Broken rear derailleur cable

[lifeson]

Out with a group on Sunday and was about as far away from home as we could get when I had a problem with changing gear.
Stopped the bunch and they noticed the rear deraillier cable had broke leaving me stuck in top gear.

The nipple had become seperated in the headset.

Its an Uletgra set up so a bit pi$$ed off its broke in the first place but how common is this as it dosen't seem to be a roadside repair that you would normally allow for and are they easy to repair?

 

[skwerl]

"The nipple had become seperated in the headset"

not sure I get what that means

 

[lifeson]

Well, the cable had come out of the sti lever with a frayed end so I am assuming that there must have been some kind of nipple on the end of the cable that attached to the lever?

 

[PatrickPending]

Has happened to me, just get the stuck bit out and replace the cable - not always straight forward I'll grant you. As a hint you can adjust your limiters on your rear derallieur to keep you from going to the smallest cog - useful if you encounter hills on the way home.

 

[Landslide]

What Patrick said. ^^^
Uncommon occurance in my experience (including several years working in a bike shop) unless you're particularly neglectful of you bike and let the cables corrode to the point of seizing.
I'd pop a new cable in and put it down to bad luck.

Another bodge to get you home is to tie the remainder of the broken cable to one of the cable stops at a tension sufficient to keep you in one of the lower gears.

 

[k-dog]

Yeah, that's unusual. Not the sort of thing you would carry spares for.