I had my road bike, purchased new 6 months ago, upside down cleaning it last night and noticed the Shimano 105 10-speed RD. Is there anything wrong with the jockey wheel cage? Is it bent, or is it supposed to be like that? If anyone has a recent 105 10sp RD could you take a look at yours and compare it to mine?

I have noticed a bit of hesitation shifting between some of the smaller cogs from time to time, but nothing major.

The mid section of the cage is not an issue. Where the two pulleys line up and the top ends of the cage are far more important. I usually sight down through the rear cogs and visually line up the pulleys in a few different cog combos. You want to check this alignment with the cage wound up and wound out.

In your photo you might notice that the upper pulley sits a bit further away from the outer cage plate, but the cage pivot "nut' sits pretty close to the pulley. Just like the lower part of the cage sits from the tension pulley. If the cage plate was the same distance from the pulleys then the cage pivot backing nut would touch the chain. Andy.

soo... you're saying it's fine? I just was wondering because my KHS with late-90's XT 8sp long-cage RD has a perfectly straight/flat cage plate. But then again that one is considerably thicker (and of course longer) than this one.

Looks strait and fine to me the Jockey wheels and the chain are dead strait. The fact that the cage and everything else is not strait appears to be by design to gain slightly better leverage and indexing.

Okay cool thanks, good to know.

Can you possibly take the same picture but without the chain present? I am just kind of still on the fence with this one. It almost looks like the top of the chain is hitting the outside cage but that may just be the angle of the picture.

!st , the base.. Have shop check the hanger alignment.. ask those present..

It's the angle of the pic. The chain isn't rubbing anything.

It is formed specifically like that. Note how the chain clears the end of the cage's pivot shaft. If that side of the cage were flat, the chain would hit it.

PatrickGSR94, Looks good to me. The outer cage is not straight by design.

Brad

Once again thanks all, for putting my mind at ease.

It's fine, the bend is designed in

OK, now that you are reassured, how about addressing the problem that brought you to wondering if there was something wrong with the derailleur. "I have noticed a bit of hesitation shifting between some of the smaller cogs from time to time." If the problem is shifting toward the smaller cogs the most likely cause is cable friction, which means you should check for lack of lubrication, kinked cable housing, etc. If it's when moving from the smallest to the next largest you may just need a slight increase in cable tension.

Yes it is usually when shifting to the next smaller cog - somewhere in the vicinity of 5 to 4, 4 to 3, or 3 to 2. I hit the small brifter lever, and I hear "click click click click click" for as much as 10-15 seconds, until the chain finally drops down to the smaller cog.

I've been meaning to let the LBS look at it, just haven't had time. The RD cable housing appears to be in good order. The bike is a 2011 model but I bought it new 6 months ago. You think the cable might just need to be lubricated?

So right after I posted last on Friday, I went on a ride and the chain dropped off the small ring one time when downshifting. I tried adjusting the low limit screw with the chain on the small ring and large sprocket according to the Shimano FD-5700 tech documents. But then Saturday during a 40 mile ride it dropped off the small ring once again. Right after the ride I went to the LBS and explained the problem, and also the issue of the RD hesitation when upshifting to smaller cogs. So the first thing he did was check the RD hanger alignment, and found it was out of alignment a bit. He got that lined up, and then went on to the FD - adjusted the lower limit screw and also lowered the FD clamp on the seat tube just a bit to get it closer to the big ring teeth.

Haven't really had a chance to ride the bike since then, so we'll see how it goes on the next ride.

Continue the line of the inner edge of the cage from the bottom up. It's flush with the end of the pivot pin the cage is hanging off. I'd bet anything you like it also lines up with the plane of the upper jockey wheel mount.

Also, look at the sharp S-bend above the pivot pin. You think that got there by accident?