Shifting Attention To The Derailleur
When you’re out riding, you turn a corner, and a hill comes up out of nowhere; derailleurs are your friends!
The derailleur is responsible for shifting, or ‘derailing’ the bike chain onto different sprockets, thus changing you in and out of gears.
Contemporary rear and front derailleurs comprise of a moveable chain-guide, which is remotely operated by a Bowden cable that is attached to a shift lever, which in turn is mounted on the handlebar, the handlebar stem or the down tube. By operating the lever (whilst pedalling), a change in cable tension causes the chain-guide to shift from side to side and into different sprockets.
Higher quality derailleurs tend to be lighter and shift more smoothly, especially when you’re pushing some serious power.
Quality aside, the main variable in derailleurs is the gear capacity, with the range sitting from 5 to 11 speed.
