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Reverse spring Derraileurs

budgetrider

Monkey
Jan 23, 2005
129
0
When I first heard of Shimano reversing the spring of their rear derraileurs I thought "This is the stupidest idea ever" Yet another example of Shimano becoming Shimano-soft.
Then I unwittingly got stuck with an XT low-normal derrraileur, and after a month of using it I have to reluctantly admit, it actually is better. I'm using a SRAM cassette, and on any shifts involving more than 3 cogs at a time, the reverse design is actually faster.
It's especially noticable when you have to do a big shift eg. high gear down a river bank, with only a second or two across the water to shift to your easiest gear to get up the other side of the river bank.

My old deore could never make it to the largest cog in time, but the reverse spring XT did it with time to spare.
 

AV

Chimp
Jun 9, 2003
27
0
Arlington, VA
Shimano supposedly went to this to make the rear and front deraileur work the same. Like it on my trail bike but not on my DH rig, I run older XTR on that.
 

Heath Sherratt

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,871
0
In a healthy tension
The application is for climbing on mountain bikes also. It will not be neccessary for road bikes because you rarely if ever have to shift that rapidly for a climb on road bikes. The reverse spring wokrs extremely well with the dual control levers because it works intuitively and your brain automatically reacts when shifting in sudden situations. It is pretty nice for trail and xc riding but sucks for gravity and road. That's why shimano has new gravity shifters this year for Saint and XT. They can be used on either side of the brake levers so you can fine tune your ride a little more.