Dan The Man

Yesterday my front derailleur (Sora) went limp. I took it apart today, and have found that the problem is that there is no springiness in it anymore. The small tab which pushes against the torsion spring cracked and snapped off. This is off a 2007 bicycle, so it's not brand new, but it is not vintage either. If this were the result of use and abuse I would just shell out for a derailleur. But it seems to me that such a small simple important piece should not be cracking and breaking. It is not a part I would expect to break. Any chance I can get a new one?

BikeWise1

One year on Sora. There's a reason it's cheap!

gitarzan

Cheap replacement:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...illeur&spell=1

Dan The Man

Is it interchangeable with any other derailleurs or will I need the exact same one?

Dan The Man

I would have thought it was cheap because it's heavy, and heavy things should snap under the force of a spring that they are designed to hold.

BikeWise1

^^^Nope. Just cheap. I ain't all that heavy.

Anything can break. The warranty is a security blanket with an expiration date. Yours is expired. It would cost you more in terms of time chasing a warranty claim on a sub $20 part. By a new one and be done.

HillRider

I assume you meant to write "....heavy things should not snap...."

True they shouldn't and usually don't and the OP's failure is quite rare. He could call Shimano directly and see if they will extend the warranty but it not guaranteed they will. Can't hurt to call but don't be too surprised if they deny the claim

BFW

I might be splitting hairs with you, but I don't think I'd call it "rare". I think I've seen 4 Sora FD's come through the shop like that in the last few months. Granted, for the sheer number of derailleurs made and sold, 1 a month or so isn't common, but I've seen it enough to recognize it almost instantly.

dperreno

It's pretty much interchangeable. Just buy a new one. If you are concerned about durability, then step up a notch or two (Tiagra, 105) If you shop around you can probably find a pretty good price. I use qbike.com and spadout.com search engines, there are probably others.

HillRider

That's a lot for one shop to see so maybe there is a systematic problem with these derailleurs.

As an aside, my son had an Trek 1200 with Shimano's RSX triple group (the predecessor to Sora) and, strangely, despite RSX everything else, it came with an RX- 100 (predecessor to Tiagra) front deraliieur. Hmmmm.