Jean_TX

Last weekend I wiped out while leaning into a corner – the tires lost traction due to a small wet patch on the road and side-slipped.

Fortunately for my bike (carbon fiber), the right side of my body absorbed the impact of the fall. The only obvious impact to the bike occurred at the down tube where the bar hit it and gouged the paint (refer to picture). The rear derailleur may have been hit.

Since then I’ve checked the wheels, brakes, stem, seat post, cranks, and derailleurs. I’ve also checked all the tubing for cracks visually and by thunking the tubes. I really have no way of checking the bars (they are aluminum) unless I unwrap them …which I’m loathe to do. The only damage I can detect is the nick on the down tube. Does that damage look critical?

I want to be thorough so I plan to take the bike in to the dealership and have them check out the bike. I specifically want them to check the alignment of the rear derailleur hanger. What else should I specifically have them check?

indyfabz

Derailleur hanger.

FBinNY 

Odds are you're just wasting your time and money. As you point out your body took the brunt of the fall. Also, there was no impact with anything.

You can verify whether the hanger was bent by the bike's shifting. Ride it, and run through a number of shifts, especially from 2nd high to high. Avoid shifting to low for the moment. If shifting is normal, especially up shifts, which would be sluggish if you bent the hanger, then it's fine.

You might also confirm that the inner limit is still set correctly by hanging the bike and shifting to low by pushing the RD in with your hand.

As for the cosmetic damage, do a cosmetic repair and forget about it. Otherwise, just ride the bike and watch yourself on the turns.

My rule for after a crash bike is to give the bike a quick look over for obvious damage, then ride it being extra attentive for anything "off" during the first few miles. If there's damage the bike will tell me.

noodle soup

+1

If the bike still shifts properly(and there's no visible marks to the derailleur) it's unlikely it took any impact. The paint chip looks like nothing to be concerned about.

Did you get much road rash, or was the pavement wet enough to treat you gently?

Jean_TX

I didn't get scraped up much, but I have some gigantic bruises ...sigh, this was my first road crash.

There wasn't really much water on the road, just a small trickle where someone's sprinkler went onto the street. I think the fall was the result of a perfect storm - I was going sorta fast and leaning into the right hand turn, there was a small patch of wet road, and the road surface is absolute crap. (The surface is very very coarse chipseal with a thick coating of tar on top. The coarseness results in low tire-to-surface contact and the tar at our current 90 degree temps was gooey.)

Seattle Forrest

Don't feel bad, it happens to everyone. You got yours out of the way.