Can you use a standard front mech with a compact chainset

deejay.

Hi All,

I'm buying up bits on ebay for a new bike next year, and picking up good deals on current Record as new S-R 11 and DA7900 have existing riders haemorrhaging nice bits of kit!
I bought a standard front mech (QS) and then ended up getting a slightly used Record UT CT chainset, 'cos a) it was such a good deal (£128!!!), b) I can always swap it on to my C40 and c) who am I kidding, I'll probably never ride big chainrings again! If I can I'd like to stick with the standard front mech rather than buy another CT one. Have any of you experts run CT with a standard front mech? Can it be done? It's a braze-on mech BTW...

Cheers,

deej

dennisn

Yes, standard front mech's will work with compact chainrings. I've been running
a compact crank with a Dura-Ace mech for years.


Dennis Noward

Meds1962

I just swapped a 53/39 to a 50/34 and the existing Ultegra front mech works fine with it as long as it is re adjusted to the correct height.

I took out 2 links from the chain.

The other concern I had was whether a 10 sp compact would be ok with my existing 9 sp set up and again there are no problems.

deejay.

Thanks for your replies.

Any Campy riders out there care to comment? My question does involve a Campy drivetrain after all...

Cheers,

deej

maddog 2

yes, it'll be fine but the Campag compact mechs do shift a bit better.

I run a CT mech on a Shimano drivetrain by tweaking the cable clamp to get a bit more mech movement out of the cable pull (the cable runs through the centre of the clamp bolt, not to the side).