Replacement spring for Raleigh derailleur

[Asqui]

The tensioning spring inside the Raleigh rear derailleur on my old-school Eddy Merckx bike has
broken. Riding a few miles home in the middle of the night with the chain nearly scraping along the
ground, and spuriously shifting down to smaller gears if I tilted the bike to the right, was amusing
to say the least.

I took it to the LBS who basically said "no chance, get a new derailleur". Is there any possibility
of getting a replacement part or should I not bother? It snapped at the end where the metal is bent
out to engage the anchor point on the inside of the derailleur chasis, so there was theoretically
possibility for repair by bending out a new segment to engage it, until I lost the spring. Anyway,
it was so stiff that without a vice and any other decent tools I expect I would have destroyed it
trying. Though not having it in my hand does make it harder to track down a replacement too...

Thanks, Dani

 

[Sheldon Brown]

asqui wrote:
> The tensioning spring inside the Raleigh rear derailleur on my old-school Eddy Merckx bike has
> broken. Riding a few miles home in the middle of the night with the chain nearly scraping along
> the ground, and spuriously shifting down to smaller gears if I tilted the bike to the right, was
> amusing to say the least.
>
> I took it to the LBS who basically said "no chance, get a new derailleur". Is there any
> possibility of getting a replacement part or should I not bother? It snapped at the end where the
> metal is bent out to engage the anchor point on the inside of the derailleur chasis, so there was
> theoretically possibility for repair by bending out a new segment to engage it, until I lost the
> spring. Anyway, it was so stiff that without a vice and any other decent tools I expect I would
> have destroyed it trying. Though not having it in my hand does make it harder to track down a
> replacement too...

There's no such thing as a "Raleigh" derailer, they never made any, though they did have their name
stamped on some inexpensive SunTour units maybe 20 years ago.

Trying to fix this is a dead end and a waste of time. Derailers are dirt cheap, you can buy a much
better one brand new for under $20.

Sheldon "Shimano Tourney" Brown +--------------------------------------------------+
| What's not worth doing is not worth doing well. | --Don Hebb |
+--------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 14:29:17 -0400, Sheldon Brown <[email protected]> wrote:

>Trying to fix this is a dead end and a waste of time. Derailers are dirt cheap, you can buy a much
>better one brand new for under $20.
>
>Sheldon "Shimano Tourney" Brown

Are Tourneys that expensive? I mean, 20 euros gets me an Acera.. I'd expect Tourney to be quite a
bit cheaper. A full Acera groupset's only
150.. I wonder what a Tourney one would cost if anyone would even offer the damn things.

Jasper

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 21:10:39 GMT, Jasper Janssen <[email protected]> wrote:

Following up to myself.. bad form, I know.

>Are Tourneys that expensive? I mean, 20 euros gets me an Acera.. I'd expect Tourney to be quite a
>bit cheaper. A full Acera groupset's only
>150.. I wonder what a Tourney one would cost if anyone would even offer the damn things.

Just found a "wholesaler" selling complete Tourney equipped MTBs for between 100 and 160 euros,
varying between rigid/crappy Tourney on the cheap end, and rigid/good Tourney or "full-sus"/crappy
tourney on the other end, where crappy and good Tourney are loosely defined by me as 3x7 cassette
systems versus 3x6 and in some cases 2x5 freewheel systems, and associated levels of quality.

Jasper

 

[A Muzi]

"asqui" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> The tensioning spring inside the Raleigh rear derailleur on my old-school Eddy Merckx bike has
> broken. Riding a few miles home in the middle of the night with the chain nearly scraping along
> the ground, and spuriously shifting down to smaller gears if I tilted the bike to the right, was
> amusing to say the least.
>
> I took it to the LBS who basically said "no chance, get a new derailleur". Is there any
> possibility of getting a replacement part or should I not bother? It snapped at the end where the
> metal is bent out to engage the anchor point on the inside of the derailleur chasis, so there was
> theoretically possibility for repair by bending out a new segment to
engage
> it, until I lost the spring. Anyway, it was so stiff that without a vice
and
> any other decent tools I expect I would have destroyed it trying. Though
not
> having it in my hand does make it harder to track down a replacement
too...

Is the derailleur a Suntour? If we knew which model someone might actually be able to help out.
Raleigh USA sold many various derailleurs with their name on, and I assume Raleigh UK did the same,
maybe with other models. A photo perhaps?

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

 

[A Muzi]

> On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 14:29:17 -0400, Sheldon Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Trying to fix this is a dead end and a waste of time. Derailers are dirt cheap, you can buy a
> >much better one brand new for under $20.

"Jasper Janssen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Are Tourneys that expensive? I mean, 20 euros gets me an Acera.. I'd expect Tourney to be quite a
> bit cheaper. A full Acera groupset's only
> 150.. I wonder what a Tourney one would cost if anyone would even offer the damn things.

$14.95 here.

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

 

[Asqui]

A Muzi wrote:
> "asqui" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> The tensioning spring inside the Raleigh rear derailleur on my old-school Eddy Merckx bike has
>> broken.
[...]
> Is the derailleur a Suntour? If we knew which model someone might actually be able to help out.
[...]
> A photo perhaps?

Yes, it is indeed a suntour with Raleigh stamped on it. I don't have access to a digital camera at
the moment but I'll take a few photos and start a new thread in a week or two when I have photos.

The thing is that this bike is pretty much completely dead, and I've already thrown an insane amount
of money at it (compared to what I paid for it), so I don't really want to go out and buy a brand
new derailleur for it -- if that was my only choice then I'd probably leave it until I really needed
to get it working for one reason or another, as I now have a new Dawes Horizon.

Dani

 

[John McGraw]

"asqui" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> A Muzi wrote:
> > "asqui" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >> The tensioning spring inside the Raleigh rear derailleur on my old-school Eddy Merckx bike has
> >> broken.
> [...]
> > Is the derailleur a Suntour? If we knew which model someone might actually be able to help out.
> [...]
> > A photo perhaps?
>
> Yes, it is indeed a suntour with Raleigh stamped on it. I don't have access to a digital camera at
> the moment but I'll take a few photos and start a new thread in a week or two when I have photos.
>
> The thing is that this bike is pretty much completely dead, and I've already thrown an insane
> amount of money at it (compared to what I paid for it), so I don't really want to go out and buy a
> brand new derailleur for it -- if that was my only choice then I'd probably leave it until I
> really needed to get it working for one reason or another, as I now have a new Dawes Horizon.
>
> Dani

GOOD LORD MON! Are Tourneys & Dawes still being manufactured? Or are Dawes just one of those deals
where a Chinese Co. bought the name?