Front derailleur recommendation

[Bernard Duhon]

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]

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

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Guy

[ascpgh]

I also recommend old school (7-spd or less) era performance FDs for your situation

I use a Suntour Superbe Pro FD on my 650B rando bike with an RH 44-30

 crank. It was a better choice than all of the new ones and a bag full of older ones I had and tried.

It has a short enough tail not to foul on the chainstay in its motion, follows the contour of the big ring remarkably well for a design most likely used with a 52t chainring, flat enough side plates to clear the back of the drive side crank arm in its big ring/small cog (9spd) adjustment, manages the chain up to 32t cassettes well,  and (obviously) friction-operated.

.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

[Bernard Duhon]

Yes it was/is mechanical .

The chain stayed meshed with the chainring & doubled up on itself until it jammed on the derailleur.  

Yes the Athena is narrow & has a bulge on the inner plat

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

w

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[Patrick Moore]

My experience with front derailleurs is very likely less than Guy’s, but such as it is it confirms Guy’s experience: narrow-cage road “racing” fds worked fine for me for wide-range “1x + granny” ring setups, this even with subcompact cranksets. My 2 or 3 Dura Ace 7400-series fds (I can’t recall which #s in the series) worked fine with:

38/24 Sugino XD2 9 speed (Fargo) (with outer cage about 1/2” above 38 t ring);

Bontrager Race Lite triple crankset with pipe axle; forget exact tooth count, but perhaps 44/34/24 (cut off outer throw stops on 2 of them to allow shifting to the big ring);

42/28 Ritchey Logic double;

44/28 Ritchey Logic double.

I might even have used one of these with a TA Pro 5 Vis 44/24, long ago, but my memory doesn’t go back that far clearly.

Point is that narrow cage racing front derailleurs work with a lot more than 52/42 or 53/39 racing cranksets.

Not only have I not used racing front derailleurs with as many different non-racing combinations as Guy has, I’ve not done this for nearly as long as he has, since my first mis-use of such a racing fd with a non-stock racing crank/drivetrain started in the aughts (many years riding fixed on road).

On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 8:54 PM Guy Jett <guy4...@gmail.com> wrote:

…. 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.

[ChuckB]

Isn't the "Stubby" just a standard Microshift derailleur? Maybe Microshift or other bike shop has them.

[Drew Saunders]

I’m using a c. 1990 Campy Croce d’Aune FD with my New Albion 26-42-(chain guard) one-by-plus-granny and it works great! I concur with the suggestion of getting an older road style FD, pre-brifter era. I’m guessing anything c. 1995 or earlier should do. 

Drew

[Will Boericke]

I'll agree - a road derailleur works find for this.  I have a Dura Ace 7700 FD shifting 46/26 nicely, in an indexed drivetrain, even.

Will

[Josh C]

I’m a fan of the Dura Ace 7410 & 7800 for wide-low double applications. 7410 is my preference. 

[David P]

I have the same chankset on my Hillborne, but with 44/28 chainrings.  I have used both a Shimano 105 (FD-5700) and CX-70 front derailleurs.  Currently have the 105 on it.

On Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 6:46:59 PM UTC-7 Bernard Duhon wrote:

[Nick Payne]

I use the Deore XT FD-M786 2x10 front derailleur on several bikes with 2x setups that have large chainrings between 38t and 42t, and it works well on all of them. I've used it with 9s, 10s, and 11s chains/cassettes without problem. The widest gap in chainring size I've used is 38/22 chainrings on one bike (on a 94BCD crank). According to the Shimano docs, that FD is rated for a large chainring size of 38-44 teeth.

It's not all silver if that's your thing - the band clamp around the seat tube is black, and the clamp is sized for 34.9 seat tube, with shims to fit either 31.8 or 28.6 seat tubes.

Nick Payne