Derailleur interchangeability

[Retro_Roy]

hi
how many of you out there have used early shimano 500 or 600 road front and rear
derailleurs on mountain bikes? long cage or short cage rears? with how many speeds?
with early suntour shifters? did you have triple rings up front? could you post up pictures
in action here plus comments. i am thinking of doing something of this nature and would
like to know how well it all worked for you.
thanks
roy

 

[Retro_Roy]

this sort of thing.

 

[Tootyred]

The limitation is the capacity of the derailleur in terms of how big a cog it can cope with and how many teeth it can take before being stretched to death.

Look for a long cage touring version and your probably safe for a triple crank, with 12 to 28 min.

As for shifting, derailleurs are pretty dumb..they don't care what they shift unless its got a weird pull ratio.

 

[legrandefromage]

a bit later but I use the cages from 600 mechs with XT or DX bodies

 

[legrandefromage]

rear mechs are all ok with friction shifting but cable pull and reach can limit their shifting capabilities

old Deore MT-60 can be used with 9spd MTB and 10spd road - I use bar-end shifters up to 10spd with older mechs

I also have these too which sit just below the Deore touring and Deerhead groups

 

[7Speed]

This was a thing back in the day where short cage roadie mechs were thought to give better shifting. You could get a nice roadie mech for a lot less than a 7-spd XT short cage mech at the time. You had to be really careful on ratios but most folks don’t cross chain anyway. No idea if it was actually better…but it worked fine.

 

[Retro_Roy]

thanks for the input. would like to see pictures of these early derailleurs
mounted on vintage mountain bikes.
i am leaning towards going with 6 speed 14t-28t rear with 46t-36t-26t front.
non-indexed suntour shifters. see any snags so far? this is the front derailleur
i'd like to use. can it do a triple?

 

[Woz]

thanks for the input. would like to see pictures of these early derailleurs
mounted on vintage mountain bikes.
i am leaning towards going with 6 speed 14t-28t rear with 46t-36t-26t front.
non-indexed suntour shifters. see any snags so far?

You will be a bit beyond the rated RD capacity there.

Practically, it will probably work with careful chain length and not using the small - small combo.

 

[7Speed]

It was just a trend thing - like narrow handlebars. Not certain I would do it now I am all grown up. I just judged it by eye with the chain length. I think I ran a 26/36/48 front and 12-28 rear. I remember it being a bit dicey in the big ring which is when you might be focused on other things than chain line. The risk of a big fail, like a mech in the wheel or a long walk home (even worse a call to the Mrs to get picked up) feel too great to me these days.

 

[7Speed]

You will be a bit beyond the rated RD capacity there.

Practically, it will probably work with careful chain length and not using the small - small combo.

What Woz said