Hillborne Front Derailleur Recommendations?

[Joe Bashaw]

I want to use 42/28 chainrings. My current derailleur is a Suntour Superbe Pro (see photos). Friction shifting: Rear cassette is an 8 speed 11-34. Rear derailleur is a Deore XT RD-M739 SGS. BB Phil Wood 111mm. Rene Herse Double crankset. Rear chainline is 45.4mm. So I will set the center of the crank either at 45.4mm or set the large chainring at 45.4mm. I'm wondering if one of these FD might work? I think they may have shorter cages than the Suntour. #2 option looks to have a chainline of 46mm, maybe the closest to my cassette chainline?

1. Microshift FD-R252 R8

2. Shimano FD-RX400 GRX (10 spd)

3. Shimano FD-R3000 Sora (9 spd)

[Patrick Moore]

I kept the stock (installed by Rivendell)  LX FD on my 2010 Hillborne when I changed from 46/36/24 X 7 to 38/24 X 9; I even left it in the same place so the cage would clear the bash guard that replaced the 46. It shifted fine as you’d expect since the middle and inner rings were still largely the same.

Presently doing the same thing with 44/28 rings (X 10) and a bashguard with a 8 speed Dura Ace 7402 FD. Again, it works fine.

All the rings sit sky high above the big ring.

IME, with friction shifting and rings down to 38 teeth just about any standard fd up to at least 2010 will work. Try it with the Superbe Pro first. (If you care to sell the Superbe Pro, I might be interested.)

Fun fact: a DA 7402 fd will work with a Bontrager Race Lite mountain triple (172 mm Q factor) if you saw off the outer throw stop.

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Patrick Moore

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

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[Nick Payne]

I routinely use Shimano MTB 2x10 or 2x11 FDs for that sort of setup. Here's a Deore XT FD-M786 on my Appaloosa with 38/26 chainrings. The Shimano specs for the derailleur say that it's intended for use with a large chainrings 38-44t.

Nick Payne

[Joe Bashaw]

Thanks Patrick, yeah you and quite a few others have said you can run the derailleurs pretty high above the rings and seem to work with these older derailleurs. I’ll give it a try. The Superbe Pro is just too beautiful to not try.

[Joe Bashaw]

Thanks Nick. The MTB FD run a 48.8mm chainline. My rear cassette is about 45mm chainline and the BB I already have puts me at 45mm chainline. So I might either try the Superbe Pro… Or I may actually try an IRD Alpina compact triple FD. Those have 45mm chainline and from what I’ve heard a triple will work with a double crank. Can’t find any IRD compact doubles anymore. Such a shame! It would be great if they made those again.