Home > Feature Stories

Give Broken Derailleurs the BURD, with Retroshift’s New Affordable CX Rear Derailleur

37 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Retroshift Burd Shimano

Cyclocross is hard on parts. Specifically, shifters and rear derailleurs. Retroshift already has you covered in the shifting department with their super durable Retroshift CX levers. Now, after a bit of teasing, Retroshift is taking the wraps off their entry into the rear derailleur market – the BURD.

Designed to address the specific needs of a cyclocross rear derailleur, without added fluff, the new derailleur promises to be precise, durable, rebuildable, and most importantly – cheap to replace.

Shift past the break for more.

burd-225x300

Retroshift doesn’t hide the fact that the BURD is an improved version of another company’s derailleur. In fact, BURD stands for Blatantly Upgraded Rebranded Derailleur. The point is to make the best option for a CX rear derailleur and redesigning the entire unit wasn’t necessary.

Instead, Retroshift started with the derailleur body from a Microshift unit that they feel  nearly matches the performance of a 105/Ultegra unit. Considering their Retroshift levers are also made to their specifications by Microshift, it was an easy choice.

Retroshift Burd FSA Ceramic

One of the most important parts of a CX rear derailleur are the pulleys. Bad pulleys won’t directly cause but usually contribute greatly in the death of the derailleur from failure to pass chain – one of the more common derailleur deaths in cross. To ensure the best possible pulley movement, Retroshift is offering two models of the BURD – one with Ultegra sealed pulleys, and the other with FSA ceramic pulleys.

Retroshift Burd Shimano 2

According to Retroshift, “The most common reason as best we can tell from our ongoing autopsies is from blockages from anything from wads of mud/grass, course tape, corn husks (a Kruger’s Farm specialty) and even the odd dollar bill could result in a catastrophe.  Pulley health won’t cause a death by itself but a stiff pulley will contribute greatly. Use good pulleys and maintain them damn it! Pulleys matter.”

As for pricing, one of the main reasons for the upgraded pulleys on the BURD is that more expensive derailleurs have better pulleys, but more expensive derailleurs aren’t really necessary for cross. Due to the mud and slop a cross bike is subjected to, cosmetic finishes mean little, and even with high end pulleys there is a good chance you will need to replace a derailleur or two during the race season.

Retroshift Burd FSA Ceramic 2

Since we’re not all sponsored pros, price matters. Equipped with the Ultegra pulleys, the BURD will retail for $69! The FSA ceramic pulleys raise the price to $89, and do not have the active float of the Ultegra pulleys – instead they have a thinner cross section to the teeth that provides passive float. Even better, either derailleur is eligible for Retroshift’s $34 rebuild program should you break the derailleur for any reason, you can send it in and they will transfer your pulleys to a new unit for only $34.

While the derailleur is a rebranded Microshift unit, Retroshift didn’t want to simply offer another company’s derailleur unless there were proven benefits to the new design. With the rebuildable option and upgraded pulleys, Retroshift feels they are able to offer a product with a performance to $$ ratio that is unmatched along with a rebuild option that makes it an easy choice.

Both derailleurs are Shimano/Retroshift 9/10 speed compatible and are limited to a 28t max cog.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

37 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Steven
Steven
11 years ago

Or one could simply get some Tacx bearing pulleys for $20.

Volsung
Volsung
11 years ago

oh, hadn’t you heard? i thought everyone had heard.

raphael
raphael
11 years ago

34 bucks to unbolt pulleys from one derailleur to another new unit? isnt that a bit steep? or does that include the new derailleur as well?

AlanM
AlanM
11 years ago

@Volsung, heard what?

rathers
rathers
11 years ago

I`ll be using X9 clutches this year. Lets see the grass and crud move them….

Sevo
Sevo
11 years ago

@AlanM-Haven’t you heard? The Bird is the word! (said in my best Peter Griffith voice)

The Goats
11 years ago

Steven – Tacx are also good pulleys and the ceramic ones retail for about $50. The FSA retail for $70+

Please note also that simply putting some tacx pulleys in your Ultegra derailleur for example will not then give you the ability to send it to us when broken to get a new one for $34 🙂

Still love you Steven.

Always!

XOXO

The Goats

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

I was hoping for something to replace the XT 9 speed derailleur connected to retroshifters with an 12-36 in the back on my gravel bike. Maybe next time…

Mike Grozak
Mike Grozak
11 years ago

To be honest, from my point of view and experience in mud-racing, the pulleys with ball bearings inside is exremely bad idea for CX and mud riding in general. Such pulleys could be easily jammed by mud, comparing to more primitive and also cheaper bushing-based pulleys of 105/slx derailleurs.

halfwheel
halfwheel
11 years ago

…or you can run a mtn bike RD on the cross bike. Have been for years, and actually prefer them over road RD for cross.

XT, X.0 has proven to have good pulleys right out of the box, stout enough to take a real beating. XT Shadow has also proven to be perfect tucked under cassette, out of the way of heels, and other riders while shouldering the bike.

Even at Krugers, I had noticed, most broken RD were road. I didn’t recall seeing even one broken mtn bike RD, but I could be wrong.

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

I was hoping for something that would support the 11-36 on my gravel bike. I will have to continue using my retroshift levers, and 9 speed XT rd.

The Goats
11 years ago

Mike – keep using your XT for now, we will likely look at something for the Gravel riders in the future. For now we just wanted to offer what we felt was a better value option for our CX racers.

Cheers!

The Goats
Retroshift.LLC
Portland, OR

Mindless
Mindless
11 years ago

Best derailleur – Zee. Can be had for the same price. Now if only it would work with road shifters.

Ham-planet
Ham-planet
11 years ago

@mindless
Are you sure it doesn’t? I’ve seen DH bikes with Sora rear mechs before, so it seems there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

jose
jose
11 years ago

Dyna-sys and 10speed road are not compatible. Very different pull ratios. I have seen a few bikes in the wild with the setup but there are gears in the range that don’t work.

There are also adapter pulleys.

halfwheel
halfwheel
11 years ago

@ Jose, correct, 10 speed Dyna-sys is not compatible with road shifters.

However, 9-speed shadow (and older gen) XT, SLX, XTR are compatible with 10-speed road.

The Goats
11 years ago

@halfwheel – “9-speed shadow (and older gen) XT, SLX, XTR are compatible with 10-speed road” We dig this but do worry the trend might be away from this.

Goats

spokejunky
spokejunky
11 years ago

Love and want. Juuust for clarification. If I decide to gut the stock pulleys for say, VCRC’s or AEST’s aluminum pulley and I gets me some inshoreance. If I send my broken BURD back would the Retroshift send me a spanky new rear derailleur sans pulleys?

Seraph
Seraph
11 years ago

Problem solved: you can run any SRAM MTB 10-speed derailleur with a SRAM road shifter. I run an X.9 Type 2 short cage with an 11-32 cassette and a 39/42 crank. No chain slap, good mud clearance, great gear ratio.

gravity
gravity
11 years ago

I have a 105 rear derailleur in great shape that I’ve been trying to sell on eBay for two weeks. I’m asking $20 plus shipping and not getting it. Why would anyone buy this when you can pick up a Shimano derailleur for under $20?

speedy
speedy
11 years ago

@gravity – because people want new things. Not used, in unknown condition from an auction site.

Chris
11 years ago

Very cool, so often in the bike world now we have very expensive, very disposable parts. nice to see a cool reality check. Will be stocking these if QBP gets them.

Joshua Murdock
11 years ago

This is an awesome idea!

Bart
Bart
11 years ago

Wow, a company that actually responds to users’ comments to answer to all the negativity that is thrown around here from riders that sit behind their computers all day, KUDOS to the GOATS (retroshift)! need more companies, or at least PR people, like you

The Goats
11 years ago

Chris – Hit us up directly (contact details at retroshift.com). We provide all our products direct to bike shops with better margin than you likely make with other shifters/derailleurs. Some of still manage/own bike shops and our preference is that customers buy from you not our site.

spokejunky – If you break a BURD it does not matter what pulleys you have in it when you send it to us, we will send you back a new BURD with the same pulleys. We might even clean and lube them for you. We like lubing. 🙂

St.John
11 years ago

I like the idea. But does it also will work for Europe? I think the shipping costs to Portland make it much more expensive.

drider
drider
11 years ago

This is great. Microshift makes great derailleurs, already have experience with them and killing them is hard. I’m getting a cross bike ready for this fall and I hope I can get my hands on one of these soon; this and a set of CX2 shifters and I’m good for mud and beer.

NASH
NASH
11 years ago

Having a thinner pulley as found on the Trax and FSA pulleys is greatly inferior to the shimano G pulley, the float on the G pulley works under load and isn’t affected by dirt reducing its range. Shimano have a patent out on this floating pulley system otherwise Trax and FSA would be using it. I made the poor choice of purchasing Trax and they are difficult to tune and very temperamental.

Sigismond0
Sigismond0
11 years ago

But is the RD ever really under load? The only load it should ever really have on it should be the tension from the RD spring and nothing more.

NASH
NASH
11 years ago

When changing the gears the pulley is under a side load so yeah.

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

I don’t question for a second this derailleur’s performance, but wouldn’t a CX-specific clutch derailleur have been the most significant improvement that could have been made for the sport?

The Goats
11 years ago

St.John – we expect to offer a similar service via http://www.retroshift.de

Xoxo

Goats

St.John
11 years ago

The Goats – Thanks for the link.

John
John
11 years ago

But Nashbar sells the same derailleur for $29.99.

The Goats
11 years ago

John – wrote – “But Nashbar sells the same derailleur for $29.99”

And so then a Volkswagen Beetle is a Porsche 911.

No. NOT the same derailleur, same manufacturer but different model.

Hugs,

Goats

Scott
Scott
7 years ago

Will this shift well with my red shifter?

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.