Specialized "Callahanger" Rear Mech Hanger - Long vs Short Options?

buckmulligan

After upgrading my Specialized Allez to 11-speed not-so-long-ago, I haven't been able to quite dial the rear indexing in perfectly, so I've decided to replace my rear mech hanger and see if it fixes the issue. It's taken it's share of whacks over the years so I figure it could easily be out of alignment and the tighter tolerances of the 11-speed cassette are just showing up the issue; for £10 I figure it's worth a shot.

After searching through Specialized's bewildering catalogue of part numbers, I've discovered that I need a Specialized "Callahanger", which can come in either a short (#9893-4291) or a long (#9890-4236) variant; Specialized claim that the long variant is for cassettes up to 28T, although it appears from the stock pictures that I've been running the short version (without issues) on a 12-30T cassette for years when I was using 10-speed. I thought such issues were as much to do with which rear derailleur you're running as much as which mech hanger you have?

My new 11-speed setup is an 11-28 cassette with a 105 5800 rear derailleur so I'm not sure which one would be best; stick with what I'm already using or switch out to something that might technically fit better? Does anyone have any experience of these two options? Many thanks!

Bobbinogs

Blimey! All this time I have been riding around with the wrong hanger :-)

I also ride a 28 (although 9 speed 12-28) and have the standard hanger without it causing a problem. I know this because I bought one recently to replace the one I stuck on there a couple of years ago but knocked more than once in road spills. Haven't had an issue with mine but I think your logic about the closer tolerances of 11 speed may be a factor? Then again, Shimano are always over cautious with their gear ranges so perhaps Spesh have just taken them at their word.

buckmulligan

Just to update this, I ordered both the short and long versions from Freeborn Bikes because I wanted to see what the difference was; after a bit of to-and-fro with their customer services, it appears that their couriers didn't even bother trying to deliver the parcel and returned it to them, so I gave up on that plan and just picked up the short version (#9893-4291) from my LBS.

I compared this with the one that came supplied on the bike and they're identical, so it seems like that's the standard-issue version. It seems to have fixed the indexing issues that I was having and accomodates the 28T of my 105 5800 11-18 cassette just fine, so I'm still none the wiser about the difference between the two, but appear to have solved my issues.

The old one was fairly bent, so I'm guessing, perhaps unsurprisingly, that there are tighter tolerances with regard to indexing on 11- vs 10-speed.



New one on left, old one on right