Which Tiagra Front Derailleur?

ray o

Hello,

I have a Giant OCR2 with Tiagra shifters and rear derailleur. The front is a Sora and and although I have done adjustments it never stays right so I thought I might look at changing it for a Tiagra. I was looking on CRC and they have 3 different types (28.6mm - 31.8mm Band On), (31.8mm) and (Braze On). Are "Band On" and "Braze On" two different attachment types?

niceonetom

Band:
has a, um, band that clamps arounf the seat tube. Come in different sizes depending on your seat tube diameter.



Braze on:
attaches to a clip or hanger that is brazed (or more commonly riveted on alu or carbon bikes) to the seat tube.



Don't know which your giant takes but you should be able to tell by looking at it.

Also make sure you get double or tripe chainring compatible derailleur, whichever your bike has.

blorg

To be honest also worth bearing in mind that changing the derailleur from Sora to Tiagra is unlikely to make any difference, unless the Sora derailleur is damaged in some way. Also bear in mind that they may be different speeds, using 9 speed Tiagra with an 8 speed Sora chain may not be the best idea for example. Back this doesn't matter so much if at all.

ray o

Thanks for that Blorg, i'll take a closer look at it later. Mine is a triple but how does the speed 8/9 affect the front derailleur? I thought the speed referred to the rear shifter/cassette. Please excuse my ignorance...i'm only learning.

sibyrne

D1gger wrote: »

Thanks for that Blorg, i'll take a closer look at it later. Mine is a triple but how does the speed 8/9 affect the front derailleur? I thought the speed referred to the rear shifter/cassette. Please excuse my ignorance...i'm only learning.

The tripple part of it effects the front mech also the teeth on the chain rings due to it being a tripple.

blorg

D1gger wrote: »

Thanks for that Blorg, i'll take a closer look at it later. Mine is a triple but how does the speed 8/9 affect the front derailleur? I thought the speed referred to the rear shifter/cassette. Please excuse my ignorance...i'm only learning.

The width of the chain is different and this may cause rubbing if you try to fit a wider chain through a narrower derailleur cage. In practice this may not be a great concern and you should be able to get it to work but if you aim here is improving your situation there wouldn't be a lot of point. Rear derailleurs are speed agnostic, the indexing is controlled by the shifter not the derailleur.

rflynnr

blorg wrote: »

Rear derailleurs are speed agnostic, the indexing is controlled by the shifter not the derailleur.

"Speed agnostic": that's almost poetry. I love the idea that different bike components could be understood using religious metaphors. Let the suggestions commence...

Signal_ rabbit

Is it a 2203 dérailleur? It would have it stamped on the inside. I had terrible problem with mine, it would never index right. It would work fine in the stand but on the road it was a different story, so I googled it and found out they were notorious for not shifting right. I replaced mine with a 105 and after a bit of fettling the gear changes are sweet and silent.

niceonetom

rflynnr wrote: »

"Speed agnostic": that's almost poetry. I love the idea that different bike components could be understood using religious metaphors. Let the suggestions commence...

Should I buy campagnolo or shimano? Well, son, that would be an ecumenical matter.

ray o

Signal_ rabbit wrote: »

Is it a 2203 dérailleur? It would have it stamped on the inside. I had terrible problem with mine, it would never index right. It would work fine in the stand but on the road it was a different story, so I googled it and found out they were notorious for not shifting right. I replaced mine with a 105 and after a bit of fettling the gear changes are sweet and silent.

I'll check that out, i too have got it working fine on the stand but never lasts. My rear shifter is still perfect after all the abuse i've given it so I was hoping an upgrade on the front would sort it out.

The other thing is that i've been commuting using only the top ring for over 6 months now and so I might find myself getting lazy if I actually get it fixed. I must resit the urge to shift down.

blorg

D1gger wrote: »

The other thing is that i've been commuting using only the top ring for over 6 months now and so I might find myself getting lazy if I actually get it fixed. I must resit the urge to shift down.

Traditional advice is to shift down into the small ring for the winter to work on your pedalling style and cadence. Don't shift back up until the spring. So effectively you just need something that will shift down now and you can shift back up in spring.

Also worth bearing in mind with these things that it could be the cable or even the shifter rather than the derailleur. Cable would be the first thing I would check, new cables make a big difference to reliable shifting.