in fact, overshooting the intended gear by not counting clicks on the brifter), the derailleur moved too far.

rebel1916

Uuuuummmmmm, I do not think these words mean what you think they mean...