Originally Posted by
Arrowana
The main thing to look for is the derailleur hanger, most likely it is built into the frame, but some cheap ones have a claw type hanger on the derailleur itself. If your frame has something like
this you have plenty of options. If the top of the derailleur looks like
this, you need a claw mount type derailleur. I'd probably go with Altus in the first case, and you are probably stuck with Tourney in the second case. Both will work fine, and the price between the two is generally small enough to go with the better one.
Altus RD is about double the cost of a Tourney part and Acera is a bit more than the Altus part, about 15%, on this page:
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...p?category=689
Shimano does make a RD adapter found here:
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...49&category=74