Problem Solvers - For Bikes

Part of the reason BikeHacks exists is because I found myself making modifications to my bike and thought other people might be interested.  If you ride a bike long enough, you likely will encounter a situation where you wish there was a certain tool or bike part for your issue. 

For example, on a long group ride several years ago I dozed off for a moment while riding and did not realize the person in front of me had slowed his speed.  I ended up brushing his rear tire, lost my balance, and fell over.  I say fell over because we were going up a pretty good hill and not going very fast. 

I sat on the ground for a moment, more embarrassed than anything, and when I got up it became apparent that my bike had a bigger issue - my rear derailleur hanger had snapped when  I fell.  I fiddled with it for several minutes but knew I was doomed.  There was no real solution I could come up with for the problem and I basically had to push myself with my feet the rest of the ride.

Recently BikeHacks got an email from a great company out of the blue.  Just like BikeHacks seeks to provide digital goods to riders, ProblemSolversBike.com seeks to provide physical goods for riders.  Chris from Problem Solvers contacted me and asked if I would be interested in checking out some of their products.  I had never heard of them before and was stoked at a lot of the stuff they have to help with bike related repair and maintenance issues. 

For example, they sell a universal derailleur hanger - described as follows:

The Universal Hanger should be in everyone's saddlebags. If you're existing derailleur hanger busts, strips or is totally wonky, the Universal Hanger replaces the drive-side nut on your quick-release skewer so you can get the majority of your gear range back. Absolutely essential for touring or epic mountain biking.

Seeing as I had this issue before, I asked Chris to send one along.  I also have an issue with my front derailleur and my water bottle cage.  The issue is, they are too close.  I basically had to bend my water bottle cage to keep it from hitting the derailleur.  Well, I saw on their site that they have they call "Spaceouts" which are longer Allen Bolts with a spacer to help give you extra space.  Simple but brilliant! 

I would definitely recommend that you cruise around the Problem Solvers web site, they have a lot of great stuff.  Thanks to Chris for sending the stuff along.  The derailleur hanger is one product I am happy to have, but I hope I will never have to use. 

 

Comments

[slimbo]

regaring your waterbottle cage/derailler issue, you should switch to a top swing derailler.

[ajn]

Also if you happen to have a chain tool (included in most multitools), if your derailleur is trashed you can just shorten the chain and put it on a reasonable rear cog for a single-speed ride home...