From the period of, say, 1985 to 1990, capable of handling a 32T cog, friction. Shaken, not stirred. Just musing (and looking for info).
Thanks.

Deerhead.

I tried to like the M700 that I had on my Shogun 1500. It shifted badly for me, though. I think part of the problem was that it had no "B" screw. Other faults could have been the 'orrible Z401 shifters and my moderate tweaking skills. I sold it easily because of the fame of the Deer Head.

Why not go back 10 more years and look at the Crane GS?



I'm also wonder about your looking for a "friction" derailleur since all derailleurs will work as a friction derailleur.

Deerhead or Z series SGS cage DR's... not the Light Action ones.

Bwahahahah. Sometimes you really don't need a big, long mondo-cage derailleur to run a big cog. (But the little cog, on the other hand...)

But in my (admittedly limited) experience, any long-cage derailleur should be more than enough for a 32T cog.

I know the GS, was never impressed with that sort of action. But it's a possibility. I'd be putting it on an '87 bike.

The reason I mentioned friction was so that suggestions wouldn't be limited to indexed-only.

The real point of my question was to learn about models. names, shifting quality, etc. "Any long cage" could apply to half the Shimano RD on ebay. I have no idea which ones shift well, which would be period-appropriate, which would be road-bike vs. mtb. That's a time period where I was not following bike hardware. So except for appearance they are just so much "stuff" AFAIK.

The original Deore line was intended as a touring group. As mountain bikes became more popular, the touring apect of Deore was kind of lost. I love the look of the M732/M735/MT60 derailleurs. I'm not the most discerning 'period correct' type- but IMO- the look is pretty much the same from 1986-1993. My 1987 Schwinn High Sierra came with the MT60 and the 1987 Voyageur would have had that as OE as well. Again, in my opinion- a rear derailleur from that lineage looks just as comfortable on a tour-ish bike as on a mountain bike.

I'm probably one of the last people you'd want to ask about shift quality- but it seems that that first generation of SIS was hugely successful and saw minimal changes over the course of 6-7 years.

Regarding the Deore XT stuff of that period- the descriptor you'll hear most often used is "bombproof."

Come on, Jim, man up and go with Campy NR:

Any of the Shimano's indexed, long cage derailleirs are good, in that they incorporate a slant parallelogram and top pivot spring. They unifofmly perform well and the difference is primarily finish andd weight. The only ones I'd avoid are the Light Action series, as the notch on the rear parallelogram arm is an Achilles heel.

I already have one with Henry III's long cage on the Masi. It isn't what I'd call the most precise shifting derailleur I've ever used.

If I'm going to go that far I do have a perfectly good Suntour, either Vx or VGT-Luxe, but I was thinking to keep the bike all Shimano. But what the heck, an odd liver or heart in a Frankenbuild won't make much difference, now will it?

Well, in that case, as T-Mar said, you can't go wrong with the various Shimano XT variants from the mid to late 80s:

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.as...=108&AbsPos=37

Deore: https://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...=108&AbsPos=24
Deore II
Deore XT: https://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...=108&AbsPos=29
Deore XT II

What more do you need?

Apparently nothing. Except a derailleur (when I get around to that part). Thanks.

not to hijack the thread, but what's the word on Shimano STX-RC? I'm thinking of replacing the crappy SIS derailler on my rando build to enable a more radical gearing.

Get a GS200 and call it a day. Cheap, easy, hard to kill.

AL-11. Almost identical to the M700 deerhead, but without the deer's head, and (I think) the cage is steel rather than alloy. Shifts very, very smoothly. Less iconic than the deerhead and therefore less pricey, too. A great value RD, IMHO.

As long as it hasn't seen too many miles, it should be OK. STX is pretty old. Since Shimano is cross-compatible (with a couple exceptions), you could install any new long-cage Shimano derailleur and call it good.

What bike is this going on?

Since I'm home from work and have access to pix now- here's my Trek 620 when I had the M735 Deore XT on it:






And the MT-60 Deore on my High Sierra:

Well, I'm thinking about this one:

This frame is so scratched that appearance isn't high on the priority list, but I thought I'd keep it close to the original 105 or similar group. err, excuse me, gruppo.

Just don't say "goop".

For a road-oriented group with a 32-tooth cog, how about a rarely-seen "GS" rear derailleur- the "short-cage" version instead of the "SGS" long-cage. There's a couple on EepBay right now, like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shimano-Deor...-/330920298755

I like the term ensemble.

Okay, no goop. Thanks for the link too, but I refuse to pay for a RD 5x what I paid for the frame!

Because a drop parallelogram RD is not as good as a slant parallelogram RD.

This is what I was going to suggest to Jim depending on the other components. The STX-RC is nice and shiny silver where most of the other derailleurs have some sort of silver or black paint, etc. They will handle a 32t cog without worry.

[QUOTE=Jeff Wills;15617283]Deore: https://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...=108&AbsPos=24
Deore II
Deore XT: https://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...=108&AbsPos=29
Deore XT II

+3 or 4 or whatever

The Deore XT RD-M735 shift perfectly and can be used on a 32 cog cassette;