Shiny front derailleur for 42/28 Silver crankset

[Kurt Henry]

So, I just found out that the few months I thought I had to firm up parts for an upcoming Riv-inspired Inglis/Retrotec custom is a little shorter than that.  When I got a call last week, it was to inform me that I was #2 on the build list, and #1 wasn't returning calls.  Sounds like I need to figure out a few things in short order!  

I want to run a Silver 42/28 crankset but not sure what to use for front shifting duties.  I've used a Suntour Cyclone to shift a 28/45/50 in the past but am not sure that's the best option.  Maybe a derailleur intended for MTB use would be better?

The key other criteria I can think of are that I would prefer at least some shiny parts.  Pure black modern components are a non-starter.  I will have either an XT or XTR on the rear, both with a mix of black and silver, so a little mix on the front is OK.  I'm going to be shifting with Microshift thumbies.  They use friction on the front, so no worries about indexing.  It's just a question of which derailleur is most likely to move the chain in the smoothest way.  Any suggestions?

Thanks all!

Kurt Henry

Lancaster, PA

[Patrick Moore]

Kurt: This is very strictly FWIW, but until I recently swapped the 42 for a 44, for several years I shifted a 42/28 front combo with a 740-something FD and it all worked just fine. Before this bike ("this bike" is my 2016 Chauncey Matthews "road bike for dirt," I shifted a 38/24 9-speed drivetrain on a first-gen Fargo with the same or a very similar-vintage DA 740? fd. It worked fine.

Point being that old fashion straight-cage fds seem to work just fine with sub compact and sub-sub compact chainring setups. And, they're shiny!

Me, I'd look for any old straight-cage old front derailleur.

Again, FWIW, YMMV, etc etc etc.

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Patrick Moore

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

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[Patrick Moore]

Oh, forgot to mention that I'm shifting the 44/28 combo with the very same 7400, 7401, 7402 whatever fd and it still works just fine. I had to raise the fd 2 or 3 mm to clear the 44 but -- said it before -- it all works fine.

[Nick Payne]

Here's a Shimano CX-70 FD I'm using with 40/28 chainrings. The band clamp and rear parallelogram arm are matte dark grey and the front parallelogram arm is shiny silvery grey - it's somewhat dirty in this photo. The shifting on the unramped/unpinned chainrings is fine using Shimano bar-end shifters.

Nick Payne

[Drew Saunders]

When changing my Riv from 3x9 to 2x11, with a New Albion 26/42/chainguard setup, instead of using my Suntour XC Pro FD (which probably would have worked just fine), that I've been using for ~25 years, I opted for an older "road" double. I found a really nicely cleaned up Campagnolo Croce d'Aune FD from c. 1990 on eBay from the UK, and it shifts just fine. It's also very shiny! I've always liked having a mix of manufacturers, so although a similar Dura Ace or Ultegra would be just as good, I wanted a Campy part because I didn't have any other Campy parts on this bike. 

So, any good "road double" from the friction front shifter era would probably be great.

[Kim H.]

My Shimano CX-70 FD shifts very nicely on my Silver crankset with rings of 34/20T with an Avid Miro-adapter. I have a SunRace 11-40T cassette with a Shimano M952 RD.

Currently, there are two of the Shimano CX-70 FDs' on eBay; one bottom pull and the other direct mount.

[daniel belyusar]

HI Kurt, 

I picked up the cheap-y skeleton key FD from Riv when I built my 42/20 Appaloosa a couple months ago and it is frankly pretty remarkable. I am also using Microshift Thumbies.  As the ad copy says it's an "ugly son-of-a-bitch" but it is a little shiny per spec above. It has an unusual (to me) cable routing that I think makes it particularly snug. I've honestly never had a FD go on so quick and with so little adjustment. A couple hundred miles in, some fairly rough, some quite hilly and it's never missed a beat. https://www.rivbike.com/products/derailer-front-stubby-skeleton-key

Dan in Chicago