Wheels Manufacturing Narrow Dropout Saver

AMAZING product! I picked up the bike frame I've wanted for years dirt cheap, and my heart sank when I found the reason the rear derailleur was missing was because the threads were stripped out of the frame. I thought I was going to have to have it welded to fix it. Then I stumbled across these little miracles! Honestly, I think this is how bikes should be assembled in the first place. The threads are stronger, and easily replaced if anything goes wrong again (hopefully not!). It does require some slight drilling to expand the hole enough to fit the saver in, but that only took a couple minutes, and it's invisible once the saver is installed.

I picked up a nearly new Schwinn, the kind that has the frame extended to form the drop out. And the bolt holding the derailleur in place had bad threads. I considered using J.B. Weld and re threading it as that might work, but I did not have the right size tap to thread it with. (And was not sure it would be strong enough, in truth). I saw these and like everyone else would much prefer to only buy one instead of two, figure I may use it eventually. (Likelier that I will lose it before then). I know that somewhere on this listing it states the bit is included - its not. I have bits, so I was not concerned about it and knew when I ordered it it did not come with one. Its true you have to use the right size bit - one of the other reviewers was unhappy the one he used made his frame worthless. I am sorry, but that was their fault. So, the item arrived yesterday. I put the correct size metal cutting bit in the drill (15/32"), plugged the drill in, and within a few seconds had drilled the hole. It took me longer to file off the flashing (The rough metal on the bottom edge) from drilling that it did to drill it. Say, 3 minutes for the whole thing and part of that was getting the file. This part then slips into the hold, I put a a derailleur screw in and tightened it down. (I recommend taking the wheel out as I did). Total time including drilling to have the derailleur mounted again was about 5 minutes. Mounted the wheel - another 3 minutes as this one bolts on. Adjusted the cable as it was to loose - another 2 minutes. I was riding the bike within 10 minutes of starting it. It is really very easy to do. Check your bike - if yours has the derailiur hanger bolted on, replace the hanger. (The cost would be about the same). But if yours is part of the frame or even if its not this will work. (I suspect the aluminium frames or hangers will need to thicker insert - this one was stelel and needed the thin one. Easy to install and works.

Gently drilled out the hole a bit at a time, tapped it into place and voila! Worked perfectly, saved my bike frame.

My 1974 Peugeot finally stripped it's threads, and this was a great option to replace them. Worked fine after drilling out a proper sized hole according to instructions (Drill Bit was not included for me).

No drill bit included, contrary to the description.

A lot of people really love this product. If it works for you, it's probably the easiest and simplest way to save a stripped derailleur hangar hole. However, the hole you have to drill out is quite large (significantly larger than the original hole) and my hangar looked like it would barely have enough material left over to be safe. It also impedes significantly into your clearance for your cassette/chain, so make sure you have enough room for it before you start drilling! Also, it does NOT include the required drill bit (even though the description says so). I ended up using a helicoil instead, which drills a much smaller hole and does not block the cassette/chain (although it is somewhat trickier to install).

The item does not come with a drill bit. When I went to the hardware store to buy one, I quickly realized that it was huge! And would take away far too much metal from the already narrow dropout. So I bought a round metal file and did it by hand little by little. Cheat the hole to the sides with the most metal around it. Took about 15 minutes.

Yes this saved our bike. The bike shop said we would need a whole new frame. We bought these and it’s worked perfectly.