okay so im well pissed off.ive fimnally got my dave hinde frame built up(see my M3 review for reasons why its taken 2 years).

been on the road 1 week commuting to work,not even been off road yet.out riding to work in glorious sunshine thinking what a great day to be on the bike,i pull away from the lights and BANG the rear wheel grinds to a halt.

on inspection my rear mech is in two pieces.it has sheared at the point tthe high/low screws push on the mech,the chains snapped.1 spoke is broken on my mavic crossroc and my frame has plenty of gouges for its trouble.

the force of this almost pushed the wheel out of the dropout and the hanger and frame are bent inwards as well.

now has anyone got any idea what the hell happened,did the chain snap and take the mech with it?

i bought the mech in december 2002 so the warrenty is well up even though it has only been used for a week.

feeling very sorry for myself.

Sounds like the chain has jammed the mech either by means of a dodgy link or it has got trapped in the cassette. This causes your pedal rotation to pull the rear mech backwards, bending it or snapping it, and the force can also push the rear wheel out of the dropouts as the chain becomes taught, (not being able to rotate since its jammed).

Im afraid it comes down to, (in my experience), a poorly set up rear mech, or a dodgy chain.

If it was built by a shop, take it back to them, if not, like sucks for you.

What gear where you in? If your rear mech's not quite set up right it's possible to overshift so the cage hits the spokes which is always going to be messy.