Originally Posted by Crank57

I put Freddy Fenders on mine, they are plastic and I can't imagine why I would want to change to metal. Plastic bends and then springs back if it gets whacked. Also not nearly as noisy and heavy as metal. I used a seat post mounted rack that worked well, no interference with the fenders at all.
The "awful plastic disk" is worth its weight in gold if you ever have a derailler get out of adjustment; like after a crash. If the chain ever jumps off the granny gear toward the wheel it will wipe out the rear derailler, probably rip out about a half dozen spokes, probably ruin a chain, and could cause bodily harm if you can't get the bike stopped safely with the rear wheel locked up. I love my dork disk. Somebody else thinks it looks stupid, that's their problem.

As for the replacement derailler, go to Giant's website, look at their archives for the 2006 or 2007 Cypress models and review the components on their high end models, like the Cypress SX. That's a good indication of an easy upgrade that you know will work. In 2006 that model had a Shimano 105 RD.

Link to Giant's archive.
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/...llections_id=1