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Rear Derailleur; Is Size Important
Topic Started: Dec 21 2009, 09:08 PM (198 Views)
Bill the wheels
billywheels


Whats your views on cage length,i guess short is not such a good idea.But what about medium.I guess for all round xc stick with long.What do you think guys
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darth vader
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Mudking
Its how you use it that counts :wub:

Short ones have the advantage of not getting bashed and claged up, have seen a trend for short ones , Longer change smoother
also depends on the ratios you are using and how big your front cogs are
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Chadders
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Mud Connoisseur
Actually cage length is very important.

The shorter the cage the quicker the shift. But if you run a short cage you must run a close ratio cassette. For this reason a lot of 4x and DH riders use a road cassette with a short cage mech to give them better acceleration. The other big advantge is a shorter chain length and less to catch on rocks and trees.

Longer rear mech will give you the ability to run much more open cassettes with a bigger difference between the biggest and smallets sprocket.

Most standard mechs are medium cages and therefore give you the best of both worlds. Unless you are going to be racing 4x or DH which I assume you're not then I would go for a mid cage.

I have never gone near a long cage. They are too much of a liability on British trails. With all of the tree stumps etc that trail builders can't dig out they are just asking to be snapped off. I've seen it happen quite regularly in the south east. It also means far too much excess chain for my liking. More weight and more to slap around on your frame.




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Freewheeler
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Fairly Muddied
Well I never knew that!

:-)

Nick
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guy
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Mudking
The other thing about a medium cage rear mech is you can run a triple ring front chainset. You can use a short cage mech for this but it puts a lot more stress on the chain so the wear rate on this is far greater.

The exception to this is SramXX (mmmm, yummy) which has a double front ring and a 10 speed cassettes and has a med. cage rear mech but as Chadders explains, the cassette has a large gear range that you will still need a med. cage to actually get the gear changing and indexing to work reliably and acurately.

Back in the day though (a very nearly old fart speaks) my college mates used to run Shimano and Campag short roadie mechs on their mountain bikes cos they looked soooo cool and were stronger than a long cage.


Next week we shall be discussing wheel dishing... ;)
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Ming the Merciless
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Overlord of all Known Sheds!
and tyres................

RUN.............
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Bill the wheels
billywheels


Ok Ming,on that point as you started it,what tyre will you be.................................
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darth vader
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Mudking
I woud think that you would need larger tyres to keep a long cage mech away from the ground
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Ming the Merciless
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Overlord of all Known Sheds!
Possibly a "Sure-Grip balloonomatic 3.79", though maybe if its a bit frosty in places and muddy in others a "Freezyslime 3000" run at about 18 Terapascals.

Oh my that's a big stick Guy..........

.......did you get it for Christmas?

:lol:
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hobbz
Bog Monster
may the 42a durometer come down and cast you asunder in an explosion of evo anti snakebite sidewalls and double ridged knobs and mud shedding spray, and then gently whip you with ust beads..................ooops :blink:
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Bill the wheels
billywheels


Thanks for all your tech advice regarding mechs @rses.

Will play safe and go medium.

Cheers
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