Originally Posted by
pierce
for that matter, omg, you had better get a shorter arm derailleur, as you're wasting the range of the one you have, so it must be suboptimal!!!
this is some seriously funny ePenis!
It depends on the rider and the situation. Ideally, yes. Realistically - unless you have money to burn, i would not recommend such an expensive change on a mid level bike with a novice rider. an offroad racer or serious rider would swap derailleurs in a jiffy for the lesser chance of a thrown chain and faster shifting. Also, due to the low mileage of the OP, a new chain is not necessary.
if i were building a bike from scratch i would choose the proper cage length. if i were checking out a custom build, and the housing were too long, brake levers set up parallel to the ground and a long cage der on a double chainring setup with a 25 t rear cog with a too long chain i would assume the builder did not know what they were doing.
A chain length adjustment takes about five mins, is cheap, and is very easy to do. a new r der could cost the OP about 20% of his new bike cost. thats very bad advice. i only mentioned the different cages to illustrate that chain length does have an effect on shifting and that the top level componentry have this feature because it makes a difference. However, since a der is costly, the next best thing is to make sure you have the proper length chain. in this case, it means shortening the chain
i think the advice of checking the chain length was sound. it is NOT bad advice - especially if youre running a triple and use your entire gear range.
i dont care if you dont care that you run a chain thats too long, but to say that someone is giving bad advice by suggesting you run the proper length chain is flat out wrong. it may work for you but dont assume it will work for everybody. running the proper chain length works for everybody