Installing a modern Shimano front mech

dirttorpedo

Senior Retro Guru
I'm swapping my winter commuter/gravel bike components from my old Elephant NFE to a 2024 Kona Rove DL frame (I stopped liking the low trail geometry on the Elephant). The old 105 front mech I used on the NFE wouldn't fit on the Rove so I found a virtually new braze on version on Craigslist cheap and paired it with an old 31.8 clamp from my parts bins. I didn't appreciate that the front derailleur was redesigned after my 10 speed Ultegra group set was designed.

It's interesting. I have it functioning (I'm running it friction), but just learned about the mech stabilization bolt so I will add some frame protection in this area with some two sided tape before I finish it off. I also learned through a deeper dive on the art of setting these up that I probably have the cable running incorrectly through the top cap so I will sort that out too. I hope that these fixes help smooth out the shifting because its much notchier than the old one was and I can't see why it shouldn't run smooth as well with the friction shifter.
 
Set up correctly, the new derailleurs work better.
It's a bit counterintuitive.
And unfortunately there are several ways you can get them wrong.

The old mechs just had that "wrong side of the tab" thing.
 
Agree, they make no sense upon initial fiddling, but once setup they feel & work nicely. And if anything is not correct with the setup/cable routing you will have no joy (I would imagine). Plenty of YouTube vids for help (I watched a few)
 

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