Whats the difference?

[lancelogan]

On the subject of rear mechs.

If i want to run 10 speed am i better with a short or medium cage?

Is this just the length of the derailleur its talking about?

[Hertz Van Rental]

A short cage is used for closer ratio racing freewheels which have smaller diameter cogs. Long cages are traditionally fitted to touring bikes which may have larger cogs going up to 32T or even 34T

[lancelogan]

Thanks Hertz

 

so a medium cage for 11-28 gearing should work? or am i better with short?

[Tony]

Eh, I thought there were only two lengths of derailleur:

 

- short (for traditional road bike with close ratio cassette - up to about 26/27 teeth at the top)

- long (for mountain bikes and touring bikes - up to 34 teeth at the top)

 

...which is basically what Gordon said. I don't know what is meant by "medium cage". Basically, if the mech comes from a "road" groupset it will be short-cage and if it's from a mtb groupset it will be long-cage. (The purpose of the longer cage is to take up the extra slack in the chain due to the wide-ratio freewheel and triple chainset.)

 

11-28 sounds like an MTB freewheel to me but you might still get away with using a short-cage mech depending on what type of chainset you're using.

[Darryl Gunson]

Hi

 

Campag group sets have short medium and long. The medium will be fine. I've actually run a 13-29 on a 53-39, but it was stretching things a bit. I think the long cage is for triples.

 

DG

[lancelogan]

Thanks for the help guys.

 

My question has been answered.