Replacement derailleur

kesher

Can someone recommend a decent replacement for my Acera (8 Speed) rear derailleur? Thanks

cooldad

Any Shimano 8 or 9 speed. Deore/XT or another Acera/Altus.

kesher

So any 9 speed Deore/XT will be OK?

nicklouse

That's what he said.

kesher

The XT/Deore (Shadow) rear derailleurs are available with different length cages and the Acera seems to be only available in one size which I am not sure what size it is: it seems to be long cage. The cassette on the bike is 11T- 32T and three chainrings

Chunkers1980

So, what's your question? Info in the FAQs

stubs

Cheap Acera

Cheerful Deore

Better XT

Chunkers1980

None of those ^^ Shadow are the way forward.

cooldad

kesher wrote:

The XT/Deore (Shadow) rear derailleurs are available with different length cages and the Acera seems to be only available in one size which I am not sure what size it is: it seems to be long cage. The cassette on the bike is 11T- 32T and three chainrings

Get a long cage. I don't like Shadow mechs, but that may be just me. But any Shimano mech will work fine, just decide how much you want to pay. Deore/SLX/XT are better in ascending order, but all work fine. Alivio/Altus/Acera (god knows which is supposed to be best) are lower level, but actually work really well, may be a touch heavier, but can be found really cheap.

stubs

cooldad wrote:

I don't like Shadow mechs, but that may be just me.

Not the only one I dont like them either they never shift quite as well or as quietly as a normal Shimano mech no matter how much tweaking you do. They also break just as easily as an old style mech when you hit a stump.

kesher

Thanks for suggestions, though I have to say that I was in a shop yesterday and the owner insisted that replacing Acera with anything better than Acera would be wasted on an 8 speed as, for example, the XT/Deore is really for 9 speed and that I would not see any improvement regarding gear changing, and also it would not be any stronger/more reliable.

alexthebear

kesher wrote:

Thanks for suggestions, though I have to say that I was in a shop yesterday and the owner insisted that replacing Acera with anything better than Acera would be wasted on an 8 speed as, for example, the XT/Deore is really for 9 speed and that I would not see any improvement regarding gear changing, and also it would not be any stronger/more reliable.

Unless you have an absolute clanger of a bike and that's why your bike mechanic feels that a deore mech is just purely not worth upgrading to then I would definitely find yourself a better bike shop/ bike mechanic because the derailleurs already mentioned are far superior to your original.

supersonic

But they won't shift any better. Might last longer though!

The Rookie

Shifting will be the same (new) but the 'better' mech is lighter and will last longer.