Bicycle Mechanics - Dérailleur Jockey Wheels

What kind of problems can worn out Jockey wheels cause in a gear train? I have never replaced the ones on my Shimano 600 and as I have learned more and more about maintaining a clean drive chain I have been getting a little more worried about how bad these look.

Jockey wheels mostly cause noise. If the bearing is so bad the wheel slides sideways back and forth alot then shifting will be less precise. Jockey wheels fail gracefully and over very long periods. Worst case is disintegration or loss or breakage of the retention screws. I am sure someone has had this but never seen it mentioned. Steve

I rode on some XT pulleys with both ceramic bushings cracked, and I had almost no problems - I just realized they were busted up while cleaning them. I also had a pair of Campy's that got gouged up on the outside somehow, and they gave me poor shifting problems.

One bit of advice - don't bother replacing them with the fancy aluminum alloy ball-bearing type. They are considerably more noisey, I think. Stick with cheapo plastic ones. If you can find plastic ones with sealed cartridge bearings, I suppose that would be ideal.

Dave

I made the stupid error of ordering Performance sealed bearing jockeys 3-4yrs
ago and bearings were mainland Chinese, absolutely terrible bearings, much worse than the OEM sleeve bearings. Felt like they were lubed with sandy grease. The OEM sleeves last a LONG time. Steve