Front derailleur recommendation

28 views

Skip to first unread message

Bernard Duhon

unread,

Mar 18, 2026, 9:46:59 PM (4 hours ago) Mar 18

to RBW Owners Bunch

I am (was) running

1. campy athena triple front derailleur

2.Rene hearse 42X 26 crankset

3 Campy 10 speed 11X28 rear occasionally switching to shimano 11X34

4.Ultegra 11 speed rd

5. Friction shifting

6.front Worked ok but not great

7 due to operator error front derailleur bent out of wack..

8.seat tube 28.2

Any recommendation for a replacement?

Rivendell is out of the Stubby

Guy Jett

unread,

Mar 18, 2026, 10:55:04 PM (3 hours ago) Mar 18

to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com

1. How did you damage your front derailleur? I'm assuming it's the mechanical version, not the electronic as you mention friction shifting. This seems to have had a fairly narrow inner cage plate.

2. Any reason not to replace with another?

3. You mention the "Stubby". This has a rather wide inner plate.

4. Your 42X26 chainset has a 26 tooth difference. So a wide inner plate of almost any kind should work.

Having said that I've run old narrow inner plate "racing" fronts on chainsets with 20, 19, and 17 tooth differences for around 50 years with few problems. These include TA Cyclotourists of 50-45-26 and 49-46-26, and Sugino of 44-41-24.

An original Huret Jubilee front ran for awhile on the 49-46-26 TA but was replaced by a SunTour Cyclone (which broke at the mount), then by a SunTour Superbe. In 2010 the Superbe migrated to my Hilson with the 44-41-24 Sugino and has run perfectly ever since. The "delicate" Jubilee went back on the 49-46-26 TA which was just changed to the 50-45-26 chainset and still runs strong.

I need the narrow inner plate because of the 3- and 5-tooth differences in the "granny-spaced" larger rings. A wide inner plate hits the middle ring before it can shift to the large. A problem you won't have.

Bottom line is you can pick just about any front derailleur you like. Just don't replay the error that broke your Athena.

GAJett

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/511102a9-d925-4fa1-be48-a6c55bd8ae52n%40googlegroups.com.