Mountain Biking - rear derailleur suggestions?

I need a new rear derailleur after a trip to whistler... good times... anyways I have a deore xt now and liked it before it broke. What is comparable or better and what about long and short cages, what's the deal with that? thanks

also whats the deal with rapid rise?

Rapid Rise/ Low Normal is worth a try. I have bikes with and without it and prefer the RR.

Get the new XT Shadow rear Derailleur. It's similar to the SRAM with the straight cable routing and it's supposed to be a little more "low profile" to give you a bit more bash clearance. If you're running a bash ring in front instead of a 3rd chainring, buy a mid-cage.

Crap on you! I want a Shadow (I think it's an RD m772)

If you're going through a lot of these maybe practice a little avoidance of things that would smash the dérailleur? Got to believe it's worth not walking it for miles. Rapid Rise is awesome. I've never had even a missed shift from mine in over 200 miles. It downshift effortlessly even in panic situations. I don't know anyone who hates that. It may take a few days to get used to the reversed levers but it is certainly worth it.

Scrap that Rapid Rise crap and get some X0 shifters and derailleur. That stuff shifts so quickly and smoothly it's like it shifts at the speed of thought. Even the X9 stuff is good and can be found on EBay for nada. As Hal says, you might try avoiding rocks and logs on your right side but there's nothing wrong with using a short or medium cage derailleur to give you a lower profile on that side. You'll need to check your chain length but that's a snap to do.

Yeah because X-0 is the BEST idea for those snapping derailleurs regularly.

Im jumping on the LX/XT Shadow bandwagon.
Im getting one in a week or so.

+1 $200 of parallelogram with a "kick me" sign on it.

LOL mcoomer

Im jumping on the LX/XT Shadow bandwagon.
Im getting one in a week or so.

You suck too. (envy)

Haha, only because i rroted my current one chronic.

I'll be up for new rims soon
Which is both good and bad.

But bring on the Shadow!!!

Get the new XT Shadow rear Derailleur. It's similar to the SRAM with the straight cable routing and it's supposed to be a little more "low profile" to give you a bit more bash clearance. If you're running a bash ring in front instead of a 3rd chainring, buy a mid-cage.

Crap on you! I want a Shadow (I think it's an RD m772)

+1 except that you should be able to use a mid cage for a little more clearance. I have a mid cage on my 11-34 cassette, no problems shifting.

The Shadow is well worth it. It's low profile design and inward pointing cable end really make for a rear dérailleur this is less likely to snag on underbrush, etc. Here are a few pictures of mine:

Shimano Deore Xt Shadow RD-M772-GS

Side View:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6400536-lg.jpg


Top View:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6422709-lg.jpg

Less likely to snag when compared to what?

Compared to other current Shimano models (i.e. Deore LX RD-M580-GS, Shimano RD-M340-S) and many previous Shimano XT, LX and Suntour dérailleurs I have owned since 1988. It seems the Shadow dérailleur protrudes significantly less when in the lower gears (11t, 12t, etc.). With the cable routed to the rear of the dérailleur the cable is less likely to catch on something as it is shielded by the dérailleur body. YMMV

Have you ever snagged that cable loop on something while riding? I've ridden lots of miles in tight overgrown terrain and I've never experienced that or seen it happen.But it's a phenomenon I read about in the magazines all the time so it must happen to nearly everyone quite frequently. You just aren't admitting it.

I need a new rear derailleur after a trip to whistler... good times... anyways I have a deore xt now and liked it before it broke. What is comparable or better and what about long and short cages, what's the deal with that? thanks

XT will work wonderfully here, so will x.07 (whastever it is)...in both cases get a short deraileur as you WILL destroy your deraileur at least once if you are ripping on anything besides a-line or dm. I personally would not look at anything to high end.

Lots of riders here even use shimano 105 (short and stiff) and there is even some that go chainless.

Have you ever snagged that cable loop on something while riding? I've ridden lots of miles in tight overgrown terrain and I've never experienced that or seen it happen.

Never snagged, I did go through a rock garden where the rocks started bouncing and beat the crap out of my deraileur and hanger.

...and there is even some that go chainless.I did that twice on B-line one day but it was not intentional :o

also whats the deal with rapid rise?

whats the deal with airplane food???

I have never had a DR snag and 95% of the DR damage I have experienced has come from crashing my bike in which case it wouldn't matter what was there.

EDIT: The Shadow DR looks nice. So I guess that has to count for something.

Have you ever snagged that cable loop on something while riding? I've ridden lots of miles in tight overgrown terrain and I've never experienced that or seen it happen.

I have once back in 1991, I was way off trail and ended up riding through some bushes about 3 feet tall. One branch got caught in the dérailleur cable and was sucked into the rear spokes. I broke two spokes on that bush. I don't see this occurring often, but more if you are replacing or upgrading your rear dérailleur, I would recommend the Shadow. Since the OP was looking for a replacement and is a DH rider, the Shadow seems like the next logical step. The OP had referred to using XT dérailleurs in the past, the Shadow is another form of the XT dérailleur.

The Shadow is well worth it. It's low profile design and inward pointing cable end really make for a rear dérailleur this is less likely to snag on underbrush, etc.

Don't ever post a pic that big again...spank, spank...it makes the text go off the page...smack, smack!!

Yeah, that is so rude.

It looks like you have a crack in your hanger bolt. Probably from the cable snagging something on the trail all the time. See:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/mcoine/xo.jpg

I take back all the nice things I've said about you.