Can I convert my Ultegra road bike to a Rapid Rise (low normal) derailleur - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

Radman · 01-04-2008, 12:03 AM

easily enough? I'm thinking of going flat-bar on my road bike with the XT dual control levers, but don't know if a long-armed mountain bike derailleur would work on a road bike.
Is it true that only Mtn Bike derailleurs are Rapid Rise?

craigger · 01-04-2008, 12:06 AM

Radman - I did the same thing with my old Trek 5200. The rear derailleur for Ultegra/XT should have the same amount of cable pull so this should not be a problem. I'm wondering why you want to go with a long-cage rear derailleur though. Are you going especially large on the cassette? Like a 11-32 or something? Maybe a triple in the front? If you're keeping standard road gears, you can keep the Ultegra rear derailleur and use the XT dual control lever. I never found trigger shifters to work well with a road front derailleur though. I ended up using an old-school downtube shifter for the front - infinite trim.

Hope that helps.