Originally Posted by
Biketiger
In a recent post, a gentleman described a bad accident that happened after his chain derailed. Apparently he was pedaling hard uphill when the chain came off the ring and he was hurled over the bars. Did this happen because all the force that he was applying to the drive train suddenly stop and it had to go somewhere else - in this case into forward motion to propel him over the bars? I'm trying to understand why this derailment resulted in such a bad accident.
I've only had one chain break and I was on a flat surface going only 8-10 mph so I experienced no loss of control - just couldn't pedal anymore.
Yes, if the chain comes off under high power.
Something similar will happen if you come unclipped from the pedal at speed. Once, when we were all starting a sprint, my friend's cleat broke on an upstroke at about 30mph. That was not pretty.
I'm not saying that the other poster did anything wrong...sometimes things just happen. But this is a good reason for maintaining your bike and replacing things
before they are completely worn out.