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Retroshift Teases ‘Cross Friendly Rear Dérailleur

Written by Tyler Benedict
16 Comments
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retroshift cyclocross rear dérailleur

Retroshift just Instagrammed (that’s a verb now, right?) this heavily filtered photo of a rear derailleur, and we confirmed with Adam it’s coming up soon. All he’d really say so far is that it follows the footsteps of his shifters in that it’s designed for making cyclocross bikes work better without breaking the bank.

His inspiration? This photo gallery of destroyed rear mechs. Word is it’ll be available by end of July and there are a few other goodies in the pipeline.

Details and an exclusive first look should be here in a few weeks!
Tyler Benedict
11,280 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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16 Comments
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moove
moove
11 years ago

Yeah, or you could just say that he hooked up w Microshift at Taipei Bicycle Show and saw an opportunity to rebrand their derailleurs…

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The Goats
The Goats
11 years ago

Good call moove but nope – that would be too easy!

Idea is to provide people racing CX a better option. 😉

XOXO

Goats

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Seraph
Seraph
11 years ago

If you have SRAM shifting the answer is super easy. Just get an X.9 or X.0 Type 2 derailleur and you’ll have a quiet and strong drivetrain. I have an X.9 Type 2 with an 11-32 and Rival shifters on my ‘cross bike and it shifts like butter.

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mudrock
mudrock
11 years ago

Most derailleurs snap at the dropout. How are you going to fix that? An even more overbuilt RD will guarantee the DO is the weak link every time. Is that the answer? I guess a new DO is cheaper than a new RD, but muddy grass is going to stop you from pedaling no matter what.

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Ham-planet
Ham-planet
11 years ago

Components specifically designed for off-road riding? How novel!

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filibuster cash
filibuster cash
11 years ago

sorry, tyler. . .north carolina isn’t on the other side of the pond. . .there are no “mechs” anywhere to be found stateside. and if you start talking about your “mates”, we’ll have real problems.

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The Goats
The Goats
11 years ago

mudrock – Believe you are correct on this. The idea is not to build a stronger unit but to tailor one to offer the best chain pass through and at a lower price. If you race CX your rear MECH (Oooh! It’s infectious MATES! : ) is under a lot of pressure to perform = pass chain with high levels of contaminate (not just nud but leaves, straw, course tape whatever) and there will come a point that it can become overcome and flail itself over your cassette and go CRUNCH.

There is only so much one can do, especially on a Goats budget BUT we are confident we can offer a product that on balance will be a very appealing alternative for those racing and with some welcome advantages.

Cheers,

Goats

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IvanMTB
IvanMTB
11 years ago

I have solution. Go single speed 🙂

Cheers!
I.

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The Goats
The Goats
11 years ago

IvanMTB – Yeah you single speeders probably are the smartest ones in the mud. 😉

If you do gota run gears though, our pitch is that you save your super nice expensive STI/Doubletap and Ergopower and trash a set of our shifters instead. Much cheaper to do and also come with some advantages in speed and capability. The $24 crash re-build option is also not too shabby.

XOXO

Goats

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Shifty
Shifty
11 years ago

I’ve used that rear derailleur for thousands of miles. If it is priced right, it will be a perfect option to go with your RetroShift shifters. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle for my cross bike – some rich old guy can’t wait to sell his 10 speed stuff now that everyone has 11 🙂

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David Lewis
David Lewis
11 years ago

A person in the derailleur business may shed crocodile tears at broken equipment, knowing a shiny new derailleur is in (and on) order. A person who knows better would just switch to internally geared hubs. Problem solved.

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Slow Joe Crow
Slow Joe Crow
11 years ago

Internal gearing and CX aren’t a good mix because it puts too much weight in the wrong place, plus it makes it hard to change wheels.
On the other hand a derailleur designed to shift a wide range cassette, shed mud and not cost too much when you break it makes a lot of sense for CX.
This comes from several discussions in the Cross Crusade bike wash lines while looking at mangled derailleurs.

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moove
moove
11 years ago

The Goats – So you really insist that this is derailleur is not a MicroShift product?

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The Goats
The Goats
11 years ago

Move – it is a Microshift unit but not just one of their stock models re-branded, although of course some re-branding will take place. On the face of it you will not likely think it anything very special unless you race CX and welcome excellent performance, support, value and more value.

That’s the last we are saying till they (and the other thing) are done. 🙂

Hugz

The Goats

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Daemon
Daemon
11 years ago

A lot of us started planning our 2014 cross season on the long drive back from Kentucky, so whens it coming out?

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The Goats
The Goats
11 years ago

Daemon- hope to have it done and available before end of July. Will pass info to Bikerumor the moment it is ready to go.

xoxo

The Goats

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