short, medium or long

WierdBeard

I currently have a Shimano Deore Shadow rear mech long cage and often think on some rides how close it may have been to rocks or low branches that stick out. Also i am often getting entwined bits of bracken wound up in it which annoys the hell out of me.

I was thinking of changing to a shorter mech, Im presuming this would help the above predicament but dont know how or if it would affect performce.

So has anyone changed theirs and noticed a difference in performance?

I havent looked yet but is there a similair or same shadow mech in a shorter cage?

Can i use different mech with my deore shifters or would it be wise to stick to deore mech?

The Northern Monkey

general rule of thumb (but not always the case without reading the spec compatability of the mech)

short = single ring up front
medium = dual ring up front
long = triple ring.

If the mech is hitting rocks, try a shadow mech... if not, don't worry about it.

You can't use numbered sram mechs with your shifters (ie you can't use x7,x9,x0 etc etc)

nicklouse

it is covered in the FAQs.

and you cant just change if you want to. and no you dont see much change.

The Rookie

Just to clarify, you can use any Shimano mech (not just Deore), any named SRAM mech (eg attack) but not numbered, most of the cheaper copies (microshift) are Shimano compatable.

But as has been said, you can't just use a short cage, it has a lower capacity for chain length control than a long cage - see shimano.com, go to your item and look at the tech docs for more info on that.

Simon

NatoED

i use a short cage tiagra rear mech on my MTB triple ring and it's fine but i do use a road rear cassette too .