Originally Posted by Tequila Joe
cincinnatibuck, I've never seen a SRAM deraileur break that way. I think Jim311 mentioned a break of a similar situation in a previous thread. In my previous experience my SRAM RD's always snap at the pivot elbow. I can't really tell what happend from the pictures but it looks like something got caught in your spokes, wrapped around , dented your seatstay and it took the RD along for the ride. The path of travel was lateral (front to back) so the deraileur hanger didn't break. I'm not sure if any deraileur would survive something like this unless it was able sidestep/deflect the load or debries. I don;t know that a Shimano could've done that in this situation. This situation say's alot for internal hub gearing like Rohloff Speedhub.
That guy's breakage didn't have anything to do with whether it was Shimano or SRAM. Neither derailler is designed to rotate 360 degrees around the hanger.
I agree with Hopper on the restricted movement of SRAM. The video shows exactly what I meant when I posted the below statements in a previous thread...
I think the fact that it's so much more rigid and doesn't bounce around while riding is why it shifts more crisply and cleaner. The range of motion is pretty minimal with the Shimano anyway.. not enough to absorb any major impact.
"I've broken 2 SRAM 9.0 and a 7.0 derailers in the past and it has always happened around the knuckle/pivot. I figure that the plastic/composite cracked at this point because when a SRAM derailer moves back and forth, it doesn't move freely like a Shimano. When a Shimano takes an impact, even a small one at that, it is free to swing back and forth to sidestep/dissapate the energy. SRAM derailers do not do this as easily as it remains much more rigid and it ends up absorbing much more of the impact. To further compound to the situation, the smaller pivot pin creates more of point load on the deraileur knuckle. So if the pin doesn't snap, the deraileur body will crack. Also, SRAM derailers slam to a stop when it gets parallel with the ground. Test this by grabbing your deraileur, rock it backwards and let it go. This deraileur is taking forces like this constantly as you ride. These are the weak points in its design. I have a few riding buddies that are breaking thier X0 stuff in exactly the same place as my old 9.0 and 7.0 because the design in this aspect is still the same."
OK. now, before the SRAM militants charge in to defend thier beloved SRAM... ahem your preceptions may differ and that is cool because everyone is entitled to an opinion.
As I've said before, "Some folks get so defensive when someone says anything but praise for the equipment they own/use. Lets get this striaght, I'm not "dissing" SRAM. I think that they make some nice stuff. This old Cat is just sharing his past experiences with SRAM."
Which SRAM stuff have you run? Is it the same stuff they're producing today, or old crappy stuff from yesteryear? Just because people have different opinions doesn't mean they're defensive.