Road mechs on mtbs

[john]

Seeing shogun's pic on the June (ahem) coolwall reminded me of the little craze early/mid 90s for fitting road mechs on mtbs.

It looked nifty but the cages weren't really long enough, are the cages not shorter than a mtb short cage? Had a 105 road mech on my 1991 (ish) Stumpy for a while. Who else did this?

 

[one_bad_mofo]

I ran a 105 mech with DX thumbies on my old Lavadome and never had any problems.

 

[hamster]

Yes, I used to. It helps if you have a road close ratio cassette on the back. A compact 22/32/42 on the front with an 11-24 (IIRC) was OK (just).

I made up the 11-24 from two cassettes (12-24 and 11-2as Shimano don't do it as standard.

 

[dendy]

I think they are shorter but depending on the size of your big ring up front in relation to the rear it should work fine. :?

 

[cce]

there's been times i've contemplated doing it - i run a 12-26 cassette for "local" conditions

i'd probably go for a dura ace 7700.

Then... there is always the option of fitting the cage from an M95x XTR to a Dura Ace 7700

 

[orange71]

I'm running a Campagnolo short road cage on my replica 1st MTB with a 50t ring up front :shock: Shifts just fine

 

[john]

Yeah, they shifted fine. It was more they were a bit short, you either ended up with a baggy chain in the inner ring as you got towards the middle of the block or the chain would be dropout bendingly tight in the big ring toward the top of the block.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Does chain length actually have anything to do with it?

Considering a road chain usually has to fit round a 42/52 or thereabouts I wouldn't have thought there was much in it?

Isn't the longer cage of an MTB mech. due to the fact the block/cassette goes up to a larger diameter?

Used Ultegra myself...

 

[DeletedUser006]

I run a 105 on the Cinelli, what else would I use I dont notice any issues shifting and works fine with 28t up rear, I run short cages on most of my other bikes.

 

[Dr S]

I'm still using a road mech on my modern. I run 1 x 9 with a 12/30 cassette and its shifting like a dream.