I have a 90s rockhopper with 26 inch wheels I and converting to a 1x for touring and camping. I put an 11 speed cassette and a shimano slx derailleur on it. The derailleur cage is gsg (long cage) and only has a couple inches of ground clearance. I’ve tried adjusting the B screw and it helps but it still hangs pretty low.
Is this just a fact of life when converting these 26 inch bikes to 1x? I was looking for an 11 or 12 speed derailleur with a gs (medium) cage but cannot find anything from shimano. Do they just not exist?
Has anyone else encountered this and has it caused issues? Are there better options for derailleurs for this sort of setup?
by Drauggib
6 Comments
Convert it to 3×7 (ducks)
Yeah, modern 1x derailleurs definitely hang pretty low. You could double check your chain length, as a shorter chain will put the cage vertical with a smaller cog, and slightly higher position.
the M5120-SGS is identical to the M6000-GS, that’s about as close as you can get to a medium cage in the current generation shimano lineup, [microshift has the super short derailleurs but those are limited to 38 teeth or less and at most 1×9](https://www.microshift.com/models/rd-m6195s/)
It’s a good thing you’ve got that nice, big, round object behind it to keep it from hitting the ground.
(Because, really, where are you going to be riding on a smooth tire / touring / camping bike that you risk hitting the derailleur on something next to the wheel? It’s not like you’re timing pedal strokes to just-barely dodge rocks.)
It’ll be fine.
If it was my bike I would run some wider tires on it to give some extra clearance. Will echo the other comment about making sure the chain isn’t too long since that will definitely change the angle of the derailleur, although if it’s close to the right size it will always have one gear where it’s closest to the ground as the cage pivots from taking up the slack to being stretched forward by the larger cogs.
You need 26 x 2.1 tyres that should give you extra ground clearance. The 26 x1.6 slicks definitely are not helping!!