Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,175
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
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That happened to me about 25 years ago. The bolt that holds the cage to the upper part of the derailleur came unthreaded. In my case, I heard the metal parts hit the pavement, that was my warning so I had no damage to any other compoonents. I was about 40 miles from home and could not find all of the parts in the grass on the side of the road to reassemble. Major bummer. Fortunately it happened when it did, a half hour later I would not have heard the parts land in the new snow that had started falling.
Sometimes when things go wrong, there is no warning. A few weeks ago on tour my left side bottom bracket cup started unthreading. I was unaware until it had unthreaded out so far that it contacted my crankarm and caused more friction. I did not carry the wrench for it so I had to use a cresent wrench on a pair of long nose pliers to tighten it up. (And retighten it every 5 or 10 miles since I could not get it very tight.) I will never figure out why it started to unthread in the first place, it simply acts as a spacer for the cartridge bearing unit.
I might be the only person out there that has actually purchased spoke protector disks for my touring wheels.