Houston, we have a problem.
During a ride, my rear derailleur had a piece that bent, and chipped out a part of the hanger. Nothing I could do to fix it... it wouldn't stay put with any force at all on it. It's toast.
We had just started our ride, though, and missing a weekend of fall mountain biking wasn't an option.
So to salvage the day... we removed the rear derailleur (entire thing, including hanger). Picked a gear that would get the job done for the day. Shortened the chain to fit that gear perfectly... and converted the bike to a temporary single speed.
 |
| Look ma, no gears! |
It worked out really, really well. With no tension it had to be pretty snug on the gear it was on - we had it very, very snug... maybe too snug, even, I noticed the wheel was being pulled a tad off center... but still worked!
As with any single speed, I was grinding at very low cadence sometimes, other times spinning like a gerbil in a cage... but it was solid and fine, even set a few PRs on Strava segments out there.
