I picked up a used touring bike and am swapping out some components. I'll be using Shimano 8 speed bar end shifters and am looking for suggestions for a "good value" long cage rear derailleur and 8 speed cassette (in the 11-32/34 range). I'm keeping the 48/38/28 crankset but would also be open to suggestions for a new FD. Thoughts?

If you're using Shimano, any of the non DynoSys Shimano mountain bike RDs will work. LX, XT and XTR are good choices. With a friction shifted FD any FD will be okay. It is good to use a FD whose cage is a good match with the largest chain ring. A FD that seems to work very well with many different sized chain rings, as well as with indexed shifting is the Tiagra triple FD.

Brad

If you ever plan to tour with anyone else who might be riding a more modern bike - Since you're buying some expensive parts new anyway, my suggestion would be to really consider adding a little more to your budget if you can and get some 9sp shifters, then get the matching derailer and cassette. My riding partner rides 9 & 10sp(two bikes). I made the mistake of going 8sp. Those closer gear steps on his cassettes allow him to ride more efficiently and I end up lagging behind sometimes. I hit a spot where my ideal cadence is between two gears and I have to drop my speed with the gear change. He has that middle gear and slowly rides ahead or has to ride slower for me.

If you only ever plan to tour alone anyway and 8sp will be fine for you, pretty much exactly what bradtx said. Basically anything above Deore level is gonna be just great. I'd actually try to spend more on the chain and cassette than the derailer if it were me. Any decent derailer is gonna shift just fine. I've read that chains and cassettes really do last longer if you get higher quality ones. In my limited experience, it does seem to be somewhat true. My XT chain and cassette on my MTB are lasting quite well. My mid-range SRAM chain on my road bike(which sees less dirt, grime, and torque from steep climbs) seems like it's stretching faster compared to the number of miles on it.

The Simano 4503 FD is a great derailleur, but it does not work well with less than 11 tooth difference between chainrings. The back of the cage rubs on the next smaller chainring, e.g., When on the large chainring the back plate of the cage rubs on the center chainring. I just learned this the hard way a couple of weeks ago when I tried to use a 4503 with a 46/36/26 crankset. It can be raised enough to make it work but it puts the cage fairly high above the chainring, and not optimum shifting.

https://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830606982.pdf

I run both 8 speeds and 9 speeds, and really can't tell much difference, especially if you build up your own cassette and start with a lower high gear like a 13T. I combined parts from 2, 8-speed cassettes, and came up with a nice range of gears.

That's a great idea about building up a cassette Doug! I can't believe I didn't think of that. You may well have just saved me going through the hassle of trying to sell my 8sp stuff to buy 9sp. Thank you!

I disagree, 8 speed is just fine. When I built up my first touring bike about 10 years ago, I had a choice of 8 or 9 speed. Being an engineer, I looked at the cassette specifications. The Sram cassette cogs are:
8 speed - 11/12/14/16/18/21/26/32
9 speed - 11/12/14/16/18/21/24/28/32

So, the only difference was that the 8 speed had a 26t cog and the 9 speed instead had 24t and 28t cogs. I concluded that the vast majority of my time would be spent on the 14, 16 18 and 21 tooth cogs, thus I felt that the 8 speed would serve my needs just fine. And I liked the idea of having a little more cable pull per indexed gear change, thus the shifter would stay in adjustment better with an 8 speed system. And I was right, 10 years later I have no complaints.

There were a few hills where I might have noticed the difference if I had the 24t and 28t cogs instead of the 26t, but when I was cranking up those hills it never occurred to me that I was lacking anything other than wattage. I am in that range on my cassette less than 5 percent of the time.

All my bikes run 8 speed chains and my most of my derailleur bikes use Sram 11/32 cassettes. I use KMC chains of the same specification on all bikes so they all share the same quick links. Sram has a couple different cassettes at different price points, I can't tell the difference so I use the cheapest ones.

The standard Shimano 8 speed 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32 works fine for me. If I'm topping out a hill in the 32 I don't like much of a jump when I'm ready to shift up. The 28 makes for a good small step. I prefer that to the 34 which shifts up to a 26.

The endless addition of another cassette cog by the bike industry seems to be a solution looking for a problem. I had just as much fun in the 60's touring on a 5 speed freewheel with half step + granny chain rings as I do now on an 8 speed cassette with wider spaced outer chain rings. I also have 7/8 speed bar end shifters so that cassette is compatible. Deore XT MTB derailleur but any of their lower end models should work fine.

I didn't say 8sp wasn't fine. In fact, I said it was fine, depending on your needs. And obviously with the cassettes you posted, there isn't much difference between them, though I still stand by my statement that overall, you would be slightly more efficient and faster riding the 9sp. Whether or not that matters to you is up to you. But if you're riding with someone on a more modern drive-train, it's going to show at some point.
Then why don't you just still ride your old 5sp set-up? It would be cheaper and the parts should last longer since they'd be beefier. I agree that there is a definite trade-off to having more cogs. These 11sp things seem excessive to me, and don't even get me started on electronic shifting... But the reason they do it is because, as I said, it does indeed allow you to ride more efficiently and more quickly overall. It's up to you whether that's a consideration to you or not, and where you're willing to draw the line between longevity and efficiency. For me personally, it's 9sp. For a lot of older guys, it's somewhere between 6-8sp. Probably for younger people now, it's 11sp. 10-11sp have shown themselves to certainly have a noticeable decrease in chain life and probably cassette life, and that's where the efficiency trade-off is for me.

But let's not turn this into a 1-11sp debate thread. I merely wanted to offer another option for the OP, as I said in the first post, If he's riding with someone on a newer set-up and speed/efficiency is a factor.

11 or 12 t cog you hardly need a big ring at all like 48t


95" top gear was fine ... I coast & brake down hills..

Thanks for the info. My luck ran better when I used a FD-A553 with only an eight tooth difference between middle and outer chain rings.

Brad

I have 8 speed touring bike. I have the standard Deore long cage der. and SRAM cassette (11 -32). Works fine. Don't know the exact model numbers.

Shimano ALTUS rear derailer (RD-M310)

Indexes 7 or 8 speed, frictions up to 9.
Wraps 43T
Max rear cog, 34T

48 - 28 = 20T
34 - 11 = 23T
------------------
TOTAL= 43T

$24 + S/H

I've been assembling our own 8-speed cassettes from loose Shimano cogs for more than a decade, and they all work great. One trick for getting the gears close together for 9-spd (or more)-like advantages is to put two or three cogs that are one tooth apart in the range of your most used flat road gearing. Then use 2-tooth gaps to the high (small cog) end, and larger gaps until you get to the lowest (largest cog) that you want. Viola, the advantages of higher cog count and the durability of 8-speed chains.

My favorite cassette ATM for my "faster bike" is 12-14-16-17-19-21-24-28. I've also used 12-14-16-17-18-20-23-28. (The 28t helps with the steep hills all around here.) My touring oriented bike is 12-14-16-18-20-23-26-30, and could go lower if my RD allowed it. If never felt the need for one tooth gaps when touring. BTW on my 37-mile round trip commute, I'm not any faster on either bike, I just feel faster on that one.

I like 8 speed, if I wasn't enamored of Rapid Rise, I'd probably be running that derailleur.

Note that Shimano factors in another 2 teeth worth of play/slop/whatever there, so you can usually get away with another two teeth in any of their set-ups, with the above, I'd be looking at going down to a 24T granny rather than the 28, to get more loaded mountain climbing ability.

My zwei pfennig.


Edit: I've had good luck with fairly low end Shimano MTB front derailleurs, very durable and usually set up for the range you are looking for, for a loaded tourer. I suppose the ones I've been using are near vintage now (~20 years old), the one on my commuter has at least 6,500 miles on it and is still going strong.

Here's my drive-train specs for my 8-speed LHT. This setup works great for me

Front Derailleur: Shimano Tiagra FD-4403 triple
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Deore LX, RD-M581, SGS, long cage
Shifters: Shimano SL-BS64 Bar-end, 8-speed
Crankset: Sugino XD600, 46-36-24t, 170mm arms
Cassette SRAM PG850 8-speed, 11-32t
Chain: SRAM PC-870, 8-speed

With a 48t chainring consider IRD cassettes, a 12-28 or 12-32 would be great. 12t is too big any way but with the 38chainring could make for a nice set of gears. I just don't see the utility in 11t cogs for touring.

8 Speed Mtn/Road Cassettes

Here's what I use, and it works well for my needs.

1) I got a 13-26 8 speed cluster (13-14-15-17-19-21-23-26)

2) Remove the 14 cog, keep the spacer, and insert a 32 tooth cog on the high end (using the spacer that was for the 14 cog).

3) Now I have a nice close ratio cluster with a 32 low cog -- 13-15-17-19-21-23-26-32

.

I'm seeing a number of recommendations for a Tiagra front derailleur, is this compatible with Shimano MTB shifters? (Is the pull the same for road and MTB?)

Sorry, I'm totally ignorant of road bike specs and equipment...

No, the Tiagra has a different pull ratio from the mountain bike indexed shifter.

Brad

Thanks!