Ultegra 9spd long cage range

[dylan green]

I have a 6500 series Ultegra RD with a long cage. Anyone know the range of cassette I should be able to work with? I believe the short cage can take 28, but I can't find the long cage max anywhere...any help is appreciated!

[Jeremy Till]

Generally, with Shimano road derailleurs the short and long cage versions usually had about the same max cog specification, around 27 or 28t. The difference was that the longer cage one had enough capacity that it could handle a triple in front. 

The general consensus around here is that Shimano derailleur capacity/max cog specifications are usually a little bit on the conservative side, and many have successfully used them with larger rear cogs than those for which they were specified. If it were mine, I'd be tempted to see if it could shift something like an 11-32 cassette. 

-Jeremy Till

Sacramento, CA

[Bill Lindsay]

Concur with Jeremy:

12-27 no problem

11-28 no problem

11-32 probably

11-36 probably not

11-42 I'd bet that's a big no

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[dylan green]

Thanks Jeremy - I was definitely hoping an 11-32 would be OK.

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[Cody Marvin]

I have one with an 11-30 cassette and it works well.

Cody, Chicago

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[Andy Beichler]

I am running an 11-32 cassette with a long cage and it indexes fine.

[Armand Kizirian]

A wolf tooth road link can help provide clearance for the larger cogs should you run into issues.

[Greg J]

I too have used it with a 11-32 and it worked fine. 

On Monday, December 18, 2023 at 4:16:04 PM UTC-8 Andy Beichler wrote:

[Peter White]

You can get it to work with the larger cogs, up to 32 teeth, but when you do that the shifting on the smaller cogs will suffer, depending on their size, as the upper pulley will be too far from the cogs. I get excellent shifting across the entire range with a 30 tooth large cog and 14 tooth small, but that's the limit, unless you're OK with sluggish shifting at the small end. The problem is you have to tighten the "B" screw too much in order to clear the largest cogs, resulting in the upper pulley being too far from the 11 or 12. I suspect that if I had a 12 tooth small cog it wouldn't shift well, but I haven't tested that as a 12 tooth small cog would never get used, at least not by me. ;-)

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Peter White

[Mark West]

I use it with an 11-32 cassette (friction shifting) and it works fine. I originally used it with a wolf tooth road link but realised it didn’t need it so now run it without. No problems. 

Cheers,

Mark

Glasgow, Scotland

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[dylan green]

Thanks everyone! 

[John Dewey]

Holy smokes, all our bikes are set up with 9-speed mid-cage Shimano rd’s and all handle 33 front / 32 rear with aplomb. I would think long-cage handles almost any crazy thing in back. 

Jock

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[Patrick Moore]

Long ago I used a short cage 8-speed Ultegra rd, on a long mtb hanger, to shift a 14-32 7-speed cassette; it worked fine tho' it was rather stretched out in the 48 and middle cogs, you could use the 26 t granny only with the biggest cogs, and it grumbled when shifting to the 32 in the middle 38 t ring when the mech got covered in sand. But the point is, if a short cage can handle 32 in back then for a long cage it ought to be a doddle.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Bill Lindsay]

For what it's worth, the Long Cage RD-6500 rear derailleur is rated for a 27T max cog.  The Short Cage RD-6500 is rated for a 28T max cog.  A couple people in this thread seem to think that a long cage means it'll shift to a larger cog, and that is not the case with the RD-6500.  The long cage and short cage versions have the same parallelogram, which is the main thing that determines max cog.  The long cage just gets you more capacity, which is the ability to take up slack.  So the long cage version is a better choice if you are running a triple, but the two versions will take about the same max cog.  

I can show my receipts: https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/si/53Z0D/SI-53Z0D-000-00-ENG.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1qgzLw3ODQ8zfvUx6pY8oPpTThCXR2s_Hb3nwBLxBfy1USHnUCMRAT5R0

If a short cage 6500 will barely take a 32, then a long cage 6500 will also barely take a 32 on the same bike, but not a lot more

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA