mountain rear derailleur with road cassette



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Neaudl

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After struggling up Mt. Mitchell yesterday, I'm thinking of putting on a mountain cassette for my
next steep ride. If I put an XT rear derailleur on the roadbike to allow for a 12-34 cassette in the
mountains, would I have problems with poor shifting using a 12-25 or 12-27 when not in the
mountains? I can switch cassettes myself in only a couple of minutes but don't want to be switching
derailleurs back and forth.

L. D. Lide
 
In article <[email protected]>, NeauDL <[email protected]> wrote:
>After struggling up Mt. Mitchell yesterday, I'm thinking of putting on a mountain cassette for my
>next steep ride. If I put an XT rear derailleur on the roadbike to allow for a 12-34 cassette in
>the mountains, would I have problems with poor shifting using a 12-25 or 12-27 when not in the
>mountains?

I wouldn't say poor, but the difference is that when the cassette is smaller, the MTB derailleur's
top pulley will be farther away from the cogs, farther than necessary. As the segment of chain
between the cog and the top derailleur pulley shortens, you tend to get crisper shifting. But using
an XT derailleur on a 12-25 or 12-27 would not give "poor" shifting - it would be quite satisfactory
in my opinion. It just wouldn't be as close to the cogs as a road derailleur. The alternative would
be to run a Shimano road triple rear derailleur (long cage) but my experience is that they don't do
well on a 34t big cog, whereas the MTB derailleur will work great on that.

--Paul
 
"NeauDL" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> After struggling up Mt. Mitchell yesterday, I'm thinking of putting on a mountain cassette for my
> next steep ride. If I put an XT rear
derailleur on
> the roadbike to allow for a 12-34 cassette in the mountains, would I have problems with poor
> shifting using a 12-25 or 12-27 when not in the
mountains?
> I can switch cassettes myself in only a couple of minutes but don't want
to be
> switching derailleurs back and forth.
>
> L. D. Lide

I use an XT rear der with a 11-32 cassette and Ultegra everything else for just the same reasons
that you state, hills. Big hills. It works great. I have a second wheelset with the 12-27 cassette
that I switch back and forth. The shifting is still good. Not quite as crisp as with the Ultegra
rear der, but then I'm climbing big hills, not racing a crit. In my experience, if properly
adjusted, the shifting is never poor.
 
On 18 May 2003 20:06:23 GMT, [email protected] (NeauDL) wrote:

" If I put an XT rear derailleur on the roadbike to allow for a 12-34 cassette in the mountains,
would I have problems with poor shifting using a 12-25 or 12-27 when not in the mountains? I can
switch cassettes myself in only a couple of minutes but don't want to be switching derailleurs back
and forth".

I just put a Deore SGS long derailer on my road bike when I switched to triple cranks. It shifts
very well, though not quite as crisp as the old short derailer. I don't know if that's because of
the installation, adjustment, or size of the derailer. I'm happy with it.

You also might need a longer chain to go with the longer derailer and larger cassette.

The derailer should be able to take up enough chain on the smaller cassette as long as you stay away
from using your small chainwheel with your smaller rear cogs.

OTOH, if you used SRAM chains with the "Power Link" (reusable master link), it should be pretty easy
to change the the derailer and chain when you swap out your cassette. Based on my limited
experience, the shorter cage derailer should shift a little crisper with your smaller cassette.
Changing all three (derailer, chain, and cassette) together would optimize both configurations.

My 2¢

Bill Kingson Caribou, Maine
 
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