If someone could enlighten me I'd really appreciate it...I'm looking into tuning my Force RD but it's installed on my bike...I'll probably take it apart this weekend (sunday...after a race) and weigh all the bolts/pulley/etc to figure out what I can tune most efficiently...I don't mind shaving off some of the metal but I don't want to have a cutout in the body like some of the more extreme results require.

What is roughly the cost and weight loss that I could expect by replacing the bolts pulleys and cage?

Thanks



I don't think it'd be terribly hard...just buy a pre-cured carbon/resin sheet (5 layers or something...I'm not sure what is good but I know Fibre-Lyte sells these sheets as well as cages and pulleys) and then cut and shape your own cages/pulleys out of the sheet. It'd be a lot of work compared to buying something pre-made and probably take some trial/error but it might be worth it. I think the hardest part would just be getting the pulley teeth correct and knowing what thickness of a pre-made carbon sheet to buy.

I tried to remove the barrel adjuster from my Sram Force group today, but it is stuck as hell.
Could some one help me out how to remove it?

Thanks

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I Will make the leap

Remove the circlip which is wrapped around the threaded side of the barrel adjuster's shaft.

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Exp001

I already removed that one… or are there 2 of them on both sides :s

Got it out: had to give it some very good taps with the hammer

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I Will make the leap

Decided to enter the fray, well sort'a. Snagged a $45 Force RD on eBay and sharpened up the Dremel. Got some hardware from Jersey Cycles, already have some alloy cogs on the Rival Rd on my bike.
Probably depart a bit and paint it tho'.
(Also carving up a RD-7800 31.8 clamp-on)

I got some aftermarket pulleys from xx-lite-bikes. The spin supersmooth when holding them in my hands, but when i install them and tension the pulley bolts there's quite a lot of drag on them… How can i solve this?

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I Will make the leap

Not as light as most here, but 40+gms less than the Rival I'm running now.

The FD came in at ~ 65gms, Rear ~ 142. savings of around 80gms.

Has anyone used a NYLON bolt for the cable adjuster?
I know someone here has used an M8 Polycarbonate bolt there (and it looks great) - but those are ridiculously hard to find. The only company selling those that I could find is out of Japan and unresponsive to my e-mails.

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Exp001

Shouldn't be a problem, just drill a hole through one. They even have them at my local Ace. Don't know if they have socket heads though, which would work best.

I found the socket heads, I'll give them a go.
Thanks!

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Exp001

I think it was on the blog "The Climb", where he he used a plastic wall anchor, drilled & tapped, as a nut. There's also a good tip on there about shifter clamp tuning.

Yes, but he used a wall anchor to fill in the hole in the derailleur, then re-tap'd that wall anchor to accommodate a standard adjustment bolt (such as those from Toronto Cycles).

Wall anchor + standard alloy bolt? Why? Kinda unnecessarily heavy, no?

Why not just go nylon bolt and re-tap the original derailleur? That would be way, way, way lighter in comparison.
Which is why I asked about the Polycarbonate bolt as used earlier in this thread.

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Exp001

Was an easy solution. The original adjuster has 4 parts. I just filed down the innermost piece, epoxied it in, and tapped it for 4mm. Probably no lighter than his anchor. You could tap the arm but it's a big hole. 8mm or so.

How important are the little tab (fibre-lyte calls them jump-stops) on the rear derailleur plates?
It prevents the chain from bouncing of the pulley-wheels, but does this happen so often? Many tuned derailleur plates don't have them...

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I Will make the leap