I took a ride the other day after a rain. My bike got pretty muddy and dirt was everywhere, and by the end I found that my second gear on the front derailleur wasn't working well. By the end of the ride the chain would always get stuck if I switched to it. So I figured maybe some cleaning would help. I bought some degreaser and a handy little tool at the bike shop. I started cleaning the front derailleur, and lo and behold, the second gear was bent! In any case, I went back to the bike shop to get an estimate. I was told that my drivetrain is a mess and that might be why this happened. He said it was dirty and there is too much lube on it... Out of curiousity, does anyone know the reasoning for this? He told me that they could try to realign it, but if that didn't work they would need to order a new part and install it. He also said that they would want to clean out the drivetrain as well. Well, all that was going to be 80 bucks and I'm kinda broke right now. So I cleaned it as best I could without taking the bike apart (he said the cleaning would be $40). I'm wondering if someone has any experience with this... and if it's possible that I can just bend the gear back into place myself. I just don't know if I could further damage the bike. I'm attaching a picture of it as well.
Thanks for reading and for any help you can give.
Oh, and the bike is a Specialized Rockhopper 2004.