Pinkbike Poll: How Many Derailleurs Have You Actually Destroyed While Riding?
Gearboxes for mountain bikes are like Marmite: people either love them, or they hate them. Or, to be more true to reality, people either love the idea, or they hate the idea of them. After all, the amount of abuse that the traditional derailleur-operated drivetrain gets relative to the number of people actually buying bikes with an alternative drivetrain feels somewhat disproportional.
After all, it's incredibly easy to both literally and figuratively bash the derailleur. Yes, it does hang out at a point in space where it's liable to picking up sticks and chunks of heather. It is objectively at risk of, at the very least, getting scratched up or bent out shape. On tight, rock-strewn trails, full derailleur detonation feels like it's lurking around every blind corner.
The Starling Spur runs a gearbox from Effigear
Lal Bikes Supre Drive is one of the more interesting alternative drivetrains out there. This one is only intended for high-pivot bikes, and only the Nicolai Nucleon 16, for now.
But we like to catastrophize, don't we? Especially when the cost of replacing certain electronic derailleurs is now in the region of $800 USD.
Though I've been around friends of mine who suffered the misfortune, I've never actually blown up a derailleur myself. Sure, I've bent a hanger or two over the years, but i've never ripped a cage in two, or hit my derailleur so hard that it ceases to be functional. Am I simply not gnarly enough? Or do we generally not break derailleurs as regularly as the internet makes out?
I'm interested to know whether i'm in the minority here.
A sad end for this Shimano derailleur
It's also occurred to me that the risk of hitting one's derailleur may be associated with stance preference - i.e. whether you ride with your left foot forward, or your right foot forward. I fall into the former category, so my right leg is the trailing leg, occupying the space just fore of the derailleur while i'm descending. I have always wondered whether that alone gives me an improved awareness of that side, thus making me less likely to scrape the derailleur off a rock while making tight right-hand turns.
Let us know how many derailleurs you've killed over the years (answer the poll that best describes your preferred riding stance). I'm not talking death by wear and tear, or death by clutch seizure - i'm talking about those "I was just riding along" incidents.
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Do I have a slightly bent derailleur or is my hanger slightly bent?
Maybe both?
Or did my chain get slightly bent?
Maybe a chain link got damaged?
Or could it be because my derailleur or cassette is slightly loose from all that rattling?
Do I just need a new cable?
Maybe new housing too?
Is my b screw adjustment right? Could the clutch in my derailleur be dry?
Surely my limit screws aren't out of adjustment?
Maybe my derailleur pivots are worn out? Or a worn chain?
Or maybe a pulley is slightly damaged?
Screw all that BS and the rear derailleur is also the fugliest part on any bike.
I've definitely spent more time than a replacement der would have cost, but if its my own rig, no ones paying me to work on that.
This is going back to fragile 8, 9spd stuff as well, unless it was a dangler of a derailleur, I could get it back to alignment.
If you ever have the issue again, send me the der, I'll see what I can do for ya
Youd like to replace that with a heavy, draggy, bloated mechanical contraption, thats likely non-servicable, or replaceable at home, and wildly more complicated and expensive?
As a society, we used to take pride in ownership, maintain, troubleshoot, invent, fabricate, and help others do so as well.
Now people feel its unacceptable to have to lift a wrench in order to keep things going. This is partially why manufacturers create and engineer things that cant be "fixed", so that consumers have a more pleasant experience.
Owners manual for my first truck detailed how to adjust valves, new ones tell people not drink blinker fluid,
We have strayed too far...
Yes, I would like to replace this horribly placed, highly exposed, outdated, ugly, unreliable, high maintenance contraption of exposed springs, levers, pivots and misguided technology with something more reliable and better looking, even if it is slightly heavier and less efficient. It would also be great to have a drivetrain more centered on the bike, without an ugly contraption hanging and rattling around off the back.
As mountain bikers we have a tendency to stick with stupid road bike ideas for too long. Look how long we rode with 71°head angles, tubed tires, and narrow bars.
Derailleurs are just a fundamentally stupid idea for mountain bikes and it compromises too much time and energy to maintain them when the rest of the bike is already complicated enough. Did I also mention they are f'ing ugly?
(And I subsequently replaced them with Shimano XT which seems to not suffer this issue to nearly the same degree)
I haven’t ridden the newest iteration of GX, or Transmssion which ‘fixes’ this issue by removing the hanger. If you’re cool with electronics and batteries and much higher cost.
9spd shimano was essentially cheese grade aluminium, I have a whole bin of LX ans XT 9spd ders that I scavenge parts off to keep old things, and kids things working.
I have replaced exactly 1 12spd rear der in the last 4 years, and it was 100% rider error.
The beauty part is you can buy a gearbox bike, I can only assume that you do currently ride, and have for years now....
We both want, and are terrified of change, and in our frustrations we can sometime blow things out of proportion in our mind.
I have been riding, racing, wrenching on mountain bikes for about 25 years at this point, I'm pretty handy, and time spent in the shop is therapeutic for me. When you understand and work with mechanical things on a regular basis theres a possibility your are a little more "in tune" (get it) with the mechanical contrivances around you. I know pretty quickly when my things feel "off" which is rarely due to wear, and more typically due to poor situational awareness.
Now I spend a tonne of time on my bike, and lay it down on the expensive side all the time. I have little mechanical sympathy, and have very high expectations of my bikes. Derailleurs simply are not an issue for me, and the added weight, bulk, complexity, and lack of serviceability of gearboxes are a no beuno for me, but if thats your thing, let your freak flag fly my man.
I love being able to see the mechanical, oily bits of my bike, truck, mechanical systems in general. They are a sort of kinetic art to me, and I appreciate the different interpretations that are developed (have you seen an Ingrid rear der, or an old Campy record, absolutely stunning)
We all have our preferences, I hope that one day you get your wish fulfilled, but maybe this is your opportunity to help in its advancement. However Im cool with what is available now, and look forward to the next iteration of rear mechs, and chains, and exposed oily bits!
For $30.00, they may have a solution to the problem, it’s a great product and they are coming out with another option SOON!
I get it, they have a bottom line, but by god I wish I could just see results.
What exactly is the industry going to do with this information lol? Take over the world?
And thank you, that button did not exist until recently.
If you need to chat, or someone to loosen that tin foil hat, just let someone know.
Youre loved, youre not alone, someone cares about you...
Source; I'm in the industry, this information is wanted.
Why you two think this is a tinfoil level world takeover is lost on me. Yes, Sram may want to know how many derailleurs average riders are going through to level if other technologies may be desired. Yes, this data changes over time.
It's a disgrace that you only allow 2 foot types
Woah, my mind is blown.
Other well known examples of things being what they are include that: dollars are money, apples are fruit, and water is H2O.
Online polls like are a highly atypical, self selected subgroup of consumers who's answers would be utterly useless for market research.
Let the people "in the industry" tell us how exactly PB's clearly scientific, well thoughtout, and unbiased poll drives the mountain biking trends and models of the coming years!
Nonsense
Lies
and
half truths are the glue that binds us!
A little levity, and actual intelligence is always appreciated by the larger PB community I think. It can get drowned out by silly opinions, and non-sense as those are generally the louder voices in the room.
Good on ya sir!
XT 11 speed and a gucci Wolf Tooth 28t front chainring is looking real purty lately though..
…and I’ll bet he’d prefer a more durable option if one were available.
Add to that suspension layouts that are optimized around 32T rings and it starts to feel like we* have been painted somewhat into a corner
We* = folks who live near climbs that are very steep, long, and often both
If that’s half of 29” - 27.5”, then that’s definitely an over estimate as the 27.5 has not basis in the actual dimensions of the tire’s outer diameter (27.5 is much closer to 26 than 29)
You were completely correct.
Sram has always been shit, making an 10-36 and adding a 42. The jump between gears is terrible to the point that I'm wondering if they just randomly picked the cogs size.
E13 has a 9-46 but it's also not good. Gear changing is precise but noisy and not efficient. Also the jump between gears is massive and who needs a 9t cog - probably just to brag about the range percentage.
Shimano has an amazing XTR but it's 11-40, meaning that on a 29'' with a 32 you'll suffer in a lot of climbs, and you'll be spinning like crazy with that 11t cog.
Tried also Garbaruk which is also crap spacing and the shifting is crap.
So yes, the worst part about 11sp is finding a well executed lightweight cassette, I would have never changed to 12sp if that was the case.
On the other side Shimano's 12sp 10-45 resolves all the issues mentioned above and the jump between cogs is just perfect and allows you to always find the right cadence which is impossible with any MTB Sram cassette.
Speaking of Zee, on some suspension designs you can get a Zee Fr derailleur to work with a 11-42 cassette, which should be fine for most on 27.5 rear wheels.
Better weight distribution. Lower unsprung mass for the win.
Resistance to mud/rain. In the winter you've got maybe half an hour before your chain is making horrible noises and after a couple of hours the shifts will be crap too, just due to the mud in the way.
Resistance to snow/ice. When it's cold and there is snow on the ground jockey wheels clog up with ice and you have to stop and clear it.
Ease of maintenance. Having to carefully wash, dry and then re-lube after every winter and many Autumn and Spring rides is a pain.
Cost of maintenance. £400+ for a cassette, chain and sprocket then fill them with grinding paste? Yeah that's a really great system.
Unless you are racing XC at a high level, you will not be able to discern a difference.
@G-Sport: It really is! The waxes do smell better but it's still the point of the constant maintenance. Last time I checked, there's no part of my car that I have to lubricate everytime before I drive it anywhere.
I try to get clients to practice both, it makes for some really interesting downhill switchback moments!
Though I've put a lot of effort into breaking them, but I tend to try to not ram my bike into rocks or friends.
Honorable mention goes to the Sram XO shortcage (9 speed?) on an old DH bike. That thing was clapped; the clips on the parallelogram were shaved off from Bromont's rox. Teeth might have been missing from one of the pulleys. But that thing kept going like it was new.
A stick fileted the cage open like a fish on a Deore 12 speed derailleur last summer, midway down Martha Creek in BC. I thought it was cooked, but its still on the bike and being used....
Dishonorable mention goes to a GX Eagle derailleur. Second ride on it and a stick went in the cage. I saw the stick and immediately stopped, didn't pedal through it even a quarter turn. But the thing was bent and had to be used for parts. You could not tell visually that it was bent though. Garbage.
The tech is reliable enough considering the torture that brilliant little (rear derailleur) gadget is exposed to.
I suppose I would consider gearbox bike if I destroyed 18-20 derailleurs in the last 10yrs.
2: NX Eagle, first gen. Last stage of an enduro race, it tossed the top cogwheel, and buried itself in the spokes.
That's it, averaging 7-8 hours per week all year for the last 12 years or so. Esp GX 1x11 could usually be repaired with a big hammer.
Before that: Too many to count.
In my experience, the destroyed derailleur issues ended when 11sp XX1 came out. I have absolutely no problem with using derailleurs, provided they are from the upper-tier. I once got a "self-tweaking" NX derailleur on a rental bike: I always ended up with a crooked derailleur after a few runs, without direct impacts on it...just from riding the brake bumps in Saalbach!
And I've never broken a derailleur from striking an object.
I've had a couple hangers bend slightly (that's their job) and had a few overshifts into the spokes - but then I put my brake on to not tear the mech off.
I think if you're going through derailleurs, you're a munter and/or ignore all the warning signs that things aren't alligned.
It was 10 miles out.
Had to bail to the river/highway, literally attacked by angry homeowner dogs, (on public right o way) and hitchhike home.
One big drawback to full suspension. Break the chain, pull derailleur, rebuild single speed to get out... but suspension needs changing chain size.
Chucked the chain and foot paddled the mostly downhill after 2 attempts.
Havent read all the comments as I’m on my phone so might have been answered already.
I run XTR, average cost 280 bucks. I build a new rig every 4-5 years which means I would have to buy a new mech once a year to average that cost of SC. No way Jose! thank you but no thank you. I do however love their suspension products but a $1500 tranny doesn’t make sense to me.
Oh and I’ve NEVER catastrophically broken a derailleur, if you busting a derailleur that often your riding style sucks!
That leads to another problem: SLXs ad Deores are more prone to bend as the B knuclkle and the parallelogram arms are softer. Once they're out of allignment, the top pulley will be slightly out of plane relative to the cogs, and due to the big offset of that pulley with the cage pivot, the pulley will not travel the distance it is suppossed to travel for each shift. Result: indexing becomes unreliable.
Another typical problem with Shimano SLXs and Derores is they get play at the inner link top pivot (the one on the b-knuckle), rattling around and again contributing to luosy indexing. XTs and XTRs are less prone to this, although they will eventually develop some play if they don't snap before.
Shimano 12s works really smooth when the transmission (no pun) is fresh and clean. After that though....
What a disastrous poor setup of a survey. Most people miss the second question, hence there are more results for the first. Even though a lot more people lead with their left foot. (See also analogy in snowboarding.) A really good survey would first ask which foot you lead with and then show the other answers…all in one window!
Xt 10 speed, sucked into spokes and destroyed
Xt 11 speed, sucked into spokes and destroyed
Gx 11 speed, tweaked, will never shift right again
Gx 12 speed, tweaked
Gx 12 speed, destroyed
Gx 12 speed, lower pulley fell off and destroyed (bolt backed out, maybe user error)
X01 12 speed, tweaked
Xt 12 speed, tweaked
Slx 12 speed, tweaked
Slx 12 speed, tweaked
Sx 12 speed, literally fell apart on the third ride
Nx 12 speed, destroyed
Slx 12 speed, tweaked
I still have all of them!
Left foot forward: 54.3%
Right foot forward: 45.7%
I would have guessed left foot forward would have been higher. Are right-handers slightly more often left-foot forward and v.v.?
Left vs Right stats. Note that I did not include the just results responses in the calculations:
Just results: 19.8% vs 43.5%
Never: 39.9% vs 44.5%
1: 22.7% vs 20.6%
2: 15.0% vs 13.0%
3-5: 15.2% vs 14.2%
6-8: 3.9% vs 4.2%
9-11: 1.5% vs 1.6%
12-14: 0.7% vs 0.6%
15-17: 0.3% vs 0.4%
18-20: 0.8% vs 1.0%
Initially, it doesn't appear that footedness has a significant impact on mech. destroying. The graph is easier to interpret but no way to paste.
Left foot forward: 54.3%
Right foot forward: 45.7%
I would have guessed left foot forward would have been higher. Are right-handers slightly more often left-foot forward and v.v.?
Left vs Right stats. Note that I did not include the just results responses in the calculations:
Just results: 19.8% vs 43.5%
Never: 39.9% vs 44.5%
1: 22.7% vs 20.6%
2: 15.0% vs 13.0%
3-5: 15.2% vs 14.2%
6-8: 3.9% vs 4.2%
9-11: 1.5% vs 1.6%
12-14: 0.7% vs 0.6%
15-17: 0.3% vs 0.4%
18-20: 0.8% vs 1.0%
Initially, it doesn't appear that footedness has a significant impact on mech. destroying. The graph is easier to interpret but no way to paste.
Only broken one in 12 years of riding and that was when a stick got caught into between the seatstays and chainstays, snapping back and breaking the derailleur
Confused, I skate and snowboard right foot forward (goofy), ride mtb right foot forward but that’s not necessarily goofy?
Don't use the overall numbers. They would be misleading. As of today, for the left-footed, there were ~ 20K responses but 4K just wanted to see the results. So only 16K valid responses.
For the right-footed, there were ~ 17K responses but 7K only wanted to see the results. So only 10K valid responses.
Then calculate the % of responses per category using only the 16K and 10K responses.
I didn't calculate today's %s but not much difference yesterday. A few % points for left-footed in the never, 1 and 2 derailleurs. Very little difference as the number of derailleurs increased beyond 3-5.
Left-foot forward riders generally turn better to the left and aren't as good turning right. Unless they either work on back-foot turns going right (Simon Lawton at FluidRide on youtube does a great job explaining this). Or they work on switching feet. i.e. left-foot forward for left turns and right foot forward for right turns.
Conversely, right foot forward riders generally turn better going right but are less proficient going left.
So it's possible that left-foot forward riders may crash a little more going right vs right-foot forward riders going right. And the derailleur is on the right.
As for the "gearbox" debate, never going to happen. Everyone wants it but they have no idea. A standard transmission in a car loses 15-18% of the power put into in. A bike "gearbox" would be the same. No ones willing to give that up compared to a chain the sprockets that loses 1%. Gearboxes are not coming so learn to pick better lines. Well, maybe on ebikes that have a motor to compensate for that 15%?
Available at AMAZON and www.geohandguards.com
youtu.be/MoL9cuQ1Sps?si=fFOoFRS7rG_e7h83
Left. Right
Never 39.9% 44.5%
1 22.7% 20.6%
2 15.0% 13.0%
3-5 15.2% 14.2%
6-8 3.9% 4.1%
9-11 1.5% 1.6%
12-14 0.7% 0.6%
15-17 0.3% 0.4%
18-20 0.8% 1.0%
In the never, 1, and 2 categories maybe a bit of an increase in left-footed. Once it gets above 6 mangled mechs, doesn't seem to be much difference.
But seeing as how ~ 75% of people only destroy 2 derailleurs in 10 years, the rationale for a non-derailleur drivetrain may be less compelling. For the other 25%, maybe so.
Having said that, I would absolutely consider a Pinion or Rohloff gear-box with a Gates belt drive in a long-distance bikepacking rig + mechanical disc brakes.
For an enduro full-squish, doubtful.
How do you store your bike?
How do you transport it?
I've seen so many people load theyre bike into the back of a car, or truck, smashing around on the rear der, only to tell me that their bike shifts like shut....shocking
I have destroyed a mech before, just not in the past 10 years... yeah some people are older =D
For $30.00, they may have a solution to the problem, it’s a great product and they are coming out with another option SOON!
Derailleurs: No
Now when I ride later today mine will explode.
I did as soon as I hit the submit button..lol.. I know tomorrow morning I will be 12 miles in and suck a stick up in a full sprint.
How many have destroyed a Pinion gear box?
Since then all good.
So 10 rear mechs in 10 years.