Deraileurs

[Sabre484]

I have looked at various deraileurs and have wondered. Does it really come in 9 speed, 10 speed etc...? 

 

 

I mean if you really look at the mechanics of the whole thing is it not just the STI's that have to be different? A derailleur is ideally a springloaded device which does what the STI tells it to do?

 

[Zaskar]

I run an old 8 speed XTR derailleur on my 9 speed mtb with no problem at all. As you say its in the shifter. But make sure you run Shimano derailleurs with shimano shifters, as mixing the shifter / derailleurs with SRAM wont work.

[The Pirate]

Thanks for that tip Zaskar.

[lowracer]

between the different brands : shimano, campag and sram, the pull does differ. not to say it cannot or wont work, but it might be sometimes a tad difficult to get all the rear gearing working between brands

 

for the shimano : I am not sure about the rapidrise rear deraileurs. but for the normal rear deraileurs, all the shimano rear deraileurs since 7 speed is just about the same. it might even be the same for the 6 speed. The amount of pull for the rear deraileur travel is the same with the exception with the exception of 1986 dura ace. tandem okes are putting mtb (long cage and robust) deraileurs on their bikes regularly

 

the front deraileurs also are just about the same. there are anyway little enough gears to match up. the swing on the tripple fds make it sometimes difficult to mount on braze ons, if the cranks and bb is for a double. The main difference between the fds is top and bottom pull and that mtb fd's curvature is smaller to match the smaller chainring. this is why you get things like the shimano fd443 that is to use straight bar shifters on road cranks. under correction, i think for shimano mtb and shimano road, the pull might be different.

 

[singletrackmind]

Zaskar - as to the mixing thing, my bike came with sram x7 shirters and lx front derailer, it works  fine

[lowracer]

Zaskar - as to the mixing thing' date=' my bike came with sram x7 shirters and lx front derailer, it works  fine[/quote']

 

front deraileurs are easy to match. put the front on middle and the gear on 2, and then you only have to set the a and b screws

[AndreZA]

Zaskar - as to the mixing thing' date=' my bike came with sram x7 shirters and lx front derailer, it works  fine[/quote']

 

Front is easy. Most manufacturers puts a Shimano FD on a Sram equiped bike because they want it to work.

 

 

[Ox_Wagon]

FD are fine but as Lowracer said rear derailers may not work properly with shifters from another company. <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Here is a really cool article about the differences.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3946

 

 

[linnega]

Front deraileurs are about the limit screws and positioning of the deraileur and crankset (spacers can mess up your front shifting).  Rear deraileurs are about the shifter predominantly.  However, using a SRAM shifter with a Campag or Shimano RD will cause problems because the actuation ratios are totally different.  Mixing Shimano and Campag is less of an issue as the only difference really is the slight difference in distance the derailleur is shifted by the shifter.  Mixing 8/9/10 speed seems to work in most combinations, but not all.  It may be something to do with the maximum travel for the derailleur, so an 8 speed derailleur may not be able to move the full distance required to shift through 10 speeds, but by and large if you can fit the cassette on the same width freewheel body then you should be okay with a little tweaking.