I need a quick fix for my derailleur.
 

Actually that's not exactly correct. My front derailleur is fine, but the shifter broke into a couple of different pieces today and I can no longer change gears. There's no tension at all in the derailleur cable and my bike is stuck on the smallest of the three front cog wheels. Please, by the way forgive my terminology, I'm not exactly the mechanical type. I'm still able to ride the bike, but I'm peddling like a mad woman during my whole commute, and it takes much longer for me to get anywhere.

Is there any kind of quick and dirty fix for this problem? I need the bike for the next couple of days to get to and from work, so I wont be able to leave it in the shop until the end of the week. I live in a very flat area, so I generally only use two gears. One for windy days and one for still days.

I would really appreciate any input.

Just remove the derailer and put the chain on the middle ring manually.

Thank you! I actually almost did that this afternoon, but then I decided it might be a good idea to ask for some advice first.

you can replace the shifter or as mentioned above set the derailleur to the middle or big gear. the easiest way i can think to do this is by using the limiting screws so that the derailleur is fixed is the middle position. make sure when you do this that you shift through all of your gears in the rear so that you can tell if the chain will rub and make teh adjustments as necessary.

good luck

Thank you!

Find or cut a piece of wood to wedge in the derailleur to hold it on the desired chainring.

Actually, I hadn't thought of that, and it seems like an OK idea, in that it doesn't destroy anything else on the bike. I do like my bicycle. Do you think this would be safe for a few days, so long as I'm not changing gears of course?

Just adjust the low limit screw to put you on the chainring you want. I ran my winter bike like that for a year, didn't have a shift lever for the front (free bike)

If you get it onto the middle ring, you’re free to use the rear shifter entirely w/o ”punishment”.
If you can’t get the derailer there by adjusting the limit screws, try unclamping the cable, wedging the derailer into position, then clamping the cable down again.
Or simply stuff things between the exposed cable and the frame somewhere until the extra pull gets the derailer into the desired position.

I'm guessing you are a woman, and if I was stuck spinning that fast to get anywhere, I'd probably be pretty mad too! So maybe that's ok!

Wedge with wood and/or remove and manually place, either is fine. Wedging with wood might be finicky, might fall out and give unexpected downshift.

good advice above.

on all my derailleur, the bracket that holds the chain has a screw on it. I unscrew that screw, take the chain out, and manually put the chain in either of the bigger two gears.

The limiter screw isn't a bad idea, but
1) you limiter has to have a pretty large range to block out the smaller gear
2) you have to re-adjust the limiter to get it back to where you are now.
(neither of those is a deal breaker, just something to consider).

The wedging with wood I've done on the road finding a stick on the trail. I call it "Stick Shift"®
I've run it for a few days until I got around to replacing the broken cable

Thanks again for all your input. I ended up just taking the derailleur off, and everything is working just fine without it for now.

That is generally a so-so fix in the long run.
You have a chainring that’s designed to let go of the chain easily.
Which is exactly what it’ll do.
Expect to have to deal with accidental derailings.
Carry wetwipes, disposable gloves and/or ride very smoothly.

Thank you! I have a guy at the co-op who can fix it for me. I just needed something that will work until I have a couple of days off. Also, I work in a restaurant, so I always have individual wet wipes and vinyl gloves in my backpack. You guys are awesome!

I'd like to add this. On Monday morning I tried the wedging technique. I didn't have a block of wood, so I used a wine bottle cork. It was one of those corks that is more of a rubber texture than a cork texture. I was able to trim it fairly easily to get the derailleur to where I needed it to be. The cork fell out about 2 and a half miles into my ride, but it got me almost all the way there. a thought for anyone who also needs a quick fix in the future. Put a wine cork in your pack.

Better yet, bring the whole bottle and drink it while you fix your bike.

Too late for the OP, but here's another option:
Hold the cable with a bottle cage bolt. Pull the cable to set the derailleur into your new favorite chainring, tighten the bolt, and voila.

That's a good idea right there. I thought of trying to pull the cable to where it needs to be, but couldn't figure out a reasonable way to clamp the cable off; water bottle cage bolt would do the job perfectly (if the cable is routed past one)

Brilliant!