4th derailleur in 14 month

[RustyMTB]

Same. I'm almost on 7000 miles on the original mech. Bent it a coupe of times but it's still hanging (hur) in there. One thing to note about Shimano mechs is the price ramps up heavily as you go through the range but the design never alters, just small changes to materials & components. Bearings instead of bushings, Titanium for the weight weenies and so on. For my money, the sweet spot is to buy around Deore & if you can be bothered, swap the jockey wheels for a few quid to something better & save £££.

 

[Plummet]

In my emtb use so far the best derailleur has been mechanical 12-speed Eagle GX combined with sturdy Santa Cruz UDH hanger. Derailleur and hanger has taken multiple hits and eventually hanger gave in but derailleur still going strong after 3600km of hard use.

Alternatively wore out a 12 speed gx drive train in 900km.....

 

[cozzy]

My preference is the m5130 linkglide 10 speed short cage. £26.
Used to run it with an 11/48, but dropped to an 11/43 now I've got m2s power.
Keep a spare in my van.

 

[irie]

For my money, the sweet spot is to buy around Deore & if you can be bothered, swap the jockey wheels for a few quid to something better & save £££.

Thats what I do, buy Deore then replace the jockey wheels with BBB Rollerboys (Blue) which roll very nicely, are long lasting, and don't have holes to trap crap in.

 

[Mario Antony]

Also on my 4 in about a year and a half. I am now buying 2 packs of Deore RDs for £27 each so as to always have a spare in the riding pack. Latest one went last week.
View attachment 185142

Was on the same bandwagon... replaced several RD, until I trIed Linkglide with a SG RD, and stopped having so much hits & strikes

 

[Fangs2k]

I’m gradually replacing all my rear mechs and gears with Shimano CUES 10 speed Linkglide stuff, as the SRAM kit wears out.

It’s functional, but mainly because it’s ‘cheap’ seems pretty robust and works just fine.

I think terrain, weather and dumb luck plays the biggest part in mech wrapping incidents, I haven’t lost one for a while now, probably because I’m less inclined to go out in gloopy winter mud (with added sticks!) but I’ve probably jinxed it!

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

Also on my 4 in about a year and a half. I am now buying 2 packs of Deore RDs for £27 each so as to always have a spare in the riding pack. Latest one went last week.

Same, I keep a spare in the car now as it's ruined a few rides that were further away... 1-1.5 hr drive.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

I broke 2 Shimano XT derailleurs before switching to SRAM Transmission. Never broken the SRAM yet. Have bent a cage and kicked the derailleur back. But not broken.

I've wondered how strong the RD on transmission is and would it benefit me...

IME with Shimano RD failures, they've never been catastrophic from direct impacts to the parallelogram as witnessed by massive scarring over its lifespan.

I've bent traditional hangers a couple times and broken/bent a few UHD ones. What typically happens it something causes the cage to push into the wheel spokes and the RD gets obliterated. Usually at "speed" and it takes out the RD (breaks at clutch/p-knuckle), UDH, a couple spokes and the cassette spider a couple times.

I recall ONE time the cage went into the spokes and literally stopped the wheel as I skidded to a stop... no real damage expect bent hangar and scratched spokes.

I have doubts the cage on transmission RD is stiffer, as they generally seems to be the most flexible part on RDs. Maybe I'm wrong and the direct mount also helps indirectly somehow.

 

[Mario Antony]

. What typically happens it something causes the cage to push into the wheel spokes and the RD gets obliterated.

Something = Upper limit not correctly set

 

[cream]

Sharing my explosive experience with a derailleur on a muddy day, uphill…got downhill with no chain. I left a trail of pieces in just a couple of seconds.

 

[irie]

Second pic reminds me of the Xenomorph in Aliens.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

Something = Upper limit not correctly set

No.

 

[G-Sport]

Can't believe people struggle-on buying more and more Shimano derailleurs. I went through this years ago, finally realised that the parallelogram links are super weak and bend, which makes the cage point in towards the spokes and then catch and destroy everything. Switched to SRAM and found a different set of problems, the cheaper chains and cassettes (GX and below) work great for a while but wear out super fast. XO stuff seems incredibly tough and long lasting. I've got huge gouges in my XO derailleur on the bike now from multiple hits and scrapes but it still works really well. I've only destroyed one XO mech in the last 5 years or so and that was from a stick that got caught and bent the cage. Everything up top was fine. Been through several derailleur hangers too.
I used to really like Shimano, their HollowTec2 cranks are undoubtedly fantastic, but the sad truth is that they just can't seem to make a decent rear derailleur. Even the DH stuff like Saint and Zee was piss weak.
Switch to SRAM XO, wax your chain and keep on top of re-waxing and rotation and although the initial investment is high the total cost (and hassle) of ownership is way lower. The cost of the cassettes is really hard to take but you do save weight too.
Not tried the non-electronic transmission stuff yet but I suspect that that will be good too as long as you shell out for the more expensive one.

 

[Waynemarlow]

As a breaker of Shimano XT derailleurs ( they are cheap and plentiful and who needs any more than 10 speeds ) there is something I'm becoming aware of. On all the damaged ones the tension clutch on the outer arm has become too restrictive over miles and puts a lot of tension on the Derailleur. my theory is that its not sticks and stones as I thought but the excessive tension pulling the arm into the wheel when it becomes too restrictive.

I started to rebuild parts of into 1 standby and noticed that the arm was very stiff when fitting it. Went back and checked the other bits I had and they were the same. I've backed off the tension quite a lot and not having any problem with the chain coming off even though I only use a narrow & wide chain ring without a guide. To date I've not had another failure, but its early days.