Originally Posted by
Ironfish653
The 3020 is the "nicest" of the bunch, the 360 is the same thing, just the last generation model. The Altus is a little nicer than the Tourney, but not much.
Don't expect a huge change in performance though; the RD is only part of the equation: the shifters and chain/cassette also contribute.
I have a couple of 6- and 7-speed bikes and I find that a nice 8-speed chain with flared, shaped plates, like the KMC X.8 really improves the "shift quality" over the flat-sided chain that comes on a lot of 6- and 7-x bikes
Gonna have to disagree. The Altus is orders of magnitude better than the Tourney and, from some on-line research, cheaper by a few dollars. The Altus has a cast B knuckle while the one on the Tourney is a flat stamped piece of steel. The Tourney is prone to being easily bent and difficult to realign. The body of the Tourney can best be described as “sloppy”. The pins are loose and in a lot of cases too loose to be used with index shifting because they don’t hold in place. The Altus doesn’t suffer from any of those problems.
Originally Posted by
mp1156
I'm struggling to choose a Shimano Derailleur to upgrade my current setup. I currently have a 6x3 18 speed, 14-28T setup with a Shimano Tourney TY-21 Derailleur and SHIMANO TOURNEY ST-EF41 TY EZ FIRE Plus Shift/Brake lever combined shifters (I upgraded this from the Revoshift).
If it helps I have 3 chainrings on the front- 24-42T
I realised to get a better derailleur from a higher group, they come at 7,8 or 9 speeds. From what I've heard (correct me if I'm wrong), all Shimano 7,8,9 Speed RD's are compatible with each other and all shifters in the MTB group.
Here are my 3 options that I've decided:
Shimano Altus RD-M310
Shimano Acera RD-M360
Shimano Acera RD-M3020
Please let me know what would be the best derailleur out of the 3 and that would work with my setup.
While you will see a vast improvement going from the Tourney to any of these, you aren’t going to see much difference between the three choices. I’d probably go for one of the Acera since it has a bit greater capacity and can handle a 40 tooth low gear. It’s also got a bit less plastic in the body which makes for better durability.
Alternatively, if you have a co-op near by, you could probably pick up an old 9 speed XT or XTR for about the same price.