about the IRD Alpina-d front derailer,,,

[samcr...@gmail.com]

Howdy,

I recently purchased Riv's Silver triple crankset and I look forward to getting it spinning soon. I'm looking to buy a front derailer, and I reached out to Riv for recommendations. One of them was the IRD Alpina, which I'm sure some (or many) of you ride with. 

Here's the thing - when I look at the IRD "Alpina-d" online, I've read that it's "only compatible with drop bars." I reached out to IRD, they say this is so. (To be fair, I didn't think to ask the "why".) I've seen the "Alpina-f" is for flat bars, but no one has them in stock any more, and the IRD website only lists one version of the derailer (pictured as the "Alpina-d".

What I'm riding - flat/semi-swept back bars (and perhaps even more swept back bars some day), with the triple crank and thumb shifters in friction mode, and a bottom pull set-up on my frame. Will this IRD Alpina-d front derailer work with my set up? Any experience and wisdom is much appreciated. Thanks much! 

-Sosa

[Joe Bernard]

I did some searching on this and what I see is IRD says it's optimized for Shimano STI road shifters and can work with Campy Ergo, too. The "dropbar" nomenclature is a bit deceiving, it's the shifters most folks use on drops they're concerned with because the derailleur has to work with front indexing. Assuming that fd works with the chainring sizes you're using, it'll be fine with any friction shifter. 

[Jan O.]

On my recently sold Atlantis, I use to run a Sugino Triple with an IRD Alpina-d front derailleur and MicroShift SL-T09 Thumb Shifters (in friction mode) on Albatross bars. Worked great.

Jan

San Francisco, CA

[ascpgh]

Assumptions based on bar type sure are foggy. Drop bars can be mounted on almost anything and not limiting of shifters, thumbs have been mounted up on the flats and Genevalle puts them on brake levers. 

I suspect IRD's differentiation is about bottom bracket width and "drop bar" being equated to 68mm "road" BB standard. Some road FDs just don't have the outward throw to go to the big ring and the extra 5 mm that 73mm BBs require. It's an odd thing for a maker/marketer of them to be discrete about, or not know outright when you ask them to differentiate.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

[samcr...@gmail.com]

I heard back from IRD about this, and here's what they say: 

"The F has not been made for at lest 6 years and was designed for the shifter pull ratio that upright style  (shimano mtn) shifter had.  The Alpina D was a triple designed around the shimano road pull ratios. 

The current model of the Alpina is the D version and uses drop bar pull ratio (shimano road). "

This response lead me to researching more about shifter pull ratios, so naturally I turned to Sheldon:

"The ratio of cable movement to derailer movement differs with Shimano's "road " vs. "MTB " front derailers. This can cause indexing problems if you use a "road" front derailer with upright handlebars or a "MTB" front derailer with drop handlebars. This is a concern if you are running an indexed front shifter, such as Shimano STI or RapidFire shifters.

It is not a problem if you are using a friction system, such as bar-end shifters or downtube shifters. It is also not a problem with ratcheting systems such as Campagnolo Ergo."   ..... https://www.sheldonbrown.com/front-derailers.html

I run all friction, all the time, so no issues. I ordered the IRD front derailer yesterday. Thanks all!