Chain snapped & broken front derailleur

mudslinger

Was out yesterday & my chain snapped & the front derailleur broke. Fortunately my mate had a chain breaker tool so was able to get home.

The front mech is a Deore. Does it have to be replaced with the same part or can it be something better e.g. XT? Is there anything benefit in doing that?

The chain has HG on the links which I believe to be a Shimano chain? Looking on the web there are different types of HG chains. What would be the difference?

giantjason

Different types of chain depend on how many speed your rear cassette is. An 8 speed chain is slightly thicker than a 9 speed chain.

get yourself some sram powerlinks for the chain for any future breaks.

the front mech can be XT. Benefits are that you get a slight improvement in function and weight saving.

jayson

U can indeed use an XT front mech with no probs at all, the spring action is slightly better on the XT but to be honest theres not a massive difference.

From personal experience i would recommend gettin a SRAM chain over a shimano, they do seem to change slightly better and the split link makes cleaning and maintaining it an absolute doddle.

mudslinger

Great, thanks for the advice.

chilledsandwich

SRAM Powerlinks are a lot easier to use but they don't work all that well with Shimano chains.

The front mech can be anything you want (mtb at least) even a nice SRAM one if you so wished. Front mechs are compatible with either shift system.