Originally Posted by
SteveJ
I'm glad i stumbled on this thread, you have me thinking now that i've wasted my money buying a new XT front mech. I am running Tiagra triple levers, new XT cranks (22/32/44) and it's working fine with my Tiagra front mech. I just upgraded front and rear mechs to XT and they should be here this week but now i'm concerned if i'm going to have issues with it.
not the end of the world i guess as i can always put my Tiagra back on but will report back here either way. Oh and yes i have a 68mm BB shell and added the spacers as per the instructions with my XT crankset.
Whether or not you need to add the spacers probably has to do with what your running for a rear wheel. IT's not just a 68 vs 73mm bb shell issue but I think it's really more of a 130 vs 135mm in the rear issues because don't forget you've got to have the chainline matched up front and rear. Don't hold me to this, there are others more experienced that can tell you for sure.
With all that said, I don't even know what the rear spacing is on my nashbar steel frame touring rig, the rear hub sort of looks like a deore hub without a disc mount on it, I better take some measurements to be sure.