Old Frame Front Derailleur Spacing
 

Hello, everyone.


I've searched through these forums, and the internwebs at large and not found an answer to this question. I'm sure there's people hanging out around here that have run into this problem before.


Background:

I'm putting new Campy 12 speed chorus onto a 1997 Masi 3v frame. So, new components, oldish frame.

Everything is going great with one small exception. It looks like the front derailleur hanger (braze on) sits too high for proper front derailleur spacing. I suspect it has to do with that frame being made in an era of 53/42 chainrings, and I'm mounting 50/34 chainrings. At the lowest point I can get the derailleur cage down to about 3.5mm from the teeth. This is out of spec for that derailleur by at least 2mm. In fact it's almost exactly 2mm over the campy gauge tool thingy.

It doesn't sound like much, and normally I would just accept some rougher shifting in the front, and make sure the limit screws were spot on. However, all this stuff is a little higher end than I normally deal with, and I don't want to break anything. I'm not so worried about the quality of shifting.


So my question is, does anyone thing it'll damage anything in the driver train running it like this?

I haven't put the chain on yet, that's another adventure.

You can purchase a derailleur drop online that will bring the FD down a bunch- maybe more than 2mm, tho. Do some research, but Wickwerks, IRD and Velotech make them, prolly others as well.

You can also use a rat tail file to elongate the bottom of the mounting hole in the braze on tab. Check to see how much meat there is, but that's the usual method.

Wow thanks!!

I'd never heard of a derailleur dropper before. Sounds like just the thing I need.

Looks like this (as one example, from a quick web search) is what you're talking about?

https://wickwerks.com/products/fit-link-adapter/

Like Doc says ^^^^^

Sugino makes a nice one too.

https://www.suginoltd.co.jp/store/pr...?product_id=76

The only issue with these mounting point droppers is that they also position the der further rearward. When a smaller ring is used (then the der was intended for) the tail end of the cage becomes further from the ring's teeth tops along the cages small end. These adaptors increase this by the thickness of the adaptor. So while the gap between the teeth tops and the cage's front/large end can be correct the other end of the cage can have an even larger gap. Whether this is a factor with the OP's set up and will any shifting degradation result only a try and see will give the real answers. Andy