Ok so I finally unwrapped my Raleigh Roker Comp bike tonight. Really disappointed. The rear derailleur is really bent into the spokes. I guess I have to take the bike to an authorized Raleigh dealer now which I didn't want to do. My main question is even though he probably could straighten it out if it was your bike would you make Raleigh ship you a new derailleur? Even if it is straightened out will the derailleur ever be the same?
I see that there is an arm that the derailleur is fastened to this is what is bent. It actually has a part number listed on it I guess for lots of people to order. not lol I guess I need them to ship this part to me.
Sorry to hear about the damaged hanger. I would contact Raleigh and ask for a replacement hanger to be shipped. I would also get a spare. Carry the spare in a saddle bag or tape it to the frame in case something happens out on a ride.
I agree with Fishman and get an extra hanger. The good news is it's just the hanger that bent, but that is still disappointing on a brand new ride. In the meantime, you could try removing the hanger and straightening it in vise. Shifting might not be perfect, but it might allow you to get out and ride while you are waiting on the replacements.
Thanks for the replies. On a bike this expensive I can't deal with it being screwed up from the get go. I am taking it back to my Raleigh Dealer which is about 10+ miles away and Raleigh is sending a Fedex shipping tag for a return. The box was opened and guessing Fedex wasn't too careful and threw weight on top of it. When I was setting the bike up I spun the rear wheel hard and heard a clicking noise so I am not sure if there are any damaged spokes or not.
When I called Raleigh today it seems they have lots in stock(in all sizes)yet as they had a late production run on these bikes. Last time I had talked to them they had something like 24 Rokers in stock of the 56 cm frame.
So where would I order the extra hangar from? Some place like Jenson USA or Art's Cyclery. I don't have lots of experience yet ordering gravel riding/racing parts.
I would check with your local Raleigh dealer first about the spare hanger. See if they have or can get one. It's good to support them and it's good to build a relationship since you may have questions and need service in the future.
If that does not work try here: https://derailleurhanger.com/
The hanger for the Roker is not listed. Call/email them to get the correct one.
It's just a cheap piece of metal designed to bend/break instead of the frame. Raleigh will tell you to go through a local dealer to get another hanger, but hopefully would be willing to just mail you one if it's truly bent so much that the RD is in the spokes. The actual derailleur is fine.
While a RD in the spokes is incredibly drastic, very few bikes come out of the box with a perfectly straight hanger. Maybe have your local shop look it over to see if they see anything wrong with the rear wheel or anything else. I have no idea why you would hear a clicking noise when spinning the wheel "hard" but I'm also not sure that would be a fantastic idea in the first place when your RD is "bent into the spokes."
If it's actually just slightly bent, pay the local shop $10 to straighten it and then be done with it. Maybe you have an acquaintance that already owns the alignment tool and would do it for a coffee/beer/pat on the head? I haven't met anybody that owns the hanger straightening tool that regrets buying it. I love mine and it goes on nearly every bike that goes into my stand.
Returning a full bike and making somebody ship you a new one seems like a tremendous waste of resources, especially after giving you an incredible price on that bike. It's not like their corporate discount program was intended for people that don't have any affiliation with the industry.
Sorry that you got a bike that either got a part banged up either at the factory or during shipping. But yea, it is just a hanger. Every bike out of a box should have hanger alignment checked, just like derailleur limits, and all that. The primary reason that oversea bike manufactures assemble bikes is so that they fit in a box for shipping, not so you can just pull it out, put in the seat post and peddles, twist bars, pump up tires, and ride. The tool is pretty cheap and pays for itself in the end.
dangle wrote:It's just a cheap piece of metal designed to bend/break instead of the frame. Raleigh will tell you to go through a local dealer to get another hanger, but hopefully would be willing to just mail you one if it's truly bent so much that the RD is in the spokes. The actual derailleur is fine.
While a RD in the spokes is incredibly drastic, very few bikes come out of the box with a perfectly straight hanger. Maybe have your local shop look it over to see if they see anything wrong with the rear wheel or anything else. I have no idea why you would hear a clicking noise when spinning the wheel "hard" but I'm also not sure that would be a fantastic idea in the first place when your RD is "bent into the spokes."
If it's actually just slightly bent, pay the local shop $10 to straighten it and then be done with it. Maybe you have an acquaintance that already owns the alignment tool and would do it for a coffee/beer/pat on the head? I haven't met anybody that owns the hanger straightening tool that regrets buying it. I love mine and it goes on nearly every bike that goes into my stand.
Returning a full bike and making somebody ship you a new one seems like a tremendous waste of resources, especially after giving you an incredible price on that bike. It's not like their corporate discount program was intended for people that don't have any affiliation with the industry.
Thanks Dangle for that info. Still learning the ins and outs of gravel bikes. So yeah I called Raleigh and asked them to ship a new hanger for the bike instead of shipping bikes back and forth. I guess I was just frustrated to see the new bike so messed up or what I thought was messed up. What I do know from the get go is it feels like a feather compared to the Tamland 1.
Good to hear. I'm glad they found a solution pretty quickly. I'm sure a lot of people land on these pages when searching for info on the Raleigh Roker, so please keep updating.
I also received my Roker Comp with a bent derailleur hanger. No what you want to find when you unbox a brand new bike, but installing the new hanger is a simple fix. I was able to straighten mine enough to make the bike rideable which was a good thing because it took 3 weeks to get a replacement hanger.
squak wrote:I also received my Roker Comp with a bent derailleur hanger. No what you want to find when you unbox a brand new bike, but installing the new hanger is a simple fix. I was able to straighten mine enough to make the bike rideable which was a good thing because it took 3 weeks to get a replacement hanger.
Enjoy the new bike!
Yowser squak where did the part come from China or Tim Buck Two that it took 3 weeks. I did call my Raleigh dealer this morning and he said he might have the part on another bike as he is a big time Raleigh dealer. Sounds like I need to go that route.
Zman - lots of good posts... Having a derailleur hanger alignment tool is great. I recently purchased my 2nd one (loaned to first to someone and never saw it again)... It's very easy to use and hangers are easy to damage.
General rule of thumb is that the hanger doesn't have much stress on it until something else goes wrong (chain suck, debris in the drivetrain, crashes, etc) so my philosophy on a bent hanger is to try to fix it by bending it back in place.
Hangers are made of aluminum so they'll bend before the frame is damaged.
Aluminum does NOT like to be bent many times - bending an aluminum hanger back may cause the aluminum to crack or break.
-BUT-
If the hanger doesn't break when you bend it back the bike can be ridden. So if the LBS can get the current hanger bent back you should be fine until the replacement arrives. I would definitely replace the bent hanger but I wouldn't hesitate to ride a bike which has an aluminum hanger which was re-bent. I also subscribe to the philosophy to buy a spare hanger. Having a spare almost guarantees the original won't get damaged (it's a corollary to Murphy's Law). :-)
NoCoGreg wrote:General rule of thumb is that the hanger doesn't have much stress on it until something else goes wrong (chain suck, debris in the drivetrain, crashes, etc) so my philosophy on a bent hanger is to try to fix it by bending it back in place.
Hangers are made of aluminum so they'll bend before the frame is damaged.
Aluminum does NOT like to be bent many times - bending an aluminum hanger back may cause the aluminum to crack or break.
-BUT-
If the hanger doesn't break when you bend it back the bike can be ridden. So if the LBS can get the current hanger bent back you should be fine until the replacement arrives. I would definitely replace the bent hanger but I wouldn't hesitate to ride a bike which has an aluminum hanger which was re-bent. I also subscribe to the philosophy to buy a spare hanger. Having a spare almost guarantees the original won't get damaged (it's a corollary to Murphy's Law). :-)
Enjoy! Greg
Greg summed it up perfectly. I would go one step further and not bother swapping the 'replacement' hanger with the original one unless it somehow broke. Any bike shop can have it bent back into place (and perfectly aligned) within a couple minutes. If it's straight, you're good to go. Then it's "Don't try to fix what ain't broken." from there on out.
NoCoGreg wrote:Zman - lots of good posts... Having a derailleur hanger alignment tool is great. I recently purchased my 2nd one (loaned to first to someone and never saw it again)... It's very easy to use and hangers are easy to damage.
General rule of thumb is that the hanger doesn't have much stress on it until something else goes wrong (chain suck, debris in the drivetrain, crashes, etc) so my philosophy on a bent hanger is to try to fix it by bending it back in place.
Hangers are made of aluminum so they'll bend before the frame is damaged.
Aluminum does NOT like to be bent many times - bending an aluminum hanger back may cause the aluminum to crack or break.
-BUT-
If the hanger doesn't break when you bend it back the bike can be ridden. So if the LBS can get the current hanger bent back you should be fine until the replacement arrives. I would definitely replace the bent hanger but I wouldn't hesitate to ride a bike which has an aluminum hanger which was re-bent. I also subscribe to the philosophy to buy a spare hanger. Having a spare almost guarantees the original won't get damaged (it's a corollary to Murphy's Law). :-)
Enjoy! Greg
Greg and Dangle thanks for the advice. I have a few things going against me with this shop. First the guy is a Mennonite guy so he doesn't see too many high end gravel bikes or any gravel bikes at all . Most of his customers now ride the bents. You both have heard of the squeaky wheel gets greased. After 2-3 phone calls or more now to Raleigh Leif there seems to have the most on the ball. Just checked with my LBS and he isn't going to take a hanger off another Raleigh and do that for a fix for now. He said that hangar wasn't quite the same as on the Roker and would make getting the wheel off harder. So that is a temporary fix. Leif has him hooked up and is sending the part to him from CA. So probably 4-5 days instead of 3 weeks turn around time that another person posted above. The one guy I called today said the easiest/quickest/fastest way to get everything done was for me to just pay for the labor cost and then submit it to Raleigh and I am good with that. I do use another LBS that sees/works on lots of Mt. bikes but he isn't a Raleigh dealer. I would have loved to taken the bike to him I think he is a Giant dealer and something else. He also rides mt. bikes My Raleigh dealer wasn't comfortable bending the bracket back as it was bent really bad but there again he probably doesn't have experience doing that.
This week is the last week of buck season here in Pa. The only gravel I have to ride is in the mts. All I know at my end is I am out of shape almost as much as I can be and I want to climb the local mt.(3 miles @n 7-8% grade to see the difference in the bike between the Roker and the Tamland. There is a bad cold front moving in at the end of the week so yeah it is kind of time sensitive for me to get the bike back and try it out. I can't seem to be able to ride in the cold like I use to now that I am older. I am going to try riding thru the winter this season though but don't know how that is going to work out.
I am sure I will have lots of other newbie questions on this Roker but I do have one now. I came across an article where some people but protection on the underneath side of the down tube. One article showed the brand name Lizzard skins and they have 2 guards. One is a sleeve that they said would absorb too much oil and gunk if I read it right and another that they recommended was a leather guard to put on the bottom half to help protect the carbon from lots of stone chips which in time could weaken the carbon wrap. Has anybody ever used that or seen a bike with that on it?
Wait a second.... We're all mostly in agreement that taking 5 minutes and a couple dollars to attempt bending the hanger back at ANY bike shop is the way to go. Did any shop actually look at it? Why wouldn't they at least TRY it since the alternative is tossing it out?
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\nAsk for advice, ignore advice, change subject. Boo.
dangle wrote:Wait a second.... We're all mostly in agreement that taking 5 minutes and a couple dollars to attempt bending the hanger back at ANY bike shop is the way to go. Did any shop actually look at it? Why wouldn't they at least TRY it since the alternative is tossing it out? Ask for advice, ignore advice, change subject. Boo.
Maybe I didn't state it right or whatever. It is at a Raleigh shop which probably doesn't have any gravel bike experience. I had to take it to him because of the warranty issues instead of taking it to the shop that does lots of mt. bikes/gravel bikes. He wasn't comfortable bending the hangar back again probably because he hasn't done that before. He is taking off another mt. bike(or another Raleigh bike as I don't know what he is taking it off of) a hangar that is somewhat similar but isn't the exact same one. Raleigh is sending him the replacement part. If he doesn't have to send the part back to Raleigh I might try to bend it back in place in my vise or just order another extra hangar from Raleigh.
I will kind of say this though. The hangar was probably bent more than most as it was at least bent in half or more tight up against the spokes. This is why he probably didn't want to try and straighten it maybe.
Zurichman wrote: I will kind of say this though. The hangar was probably bent more than most as it was at least bent in half or more tight up against the spokes. This is why he probably didn't want to try and straighten it maybe.
Yeah, if it was bent that much it probably will break if you bend it back but I'm in agreement with Dangle that I would've had the shop give it a try. A good mechanic should be able to break the hanger in 5 minutes and another 15 or so to do a good job bending and aligning it should it not snap. In any case, you've got a new hanger on order and should be on the road soon.
So where in PA are you? I used to live in Athens, PA (NY border south of Ithaca). Beautiful country and endless hills. The races in the RAAM (Race Across AMerica) used to write about how they dreaded PA as it was non-stop climbing as the descents were quick and there was little or no break between the bottom of one hill and the beginning of the next.
Yeah, if it was bent that much it probably will break if you bend it back but I'm in agreement with Dangle that I would've had the shop give it a try. A good mechanic should be able to break the hanger in 5 minutes and another 15 or so to do a good job bending and aligning it should it not snap. In any case, you've got a new hanger on order and should be on the road soon.
So where in PA are you? I used to live in Athens, PA (NY border south of Ithaca). Beautiful country and endless hills. The races in the RAAM (Race Across AMerica) used to write about how they dreaded PA as it was non-stop climbing as the descents were quick and there was little or no break between the bottom of one hill and the beginning of the next.
Greg
I live in Mid Penn along the I-81 corridor. Newburg which is about a 50 mile radius of farming country(close to Shippensburg) 50 miles from Harrisburg and I can see the turnpike tunnels from my house Blue Mt. 150 miles from Philly and the same distance to Pittsburgh. Think Amish country and yes we do have some hills here. I live about 30 miles from the Rouserville T/S of RAAM(Blondies Bar) and when I raced RAAM. My 4 man team left me ride that stretch from Mercersburg to Waynesboro as I had some friends waiting there for me. I think the riders are cooked by the time they reached Pa. and around Hancock Md. there were some nasty climbs also.
I'll throw in my $0.02. I think that if your LBS is too afraid to bend a hanger, then they're not much of an LBS. That should be a common skill. Also, I would worry that it would never be as perfect as it should be.
Thus, I had Raleigh send me not only a new hanger, but a new RD as well.
