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7 Broken Derailleurs...wtf!!!

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
So I have broken 7 Sram derailluers this season. 2 short cage X9's, 2 X7's, 2 5.0's, and 1 9.0. Everyone has broken due to catchting the bottom of the cage near the lower pully in the spokes of the rear wheel. 3 have broken on my Turner Rail with a sun rhyno lite/xt hub combo 32 hole 3 cross straight guage, that I check spoke tension on regularly on, I do not have a bolt thru conversion though, so I use a QR. the other 4 I have broken on my 05 DHR which I run an 12mm Sun Ringle 8 Track rear wheel (32h) for racing and a Ringle 12mm on Mag 30 32h for training, which I check boths spoke tensions on regularly.

I weigh 195LB w/out gear and ride pretty hard. I will admit that a fair bit of the breakages occured while landing on the rear wheel, and some were sideways landings, but I have never had this problem before, in my previous 4 yrs of dhing, and a few of the breakages were more or less JRA type breakages (going fast thru a tech section but both wheels on the ground, and Kableewiie!) so may be I am not seeing something in my setup. My hangers are all straight as well.

Anyways anyone ever had this issue before, or any ideas for a solution? I can't afford this any longer!
 

spoke80

Turbo Monkey
Nov 12, 2001
1,494
0
Tootrikky said:
So I have broken 6 Sram derailluers this season. 2 short cage X9's, 2 X7's, 2 5.0's, and 1 9.0. Everyone has broken due to catchting the bottom of the cage near the lower pully in the spokes of the rear wheel. 3 have broken on my Turner Rail with a sun rhyno lite/xt hub combo 32 hole 3 cross straight guage, that I check spoke tension on regularly on, I do not have a bolt thru conversion though, so I use a QR. the other 4 I have broken on my 05 DHR which I run an 12mm Sun Ringle 8 Track rear wheel (32h) for racing and a Ringle 12mm on Mag 30 32h for training, which I check boths spoke tensions on regularly.

I weigh 195LB w/out gear and ride pretty hard. I will admit that a fair bit of the breakages occured while landing on the rear wheel, and some were sideways landings, but I have never had this problem before, in my previous 4 yrs of dhing, and a few of the breakages were more or less JRA type breakages (going fast thru a tech section but both wheels on the ground, and Kableewiie!) so may be I am not seeing something in my setup. My hangers are all straight as well.

Anyways anyone ever had this issue before, or any ideas for a solution? I can't afford this any longer!

I have broken 6 X9's in the exact same way. Resulting in mucked up races runs, shredded derailluer hangers, and shredded wheels. And here I thought I was the only one. Oh yeah, and the latest one just fell apart leaving the hanger bolt still in my hanger while the rest of the derailluer went into my new wheel! Since I had plenty of replacement parts I could fix the latest X9.

They shift great but they seem to be made out of plastic and C-clips.
 

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
I have seen a few SRAM rear derailleurs which have sloppy b pivots right out of the box. Combine a loose derailleur and some sideways flex and perhaps the derailler can catch a spoke??
 

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
spoke80 said:
I have broken 6 X9's in the exact same way. Resulting in mucked up races runs, shredded derailluer hangers, and shredded wheels. And here I thought I was the only one. Oh yeah, and the latest one just fell apart leaving the hanger bolt still in my hanger while the rest of the derailluer went into my new wheel! Since I had plenty of replacement parts I could fix the latest X9.

They shift great but they seem to be made out of plastic and C-clips.

Just talked to Sram Tech support. They thought it I should check the chain length. I am about 99.9% this is not the problem as I run my chains on the longer side of the normal and definitely take into account chain growth, and all the breakages occurred while in the middle to bottom half of the cassette.

I think my next derailuer will be a Shimano. Might try and run the Attack shifters with 105 derailluers and see how that works out.
 

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
Just dropped the cash on Attack Trigger 2:1 shifters and Shimano 105 SS Rear Derailluers. Hopefully this setup solves my derailluer woes.
 

Jayridesacove

Turbo Monkey
Feb 21, 2004
1,335
0
Falls Church, VA
Maybe you just have bad luck this season.

Personally, since I only ride my bullit for dh, I shorten the chain to where I can't shift into the 2 large cogs on the cassette. Since I never use those 2 gears anyway.

Good luck on tweaking your new derailleur.
 

Handlebarsfsr

Monkey
Dec 6, 2004
287
0
ct
i killed myself several sram derailleurs too. i think the lack of an extra pivot like the shimanos have makes sram's work poorly with full suspension bikes.
 

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
Handlebarsfsr said:
i killed myself several sram derailleurs too. i think the lack of an extra pivot like the shimanos have makes sram's work poorly with full suspension bikes.

Yeah if my theory is right then I think next years Black box XO with it's carbon cage and super short cage would solve my problems, but i can't afford ($200+) to find out. maybe i'll blow up the Shimano's too though, and I'll have to bow down to the Sram Gods.


2 X-9 Rt Shifters for sale.....cheap PM me!
 

BMXman

I wish I was Canadian
Sep 8, 2001
13,827
0
Victoria, BC
no one has mentioned checking the limit screws...could easily be the problem....I've been running SRAM on all my bikes for the last 1.5 years and between 4 bikes (XC, DH, HT, slalom) I have only replaced one derailleur and it was my fault...D
 

spoke80

Turbo Monkey
Nov 12, 2001
1,494
0
Tootrikky said:
Just talked to Sram Tech support. They thought it I should check the chain length. I am about 99.9% this is not the problem as I run my chains on the longer side of the normal and definitely take into account chain growth, and all the breakages occurred while in the middle to bottom half of the cassette.

I think my next derailuer will be a Shimano. Might try and run the Attack shifters with 105 derailluers and see how that works out.

They told me the same thing and I went to the longer cage as well. A buddy of mine who rides the same frame rocks the attack shifters with a shimano derailluer and so far that setup has been really good.

And for the others; I am well versed in limit screws and my maintenance is impeccable. I have tried all you options but sometimes I think that gremlins do exist.......
 

profro

Turbo Monkey
Feb 25, 2002
5,617
314
Walden Ridge
spoke80 said:
They told me the same thing and I went to the longer cage as well. A buddy of mine who rides the same frame rocks the attack shifters with a shimano derailluer and so far that setup has been really good.

And for the others; I am well versed in limit screws and my maintenance is impeccable. I have tried all you options but sometimes I think that gremlins do exist.......
It will be nice to get off the DH9 next year so I can run Shimano der. with SRAM triggers. That is such a nice setup. Crisp.
 

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
If the breakage occurs in the middle to higher gears on the cassette, limit screws are irrelevant. Chain length or maybe the "b" adjustment. Maybe if that pulley wheel is too close to the cogs, whne the sloppy pivot allows the derailleur to bounce around, the cage catches the next larger sized cog and tears the derailleur off sending it into the spokes? Any markes on the inside of the cage?
 
Apr 9, 2004
516
8
Mount Carmel,PA
Just a shot, is there any chance your freehub is lockin up? I crunched 2 deralliers untill I figured it out. it was only locking up now and then ,especially on big hits. in never locked up completely so it took a while to realize the cause.
 

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
oldfart said:
If the breakage occurs in the middle to higher gears on the cassette, limit screws are irrelevant. Chain length or maybe the "b" adjustment. Maybe if that pulley wheel is too close to the cogs, whne the sloppy pivot allows the derailleur to bounce around, the cage catches the next larger sized cog and tears the derailleur off sending it into the spokes? Any markes on the inside of the cage?

Well any marks that would be caused by your scenario are impossible to discern after the cage gets stuck in the spokes, because that marks up the cage pretty good (and breaks your spokes, your hanger,and destroys your deraiulluer). The other thing is they have all been new derailluers so yes they were soppy compared to a Shimano Derailluer but I would say tight by SRAM standards. (I have always assumed that SRAM derailluers were designed with a little slop in the B-pivot due to the upper pulleys beig fixed laterally, Shimano Guide pulleys (the upper pulley) have a a mm of float to align the pulley with the cassette while SRAM's do not, of course you know what they say about assumptions!)