long cage or short cage derailleur ?
what are the advantages and disadvantages of the short and long cage. is there any requirements of the bike to have either besides new cahin sizes?
It’s really astounding to me that these people pull answers out of nowhere when they have no clue what they’re talking about… The cage length of the derailleur has absolutely nothing to do with how many front chainrings you have and it isnt limited in cog size or anything else…
The cage length of a derailleur refers to it’s ability to pick up excess chain. Each different length carries a specifc rating, for example the current SRAM X-0 lineup goes 45T, 37T, 30T. To figure out which you need to run you need to do a bit of math…
(Big Ring-Small Ring) + (Big Cog-Small Cog) = Capacity Required.
So for example, let’s assume you run a 42/32/22 up front and an 11-32 cassette out back…
(42-22) + (32-11) = 41 Tooth capacity so you’d need a Long cage.
If you were running a 12-28 cassette, you’d be able to get by fine with a medium cage.
As for advantages and disadvantages, shorter cages are always better. Longer cages are only useful when necessary to control the chain. It’s absolutely never of any benefit to run a longer cage than is needed… although it would certainly be a detriment to run one which was too short. Running too short of a cage can cause the chain to drop when run at off angles like big ring/big cog combinations. Because of this, many manufacturers choose to err on the side of caution and just go with a long cage to prevent the risk of getting a negative rep for ‘bad shifting performance’ based on novice riders crossing up gears and dropping the chain. More of a marketing safety measure than anything else.
It’s really more about using the right equipment for the job than advantages vs. disadvantages… though, as I said, shorter is better. It’s lighter, offers better clearance, is NOTICEABLY MORE RESPONSIVE (sorry peter but you’re way off there) and offers all the chain security as a long cage when used correctly.
Modern, quality road rear mechs dont even use cage lengths anymore and typically all offer a 33T capacity…You have to step back down to a 9 speed drivetrain on the road to get back into worrying about cage lengths which then really on go either short or long cage and offer typically either a 29T for short or 37T capacity for long cage but the math is done the same way in any case.
Edit- Also, just fyi, the effect of cage length on chain size it pretty minimal in truth… that’s more of a misconception than anything else. When you install the chain, you wrap the chain around the largest chainring and largest sprocket, bypassing both derailleurs. Take that chain length and add 1 link for short cage, two links for medium, and three for long… so the difference between short and long is only two links.
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