Author Topic: Front Derailer  (Read 6991 times)

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Offline toetheline

Front Derailer
« on: August 20, 2007, 03:59:15 pm »
I'm thinking about building out a new bike.  I'm not a derailer expert, and I could use some insight.
On the Shimano website some front derailers are "top swing" and some are "bottom swing".  Is one better than the other for a touring bike.
Some derailers are "wide link"  Again, I'm stumped.
If anyone out there has a opinion or preference of derailers, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks


Offline jimbeard

Front Derailer
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2007, 10:22:20 pm »
From Sheldon Browns pages more at this link.
http://sheldonbrown.com/front-derailers.html
Traditional front derailers are "bottom pull", operated by a cable running up from the bottom bracket area to the derailer.

"Top pull" derailers are operated by a cable running down from above. This design is mainly used on mountain bikes, with the intent of avoiding running the cable under the bottom bracket, where it is exposed to spray kicked up by the front tire.

Jim
Jim

Offline DaveB

Front Derailer
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2007, 11:25:16 am »
"Top Swing" front derailleurs have the mounting clamp below the parallelogram and are a new design used on MTB's  

"Bottom swing" fd's have the clamp above the operating mechanism and are the older, more traditional design.  Both MTB and road front derailleurs are available in bottom swing and all road front derailleurs I'm familiar with are bottom swing.

"Wide Links" mean the pivot links are wider than usual to improve rigidity and apply only to MTB derailleurs.