Why are derailleur hangers so soft?

[Black Dog]

Sure enough if the material is so soft that it bends too easy then trouble with shifting is on the way. A more rigid and brittle Al alloy would be better as it would be plenty stiff and likely to brake upon impact and save the frame.

 

[Boeing]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-tech-looking-through-the-magnifying-glass

quick step answer the question with stainless steel. that is what I want. It is going to break away at the bolt anyway. the one on my look 595 doesn't last 2000 miles

 

[veganrob]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-tech-looking-through-the-magnifying-glass

quick step answer the question with stainless steel. that is what I want. It is going to break away at the bolt anyway. the one on my look 595 doesn't last 2000 miles

Agreed. How could Look make such a great bike with that crappy hanger? It is like half a hanger

 

[cabbagetom]

Dude brought these hilarious frame decals, red with yellow lettering "CHINESE SH!T SUCKS"

Chinese goods suck because that is what you pay for, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys in return. There is a appetite in Western countries for cheap goods, and then once the quality is poor or has defects, everyone seems to see it as a reflection on poor manufacturing processes within China. China has fantastic manufacturing and production capabilities, but regardless of the country, if the cost the public is prepared to pay is low, then there will be an inevitable limitation on the quality.

 

[AnythingButKestrel]

All being said that the stock hangers that come on bikes are extremely soft aluminum. The WM hangers are waaay more stiff, better made in USA.

I think that "extremely soft" is being very kind to Chinese hangers. The one I just broke appears to be just pot metal. I'm sure there's some aluminum in there, but there's a lot of mystery meat too. The 3 WM hangers I bought as replacements really look like quality product.

The next bike I buy will simply get a WM hanger out of the 'chute and simply end that worry at the outset.

 

[dsut4392]

Interestingly CN caption this photoasking "would a stiffer hanger have prevented this derailleur in the wheel?", when as far as I can tell, not only the derailleur and hanger have ended up in the wheel, but some of the dropout as well.

I could be wrong as I don't know what that frame looks like without a hanger (and it's not the clearest photo), but every broken hanger I've seen (and as I MTB'er I've seen 6 or 7) has left a stub behind.

If I'm right, a more appropriate caption might have been "has the current fad for extra strong derailleur hangers resulted in this frame being destroyed when an appropriate alloy hanger would have saved it?"

Don't get me wrong, I agree that some alloy hangers are way too soft (two of the 8 bikes in my family fleet have prime examples), but bolting on a hanger that is stronger than the dropout is just silly. Even in the absence of hanger flex, it's possible to mangle a derailleur so it ends up in the wheel, I've had this happen on my old steel MTB.