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Hello all.
I’m new around here and new to MTBing. I started seriously road biking about a year ago and fell in-love. When the northeast weather turned cold and wet a few friends convinced me to also give mountain biking a try. I watched one video of the Monarch Crest trail and immediately started shopping for a MTB. I was hoping to get something used but finally pulled the trigger and bought a new Specialized Jynx 650b just under 2 weeks ago.
I’m a big chicken so the first time out was just on a flat, muddy, dirt road. My second time out a friend brought me out on some mild single-track. There were a few small rocks and roots but nothing like I’ve seen you crazy experienced riders do on videos. I was scared the whole time and never went very fast and didn’t go very far (3 miles max). Well…suddenly my shifting was all messed up and I heard a lot of clanking. We all figured it was a problem with the derailleur. I brought it back to the shop where I bought it and the diagnosis is the middle chainring is damaged beyond repair and must be replaced. The bike mechanic was quite convinced that it was strictly due to damage and not a defect.
So, what I’m wondering is…did I do something wrong? Was there something I could have done to prevent this or is it just a "sh*t happens" part of mountain biking?
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It’s hard to diagnose mechanical over the net, especially without knowing the exact nature of the damage.
It is possible to damage a chainring by a hard shift (i.e. trying to downshift in the middle of a hard climb while standing on the pedals), but that is rare and really shouldn’t happen on a quality bike with quality components, which your Spec certainly is. Having said that, I did manage to seriously bend a number of teeth on the middle ring of my first quality bike.
A quality bike shop should also take care of a new rider on a new bike for something like this. Even if it was your fault, a good shop would not only swap your ring in the interest of keeping a new customer, but also tell you specifically how they think the damage occurred (since they seem to be sure it was rider error), and how you could avoid it in the future. Unless there is something quite obviously egregious on your part, I’m surprised they’re taking a hard line.
As for "sh*t happens" as part of mountain biking, that’s a very true statement. Living with the randomness of things happening, both to bike and body, is part of the sport. But for most of us, the rewards far outweigh the pains!
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A 3 mile run at low speed with a brand new bike? That seriously REALLY sounds like a mechanical defect to me.
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Do you have any pictures? Chainrings don’t catastrophically fail typically…
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I agree with the previous comments, an easy ride shouldn’t break a chainring. Unless you nailed a rock with it… Did your shop fix it? If not, maybe take it into another shop and get their opinion, then take it back with that to your shop for warranty work. I find it highly unlikely that on the ride you describe the cause isn’t something mechanical.
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Three miles…Unless you ran over something and sucked in some serious debris I doubt it…I am thinking a defect…
But as others said..It is kinda hard…But honestly…Three miles…Buddy at the shop should be a bit more compassionate about the whole thing…
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