Top pull front derailleur for 24/38/48 - recommendations?

Andrew W said:

I am having trouble sourcing a top pull derailleur for my son's
mountain bike (with Shimano indexed shifters).

I looked up a Deore M510, but according to my usual source
(wiggle.co.uk), this, and all the other MTB derailleurs they sell are
"compact chainset only" designs.

Apparently I can't use a road derailleur that will support 48T (not
compatible with MTB STI shifters, if I read Sheldon Brown's pages
correctly).

I'm not really an expert on mountain bike kit so,

Questions:

1. Is their a suitable mid-range derailleur that I have missed?

2. If not, are the "compact only" warnings ignorable? Any experience?

Any comments welcome

Andrew Webster

You probably can use a compact front der with your setup w/ a little
fiddling but not ideal. What you need is a 1994/5 top pull, bottom
swing front der, made before everything shimano went to 'compact'.

I can check to see if my supplier has one-Seat post diameter?

Qui si parla Campagnolo said:

You probably can use a compact front der with your setup w/ a little
fiddling but not ideal. What you need is a 1994/5 top pull, bottom
swing front der, made before everything shimano went to 'compact'.

Shimano still makes these. The LX one (FD-M581-3) is a nice choice:
http://tinyurl.com/7o57h

However, they have taken to calling them "down swing" instead of "bottom
swing" and there are now two models, one for 44T and one for 48T big
rings. Oh, the confusion.

Thanks to you both. I think I now know what I'm looking for. I will
try to source locally if I can (i.e. in the UK).

I don't think the LX will do. The 48T model doesn't come in the right
chainstay angle option (if I read the specs correctly).

It seems just a little confusing to give the same part number to
differently specced products (I thought part numbers were meant to
avoid just this sort of confusion!).

Thanks again

Andrew