Mavic 851 derailleur

[Keith laird]

First retro build , mavic groupset from the late 80's . I'm using a mavic 851 rear mech , when joining the chain the rear mech seems to sit forward meaning i'm looking at around 100 links in the chain . Is this right ?

 

[ata]

Do you have the tabbed 'washer', that goes between the derailleur and the derailleur eye on the frame? If not, it won't work.
It looks like this:

Part number is 801 034

Chainlength isn't really determined by the derailleur anyway in my experience, but by your front and rear cog sizes. I use the Sheldon Brown method, with a full link overlap on the largest front chainring and rear cog: http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html#chain

 

[Keith laird]

Re:

Thanks ata , i've got the washer , everything looks good with the derailleur , the chain takes a more direct route through the jocky wheels than modern bikes , Just checking as i don't want to cut the chain and make it short .

 

[ata]

Position of the wheel if you have horizontal dropouts and the length of the cage might influence shifting (the mavic 851 cage is uniquein that it can be adjusted to work with a wide range of rear cogs). Chain length doesn't get impacted by the derailleur in my experience, so just test the shifting. It's a lovely looking piece of kit.

 

[Keith laird]

Re:

Thanks for your help ata .