SRAM Red 10 speed rear derailleur breaking, any experiences?

[wpccrunner]

i just bought a new force 22 derailleur. replaced teh worn sram outer cage and fixing pin with those from the Force. Kept the Red inner cage. Pulley bolts had to be swapped as well. Havent ridden it yet but shifts fine in the stand

You only need the outer cage, all other parts can be re-used:

But sending the whole derailleur to SRAM would be better, as you might get a new one with steel bolt on the outer cage and that these will be finally recalled like the WiFLi derailleurs.

11 speed outer cage on 10 speed derailleur. one of the pulley bolts was too long so i used the bolt from the force 22 RD. Everything else was from the original red RD. I may consider shipping the worn outer cage to SRAM since its just a paper weight a this point. Do you have shipping address?

[Beaver]

11 speed outer cage on 10 speed derailleur. one of the pulley bolts was too long so i used the bolt from the force 22 RD. Everything else was from the original red RD. I may consider shipping the worn outer cage to SRAM since its just a paper weight a this point. Do you have shipping address?

I used the 10 speed Force outer cage on my 10 speed RED derailleur, the bolts were identical in size.

Unfortunately SRAM refuses only parts of the derailleur as there are no spare parts - they could only replace the whole rear derailleur. And - at least here in Germany - they also refused direct contact with customers. I had to send it in via my local bike store.

[Beaver]

As well as the replaced RED 10-speed rear derailleur produced in 2018, this RED 22 rear derailleur produced in 2016 features the steel bolt on the cage:



With the introduction of the RED eTap design all rear derailleurs got it, it seems.

There's still no answer from SRAM, but despite the durable steel bolt on the cage, we still need a lasting secure pin.



That is subject to wear also with the steel bolt...

[zerogravitas]

I have this exact problem too, thankfully spotted before serious failure. Thanks to WW and all on this thread for bringing it to the attention of at least some Red owners. No thanks to SRAM...

For me I have approx 20000km on this group, 2012 Red, carefully maintained etc etc. It is simply a shoddy piece of design for such a critical part to fail in such a way, and poor show from SRAM to not notify all users of the risks here.

Looks like a Force cage replacement it is.

[RNAV]

I had the exact same failure on a 2015 SRAM Red22 short cage rear derailleur that only had 5k miles on it. I didn't read the whole thread, but there was a recall on the Red WiFli derailleurs:

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2013/sram- ... r-bicycles

Despite the fact the failure exists on derailleurs outside the specified serial number range, SRAM refuses to support.

I contacted SRAM. No replacement cage assemblies and no retention screws available. The only resolution is to replace the derailleur.

For US residents, I would strongly encourage you to file a report with the US Consumer Products Safety Commission, which you can do here: https://www.saferproducts.gov/CPSRMSPub ... ident.aspx. I did, and within a few days CPSC notified me that they had forwarded my complaint to SRAM. Perhaps if enough of us report these incidents we canget some support.

[lewolive]

I had this problem and I have trashed the rear derailleur. I replaced the derailleur by a Sram Force + OSPW system. As of today, this solution is a lot better than my original Red derailleur. But the Sram Red shifters are still working very well and they are probably one of the lightest shifters ever made.

[Lord Vader]

After reading of this issue here and on another forum, I thought I'd better check my Red RD (from 2010), which was ridden more than 35.000 km.
Of course it shows significant wear, so I'm not going to take any chances and will swap it out with the Apex cage from my winter bike until I get a better replacement.
Just glad for the online community to be made aware of this issue before any failure happened. If you ride a Red RD with high milage, please check it!

[Lucendi]

This happened to my Sram RED 22 rear derailleur as well.

Does anyone know where I can find a replacement cage and safety pin/screw?

[Beaver]

SRAM is not offering replacement cage kits anymore. Here is an old stock rival one, maybe someone can confirm that these fit, too? https://www.ebay.de/itm/New-Sram-Rival- ... xyyghQ7q7n

But SRAM replaced my whole SRAM RED derailleur, which I send in via my local bike store. Give it a try.

And complaining at the US Consumer Products Safety Commission could help, too. These derailleurs are a fall hazard and need to be replaced - as it was done with the WiFLi ones.

In addition I am still in contact with SRAM for a spare secure pin made of stronger material. Even if you replace the outer cage with one with a steel bolt, the pin will sooner or later fail.

[dlj2119]

Anyone encounter a stripped retaining bolt? Want to check mine, but can't get the cage off now.
Drill it out and find a replacement pin from a donor derailleur?

[quadlt250]

I recently got around to checking my Sram Red derailleur for the wear that has been described here. I had an old Sram Rival derailleur to use for a part donor, and decide to take a few photos along the process.

Here are the tools you will need: (also need a set of allen keys)


Quick step by step instructions (with tools required):

- first remove the chain (quick link pliers)
- remove derailleur cable (5mm allen key)
- remove derailleur from frame (5mm allen key)
- remove pulley wheels from derailleur (3mm allen key)
- remove derailleur cage pin (small phillips screwdriver) unscrew pin and pull to remove, it only has a few threads.
- now, once that pin is removed, you can detach the cage from the deraileur p-knuckle. There will be a spring inside, but it isn't compressed or anything so you shouldn't have to worry about losing it.
- with the cage removed, you can clean it and assess the cage axle for damage.

I had done this with both the Red & Rival derailleurs, and wasn't surprised to see a bit of wear on the titanium Red axle. What I was slightly surprised by was that the steel axle on my Rival derailleur was at least as worn (and i think actually more worn). Now, that old Rival derailleur has a LOT of milage on it, but that steel axle definitely isn't totally immune to the wear (really it's a design flaw).

Red:


Rival:


I noted that the wear on both axles only occurs on the lower side of the axle, in line with the pulley wheels, so I decided that the best "quick fix" was to press out the axles, and reinstall them rotated 180deg so the unworn side can now be the point of contact.

wear is on the side of the blue line, which I want reinstalled on the opposite side.


(at this point I marked the axle with a sharpie next to the slot that the spring sits in, to keep track so that i could line it up on the opposite side before pressing it back in)

For the removal of the axle, I screwed the top pulley bolt into the axle from the outside, then used a 13mm deep socket over top of the axle on the inside for a surface to press against. I slowly tightened a C-clamp against the socket and pulley bolt, and the axle quickly popped out, and sat inside the deep socket.

With that done, I decided that I would install the steel axle in the Red carbon cage even though it was also showing wear, and to hope that the non-worn side will live a long and happy life.

To reinstall the axle into the cage, get everything lined up the way it came out (rotating the axle as stated above) then get it started just a bit back in by hand before taking the C-clamp and pressing it directly against the cage and axle (pretty carefully in case anything is jamming, which they didn't for me)

Once the axle is pressed back in to your satisfaction (don't overdo it and crack your cage), you can apply a hearty amount of GREASE to the axle, reinstall the spring into the p-knuckle, and align the derailleur cage. During this step, you'll want to half-press the cage into the knuckle while rotating it backwards so it clears the stop. It can be slightly tricky to do this with only 2 hands.

You will have to hold the knuckle and cage together at this point, and at the same time rotate the parallelogram linkage so that you can push the retaining bolt into position, and screw it in. After a bit of cussing, you'll succeed and BOOM, YOU'RE DONE!!

Here's some weight photos during and after (unfortunatley I forgot to weigh the derailleurs beforehand, and the titanium vs steel axles individually, but based on what I’m seeing from other measured weights, the steel axle weighs an extra 4g over the titanium axle)


Red carbon outer cage with Ti axle


Rival alloy outer cage with steel axle


Red carbon inner cage


Rival alloy inner cage


Red derailleur with steel axle


Rival derailleur with titanium axle (had to do something with it)

Hopefully this helps someone out.
Cheers!!

[Beaver]

So this should not be forgotten... I asked SRAM again about a stronger lockpin. A recall for the older derailleurs with titanium cage shaft is still outstanding.

[B R H]

At the very least they should offer a replacement pin for purchase. The obvious reason they don’t is because it would be admitting the problem and open them up to more legal risk for not specifying a service interval. Pretty shitty business model.

[grumbledook]

Do Force (CX) 1 RDs have the same issue or is this specific to the road/2x-compatible SRAM RDs?

[Avalius]

Sram Red22 user here, mine broke exactly like described. Derailleur pad and some spokes broke to...