Tiagra shifters, Altus rear mech

[twentysix by twentyfive]

My long cage Shimano 105 9 speed long cage rear mech died today. Seems these are as rare as hen's teeth now especially with the shortage of componentry out there. But I can find 9 speed long cage Shimano Altus. So I have a road shifter - 9 speed Tiagra. But the 9 speed Altus is MtB I believe. Are they compatible is my question?

TIA

 

[Drago]

Yes. 9 Shimano speed MTB mech should work fine on Shimano 9 speed road levers, and vice versa. Things don't start to get tricky umtil 10 speed, where there starts to be a divergence between MTB and road systems with cable pull ratios and the like, and even between road systems at different groupset levels.

On the downside, the Altus mech isn't very nice. The current shadow syle Altus with the "X" shaped body is hideous. Both parallelogram links are plastic, and the whole thing is so flexy it leads to very poor, imprecise shifting. Well worth paying a bit more for an Acera mech, which is a different league for peformance.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Yes. 9 Shimano speed MTB mech should work fine on Shimano 9 speed road levers, and vice versa. Things don't start to get tricky umtil 10 speed, where there starts to be a divergence between MTB and road systems with cable pull ratios and the like, and even between road systems at different groupset levels.

On the downside, the Altus mech isn't very nice. The current shadow syle Altus with the "X" shaped body is hideous. Both parallelogram links are plastic, and the whole thing is so flexy it leads to very poor, imprecise shifting. Well worth paying a bit more for an Acera mech, which is a different league for peformance.

Brilliant. Thanks for that. I'll hunt down an Acera. I have found a Deore which is a bit more £ but I'll get lots of use out of it

 

[Drago]

Deore probably worth the money. Its roughly the off road equivalent to 105, so strikes an excellent balance of performance, weight, and durability.

 

[si_c]

Don't forget modern Sora R3000 is very good - likely better than the 105 you're replacing.