New derailleur

[jorgemartin]

I want to substitute a 9-speed Deore LX rear derailleur for a second-hand ebay 9-speed XT derailleur. I've noticed that derailleurs can be short, medium and long cage. What does this mean? What's the most suitable one for touring?

 

[HLaB]

I want to substitute a 9-speed Deore LX rear derailleur for a second-hand ebay 9-speed XT derailleur. I've noticed that derailleurs can be short, medium and long cage. What does this mean? What's the most suitable one for touring?

Short, medium and large refer to sixe of the derailleur cage that accomodates a certain size of cassette experts migh correct this guess a short cage accomodates a 11-23, a medium 12-28 and a large 34t cassettes. You won't want one that too small for your current cassette size. I never toured but I guess some folk would like a lowered gear bike for touring and hence would want a larger cassette and hence would need a larger cage.
Good luck :-)

 

[I like Skol]

I want to substitute a 9-speed Deore LX rear derailleur for a second-hand ebay 9-speed XT derailleur. I've noticed that derailleurs can be short, medium and long cage. What does this mean? What's the most suitable one for touring?

Why? Unless you are having problems with your LX shifter you should stick with it. Shifting of both units when new should be excellent so don't fall into the trap of upgrading for upgrading's sake! The only possible advantage of the XT over the LX will be weight and the XT might last longer (but a secondhand one might be sh**ged anyway).

 

[gwhite]

Both of these are good quality touring mechs and there would be no point in swapping really. The LX by all accounts is now to be preferred to the new XT by all accounts.

 

[jorgemartin]

Thanks everyone for their replies. To be honest, the rear derailleur works fine but I've had the bike for 5 years (daily commuting in London) without any upgrades (other than new tires) and thought it might be good idea to change this before my 25 day tour starting in February. Do you think this is unnecessary?

 

[heretic]

If the pivots aren't sloppy and it indexes well leave it be. I'd change brake and gear cables, brake blocks and probably tyres/tubes. Consider how many miles the chain has done, will a 25 day tour take it past the point where it'll wreck the cassette? If necessary change the lot and store the old ones to use up commuting when you get home. Much better than buying a mech you don't need.