Yan 

I ride a bike with 48-38-24 chainrings. I've been using the Shimano Sora FD-3304 for years. To the best of my knowledge this is one of the few triple front derailleurs designed with a 10 tooth top-middle minimum. The typical 11t and 12t minimum derailleurs cause the outer cage to sit too high in relation to the large chainring when the inner cage is setup to clear the middle chainring.

My second Sora front derailleur failed this week. In both instances the nub which catches the spring broke off. The first time I was without front shifting for a week during a very hilly tour. This time I wasn't even touching the bike. I heard it snap while the bike sat in my living room. I can pick up another Sora FD-3304 for next to nothing, but I wonder if there is a higher quality front triple derailleur with a 10t top-middle minimum capacity out there? I use friction shifters for the front derailleur, so anything will work. I'd prefer a lower speed derailleur as it will allow me to trim less often.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Doug64

The Tiagra 4403 is another good front derailleur. Unfortunately, they are hard to find.

I ran into the same problem trying to replace my 3303 FD with a 4503.

fietsbob

Havent bought a new FD in a long time last one Deore something.. part number on it too small to read.

.. for 48-, use a 36, and 22 for the inner 2
modern terms a 48t chainring triple gets a Trekking crank type label.

Never had a FD fail in my life (rare cables issues maybe) maybe you are what is breaking them, by where and when you make the gear shift demand.


my touring bike got Discontinued 80's Campag MTB FD & RD..

Yan 

I can't use 36 or 22t chainrings. I use a road triple crank and the chainrings I have are the smallest I can fit.

Front derailleur failures are indeed rare. I'm not sure why I've had two fail in the past four years. As far as I know there is nothing unusual about my shifting habits. Given that the same model of derailleur failed at the same place, I assume it is a design weakness. None of my other front derailleurs on my other bikes have ever failed.

fietsbob

just stating facts you do what you want. .. Buy a 110-74 crank then if that is the limitation. it's just parts . then a 34, 24t is the new minimum.

I bought a Campag 135-74 race triple its a 50,40, 24 its fine too . use an even older FD on it . [ my Road bike]

different parts the main tour rig uses the same 50/40(or38) 24 a 110-74 XT M730 .. 80s. thats when I built up the bike.

Tourist in MSN

I was on an adventure cycling tour, total of 16 of us. One guy had a Trek 520 and his front Shimano derailleur had a spring break or maybe it was the spring stop that happened to you. I do not know which model it was, just that it was a Shimano. I did a temporary fix on it with a piece of bunge cord to pull the derailleur cage towards the seat tube. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of it so I can not recall exactly how I did the bunge thing. It was not a very fancy fix but it got him up some steep hills including Going To The Sun Road over the rest of the trip.

I honestly do not understand your capacity issues, but I have great luck with a vintage Suntour Le Tech front derailleur, am running 52/42/24 chainrings and my front can handle that. The derailleur was designed for a larger diameter seattube than I have, thus I have to shim it to fit right. The upshift from the 24 to 42 is not very smooth, but I can usually make that shift in less than 30 feet of distance. It is not a derailleur problem, the problem is the huge jump from a 24 to 42.

Look for an older Suntour from the 1980s.



On another one of my bikes I also use the same model Suntour. I like this model because it is high normal, push the shift lever forwards and it goes into high gear, not low. On this bike I usually also use a 52/42/24 but for my Pacific Coast trip I switched a 46 for the 52 to give me half step gearing. Thus, the photo is of a 46/42/24 set of chainrings. But this bike normally has a 52/42/24 on it and the derailleur works fine. Sorry the crankarm is in front of part of the derailleur, that is my best photo of it. I also had to shim this one for the same reason.



The derailleur on this bike has been on it for 10 years now. It is a little bent, a couple times I had chain suck and the chain jamed into the derailleur, so I am lucky it is still working.

Both bikes shown have a 135mm/74mm BCD crankset like fiestbob mentioned.

veganbikes

I upgraded to an old Dura-Ace 9speed Triple and it works just fine and dandy with a similar ratio. I haven't done any huge tours with it but it works quite nice for what I have done so far. I picked it up used for rather cheap on the ElectronicBay, I didn't mind the scratches because my bike is full of em.

Bezalel

the simple solution is to replace your crankset with a 4-arm 104/64 triple.

Medic Zero

That does seem odd. I shift constantly (hilly terrain and preference for resistance) and have yet to kill a front derailleur. I've replaced every other component on two bikes, but not a front derailleur. Wish I could help with your search, but I've got no useful information there, I'd say you are on the right track with looking to try a different model though.

bradtx

Yan, Because you use friction for the FD you don't have to limit your search to a FD from a road group. Just make sure the arc of the cage is not less than the arc of the largest chain ring and that the direction of cable pull matches the routing scheme on your bike.

Brad

robow

I swear I have no affiliation with IRD but I do like this front derailleur since it is designed for smaller chain rings. It has a nice finish and shifts my 46-36-24 cleanly. Not exactly cheap though.

Alpina-D Front Derailleurs

Yan 

Update: I found a 30 year old Campagnolo derailleur in the parts bin and installed it on the bike. The original bike was a 12 speed. The uncontoured plates mean I have to reverse the throw slightly upon completing a shift, but I'm willing to live with it. It looks very out of place next to the modern external bearing crankset.

Tourist in MSN

It only looks out of place if it does not work very well.