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Will a long cage XT cut it for DH?

all right, i snapped my old short cage XT derailleur and need to buy a new one before Saturday...

currently my only option is an XT Shadow with a long cage... will that kill me on the first ride? or will it cut it for awhile until i get my SRAM drivetrain?
i plan on using the XT until i replace my drivetrain and keeping the Shimano setup as a spare...

if its necessary to know, i run a 36T up front and a 11-32T in the rear...

any info would be appreciated!
thanks guys
 

Ian Collins

Turbo Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
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Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
if you're going to run an 11-32 then you're pretty much locked into med. or long cage......get an x9 short cage and shifter, an 11-26T cassette, cut down your chain and enjoy the benefits of a much better drivetrain
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
should be ok. My friend uses his long cage xt shadow for the same setup and totally digs it - the new shadow stuff is pretty sweet as far as feel goes. Only thing that I would watch out for is clipping it on rocks, but that only matters if you ride super chunk and if you don't pay attention to where you're rear wheel is at all. just give it a little attention when you're riding through chunky stuff and it should be fine.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
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South Seattle
if you're going to run an 11-32 then you're pretty much locked into med. or long cage......get an x9 short cage and shifter, an 11-26T cassette, cut down your chain and enjoy the benefits of a much better drivetrain
No you're not. Cage length is determined by max tooth difference. Keep in mind they are designed for bikes with 2 or 3 chainrings. Running a short cage road der on a 11-34 mountain cassette, works just fine.

The long cage will work. It will flop around more and you will be more likely to loose you chain. If you're just getting something cheap to hold you over, get a normal LX and save some money.
 

davep

Turbo Monkey
Jan 7, 2005
3,276
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seattle
if you're going to run an 11-32 then you're pretty much locked into med. or long cage......get an x9 short cage and shifter, an 11-26T cassette, cut down your chain and enjoy the benefits of a much better drivetrain
Short cage sram ders will fit up to a 34tooth cog and have a chainwrap max of 30 teeth. I have never had a prob with a short and a 11-34 (although the 34 is usually locked out).

I suppose if you had a lot of chain growth, that could mess things up.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
nope wont work, if you arent running a super short extra light carbon short cage you will have a catostrauphic bike failure in the middle of your run that will cause mass carnage above the holcaust scale of destruction.

Its not the parts, it is the rider.................
 

Ian Collins

Turbo Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
1,428
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Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
yes, they WILL WORK.....i stand corrected....they don't work very well.....with a short cage and a road cassette you end up with a shorter chain, less movement in the derailleur, tighter snappier shifts, etc......i have had so much better luck with drivetrains running short cage with road cassette.....
 

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
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Ummmm, Cage length does nothing for proper chain length. You can take my short cage derailer off, and install a long cage and keep teh same length. Your cage length just takes up the slack as you shift into smaller gears. In an answer to the OP, long cage will be fine, just set it up properly and dont worry about.
 

frznnomad

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2005
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a-town biatches
well cheetah it will work just fine, and by that mean it will be able to shift for you and you will be able to have all of your rear drive train, which can be a problem with the shorter cage derrailures. although if you are destroying derrailures every other run in my opinion it isnt worth the investment. i learned my lesson at the sugar mtn dh race here on the east coast one year. i went threw three of these things before my race run. if you have any kind of rocks on the trail you will probly snag it and there it goes. so if you can get a shorter replacement i suggest you do so.
 
i know i can order a short(medium) cage somewhere, but right now its the only option i have... i would like to go cheaper and run an LX, but for some reason, literally NO shop around here has anything but long cage XT's and XTR's... i'm kinda bummed...

i imagine that there will be some rocks and i do my best no matter what to keep the back end clear of everything... the new XT also doesnt stick out as much(15mm less) and supposedly doesnt bounce as much either, so thats the only thing holding me to it...

so i'll guess i'll just do my best to keep it on the rubber and not do anything stupid... awwww, that means not hitting the big kickers in the pond...

next paycheck though, i'm going full SRAM!!!!
 

Ian Collins

Turbo Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
1,428
0
Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
Ummmm, Cage length does nothing for proper chain length. You can take my short cage derailer off, and install a long cage and keep teh same length. Your cage length just takes up the slack as you shift into smaller gears. In an answer to the OP, long cage will be fine, just set it up properly and dont worry about.

no, not true......if you can take your short cage off and install a long cage then you have not cut your chain down enough.....

the point of a short cage for DH is to minimize the chain length and avoid having your chain and derailleur slapping around .......
 

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
8,807
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looking for classic NE singletrack
i know i can order a short(medium) cage somewhere, but right now its the only option i have... i would like to go cheaper and run an LX, but for some reason, literally NO shop around here has anything but long cage XT's and XTR's... i'm kinda bummed...
buy a 105 (road) derailleur in GS (medium) or SS (short) for all your DH needs. SS cage upper limit is 26t (I think), so if you've got a traditional cassette you need a GS.

:monkeydance:

or just screw it all and get a Sram drivetrain, they offer medium cages all the way down to X.5, I think...
 

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
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My own world inside my head
no, not true......if you can take your short cage off and install a long cage then you have not cut your chain down enough.....

the point of a short cage for DH is to minimize the chain length and avoid having your chain and derailleur slapping around .......
I am sorry, but that is not correct, you set you rchainlength Before you install you derailer. Your chainlength is dependant on your two biggest gears front and rear, your derailer cage takes up the slack when shifting gears. Its just not true that we are using shorter cage derailers to shorten our chains, we run shorter cage derailers for 1 ground clearance, and 2 better shifting. If the chain on my bike was any shorter, I wouldnt be able to shift into all my gears on the cassette. I can still install a long cage derailer, and it pulls up just like the short cage.
 
well, its on the bike now and so far works just as tempermental as my old short cage... it could really just be the shifter though...

as for a review, the Shadow XT is friggin stable when its going through rough crap, i can barely jolt it enough to make it shift into a lower gear by slamming the rear end down from a stoppie!... i have yet to hear anything banging around- totally opposite of the old XT... i can tell that it WANTS to shift awesomely, but its held back by the setup...

i'll see how it holds up this weekend, i should be getting my SRAM setup pretty soon... Sully RULES!!!