[PJJ205]

Took a nice little spill on my Bronson earlier today and bent my derailleur cage. According to this diagram from SRAM on page 56, it doesn't look replaceable (https://www.sram.com/sites/default/files/techdocs/sram_spc_revf_0.pdf).

I bought the bike brand new 9 months ago and I've always had trouble with the shifting on this thing, no matter what I've done to correct it (Yes, I should of had it looked at, but I'm an idiot). I recently replaced the cable and adjusted it for a solid couple of hours because it had been acting up, but I never got it to shift perfectly. Now that I have bent this, I'm considering getting a new derailleur assembly, but I don't really have the money right now so I'm hoping that I can tweak this one back. What do you guys think? Thank you in advance for all responses.

 

[PJJ205]

Side note: does anyone know how to rotate photos here on MTBR? Thanks.

 

[Shartist]

I find the cage on my gx eagle RD (V2 Bronson) gets bent pretty easily and have had to bend it back into shape a handful of times+. After my first half dozen rides my shifting got pretty ugly and I went through aligning the derailleur hanger, re-indexing, making b-screw and tension adjustments ad nauseum. I just couldn’t get it to shift nicely throughout its range, then I looked more closely at the cage and noticed it was bent ever so slightly. After bending it back into place I was in business again. Since then I have had it bend more drastically and bent it back and it seems to do the trick. I’d check hanger alignment, carefully bend it back into shape— don’t allow force while bending it back to inadvertently bend deraillure hanger; rather grasp the cage top and bottom while bending.

I wouldn’t go out a buy a new one just yet, the bottom line is that if you ride rocky terrain, there’s a good chance you’ll just whack the new one off something and end up in the same boat. See if you can salvage this one first.

 

[Harold]

short answer - no matter what, you'll never be able to get it perfect

long answer - you can tweak it for awhile like shartist says. but the more you bend on it, the more it'll never "quite be right" and the less it'll take to bend it out of shape again. frankly, it's a losing battle.

long cage derailleurs required by eagle drivetrains (and shimano's 10-51 cassette, too) are going to be more susceptible to damage. It's one reason why I never bought Eagle and why when I did go 12spd, I stayed with shimano's 10-45 cassette...so I could stay with a medium cage derailleur that's less likely to hit crap and bend.

from what I've read from others on the forum, the higher end eagle derailleurs are a bit stronger than nx and gx. but that only comes from a few reports here and I don't know how accurate they are.

 

[PJJ205]

Thanks for the responses! I'm going to give it a go and try to get it back. It's already bent up so I won't be hurting much more in the process. I'll report back with how it goes.

Luckily, my Bronson came with a spare derailleur hanger so I'll probably swap that out if I end up getting a new derailleur.

 

[frdfandc]

Thanks for the responses! I'm going to give it a go and try to get it back. It's already bent up so I won't be hurting much more in the process. I'll report back with how it goes.

Luckily, my Bronson came with a spare derailleur hanger so I'll probably swap that out if I end up getting a new derailleur.

Make sure to have the new hanger aligned to the frame by using a Derailleur Hanger Alignment tool. A new hanger can be out of alignment when just thrown on a bike.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[PJJ205]

Just pulled the wheel off and checked the hanger out... it was definitely bent inward at the bottom. I'm almost positive that it has been bent since before I got the bike because it's definitely shifting a lot differently/crispier now.

I'm thinking that the bike was demoed at the shop a time or two before I bought it because this shop is known for letting people take bikes out for a ride. The first time that I rode the thing, literally the first ride/trail, the chain hopped off and damaged the carbon chainstay... I wasn't too pleased about that.

I need to mess with the adjustment a bit because it's a bit slow/hesitant to shift from low to high, but I'm glad that it's working better so far. The chain is rubbing the cage so I need to pry that apart a bit, but I think it'll all be fine by the end of the night.

Thank you all for the help!

 

[Forest Rider]

Shifting performance is different on a stand vs off.

My new bike threw the chain into the spokes twice. Second time I decided to make an adjustment and it's been flawless since.

Shop folks could have easily ridden it around the property to ensure a perfect shift but it doesn't mimic the trail conditions. If the bottom of the hanger was bent inward, that would help the chain not fall off the smallest cog. Unless it's been bent outward for 9 months, then your mishap bent it in, it's not super likely to have been the culprit on ride #1. Probably, likely, just the limit screw was of which you fixed up right away.

I don't think it's fair to assume the shop allowed others to use the bike then sold you one that was 'damaged' without first checking it over for proper shifting.

It doesn't take much to bend a hanger. A customers 7 year old kid could have kicked the derailleur on the showroom floor. It could have been bent at installation.

I'm happy to hear it's shifting better though despite the cage taking a wack.

I know the feeling after adjusting a hanger -shifting is so nice. I've had to adjust the hanger on my 2x10 a few times and each time provided amazing performance.

I don't drop my bike or lay it on the right side. Somehow, miraculously, the hanger becomes out of adjustment.
It's just a thing that happens.

 

[PJJ205]

Yeah, that’s definitely a fair assessment. I was bothered by some other things that happened during my buying process so I’m sure that played into my faulty rationale. Thanks for the comment.

I messed with it for a few minutes last night and this morning and noticed that the derailleur has a “stick” to it that prevents it from shifting down to the smallest cog. I tried to tighten up the slack at the barrel adjuster to make it shift quicker, but it doesn’t move. I’m going to ride it around the block to see how it works under load. If it struggles to shift then I’m going to pull the cable out of the derailleur then tighten the initial slack and hope that it does the job.

 

[ColoMtnRipper]

Took a nice little spill on my Bronson earlier today and bent my derailleur cage. According to this diagram from SRAM on page 56, it doesn't look replaceable (Service).

I bought the bike brand new 9 months ago and I've always had trouble with the shifting on this thing, no matter what I've done to correct it (Yes, I should of had it looked at, but I'm an idiot). I recently replaced the cable and adjusted it for a solid couple of hours because it had been acting up, but I never got it to shift perfectly. Now that I have bent this, I'm considering getting a new derailleur assembly, but I don't really have the money right now so I'm hoping that I can tweak this one back. What do you guys think? Thank you in advance for all responses.

 

[ColoMtnRipper]

I find the cage on my gx eagle RD (V2 Bronson) gets bent pretty easily and have had to bend it back into shape a handful of times+. After my first half dozen rides my shifting got pretty ugly and I went through aligning the derailleur hanger, re-indexing, making b-screw and tension adjustments ad nauseum. I just couldn't get it to shift nicely throughout its range, then I looked more closely at the cage and noticed it was bent ever so slightly. After bending it back into place I was in business again. Since then I have had it bend more drastically and bent it back and it seems to do the trick. I'd check hanger alignment, carefully bend it back into shape- don't allow force while bending it back to inadvertently bend deraillure hanger; rather grasp the cage top and bottom while bending.

I wouldn't go out a buy a new one just yet, the bottom line is that if you ride rocky terrain, there's a good chance you'll just whack the new one off something and end up in the same boat. See if you can salvage this one first.

I know this thread is a few years old, but I just wanted to say that it's really nice to read one of these informative responses that are intelligible and easy to read for a change. Thanks for the clarity.