What the difference????

JAKBLADE

Anyone tell me what the pro's /con's are of long/medium and short cage rear mech's???

supersonic

Have a look at the FAQ - is all in there.

bomberesque

short cages are lighter
Long cages are can handle more difference in teeth numbers between top and bottom
less slack being taken up with a shorter cage so they seem (to me at least) to hold the chain tension better. this is possibly due to long cages often being set up with far too much chain though.

Generally; triple ring needs a long cage, double or single can use shorter.

You can run a medium or short cage on a triple but you lose some gear combinations (although they're not ones you should be using anyway) but if you do stray into them (particularly the low on the back high on the front) you can do damage to your chain, mech or even frame dropout

ride_whenever

you wont damage the chain or hanger or mech running too short a mech...

what you'll find is the mech cannot take the slack out of the chain in some combos, so you'll get a lot of chainslap and quite possibly slipping due to a lack of chain tension.

bomberesque

ride_whenever wrote:

you wont damage the chain or hanger or mech running too short a mech...

what you'll find is the mech cannot take the slack out of the chain in some combos, so you'll get a lot of chainslap and quite possibly slipping due to a lack of chain tension.

erm, well OK then let me rephrase; you either accept that you get tons of chainslap or you risk damage by hitting big ring combos

you need to shorten the chain so the mech can take the rest of the slack in normally used gears (32:11 for example). Then Large/large gear combos (44:34) can ovberstretch the chain and break it. That's what I was getting at anyway.

supersonic

All chains should be measured around the big/big combo really.

ride_whenever

but that's too short a chain...

i reckon you could probably run a 11-34 cassette with a standard triple set the chain around the 42 and 1/2way up the cassette and get away with it if disciplined...

bomberesque

supersonic wrote:

All chains should be measured around the big/big combo really.

that's for girls!

/runs away giggling

supersonic

Lol, is good for beginners and the clumsy - bit of slack in the 22/11 or dead drivetrain in the biggy hehe. I'd go for the former ;-)

Actually it is best just to learn how to use your gears properly ;-)

ride_whenever

supersonic wrote:

bit of slack in the 22/11 or dead drivetrain in the biggy hehe

hehe indeed


WOOF

JAKBLADE

Cheers for that,guess I'll be getting a long cage then.