I was JRA to go do comparison shopping for chainsaws and was exactly .50 miles from the house when the bike shuddered and the rear wheel locked up. When I got off the bike the rear deraller was stuck so far into the rear wheel  it was almost sticking out of the other side. I haven't been able to get the derailler separated from the wheel yet, but it looks like the rear wheel is not going to be salvageable, the derailler is definitely not going to be salvageable. I'm not sure until everything gets untangled, but the frame may also be toast. I may not be able to get the derailler hanger straight, in which case I'll set the date for the wake.
 
Opus

Dang, sorry to hear that, Opus. I hope the frame is ok.

Since the Stratus may be dead, I'll go as fast as I can on building a Trashbike replacement for local rides. Most of my rides are made with the bike in one gear, so I'll just build a Trashbike with the same gear inches or a little smaller and just ride locally.
 
Here's the plan: I need to find a pair of wheels with a wide enough rim to safely mount the 20"X3" tires I got. I have one front wheel with a 48 spoke hub but no brakes that is just wide enough at 27mm outside 21.5mm inside, but the rear wheel was tacoed. I have a couple of rear hubs with freewheels but no brakes that I can use provided I get rims wide enough so that I can get brakes to clear the tires. The minimum rim size I can still use rim brakes with is 32mm outside. This will give me at least one wheel with brakes. A coaster brake wheel will do the same thing as long as the rim is at least 21.5mm inside width.Since the Trashbike I'm planning on is FWD a coaster brake will give me front brakes.
 
Plan B: I get 2-20"X2.125" or smaller tires so I can use the brakes I have from the bikes I find on the side of the roads. Still need to find/make a rear wheel but the rim width is less critical than with the 3" tires. I can lace a rim from a good front wheel onto the rear hub if the number of spokes match up. I have 36 and 48 spoke rear hubs at the moment, but no hub brakes. Coaster brake hubs will be gratefully accepted if working. I don't have the facilities to repair a coaster brake, either mental or physical. I don't know how and I don't have the tools.
 
Opus

The derailer bracketmay be correctable with a derailer trueing  tool.  David at Bike and Fitness  in Longview trued the derailer bracket on my clone using one of this tools.   Park tool make this tool.
Tom Nuchols

The old derailler was an Acera, PBF gave me an old Alivio to replace it until they could get warrantee information from ShimaNo which might take a while. In the meantime they took a bunch of digital pictures of the part to document the destruction. Nobody in the shop had ever seen a derailler destroyed that way, and everybody in the shop had a look at it.
 
I have a derailler hanger/ dropout adjusting tool that I use to straighten bent parts like that out, but I have never tried to adjust out that big a bend. It looks like a Crescent wrench, but when it's not being used to turn really big nuts and bolts it's a dropout and derailler hanger adjusting tool. And this isn't the first time that hanger needed adjusting, I had a wreck back a few years ago that dinged the derailler and bent the hanger and it had to be adjusted. This might be more than the part can handle.
 
So, if the hanger doesn't break off the dropout then the bike will live, if it does break off there is still a chance that someone up at RANS could remember where the backup file is for the pattern to run the laser cutter. That was a big selling point way back then when laser cutting was a GeeWiz aerospace process. I might need to bum a ride to Hays KS to get the part installed
 
In the mean time, I have another bike to build.
 
Opus

OK I heard back from PBF this morning, and for me the news wasn't good. ShimaNo says this wasn't the fault of any of their components but more likely a road debris issue, since there weren't any exploded links in the chain. I'm still trying to get the pics from Tim at PBF to post here and Bike Journal. RANS hasn't gotten back with me on doing a single run on the laser cutter to make a new dropout. And my 11-34 9 speed cassette is now 11-30 8 speed since the 34 cog is bent. On the bright side that means I now have a choice of deraillers to use, since either one will work with a 30 tooth big cog on the back.
 
Opus

OK I also have an idea for the dropout fix, installing a Breezer hooded dropout into the original plate dropout. I don't have any links to a picture of the Breezer dropout but I have used them several times in the past to make multi speed recumbents out of BMX kids bikes.
 
Opus

Well, I have been working on the TrashBike and determined that the only way to build the FWD fork and clear the tire with the fork is to hand cut the dropouts for the single speed version from 1/8" plate. So since I will have the material and the tools I will use the time to build a replacement drive side dropout from scratch, so I'll let y'all know when I can use the drill and tap for the derailler hanger someone offered before.
 
Opus