3

I have a 48-38-28 chainwheel and I wonder if Shimano 600EX Arabesque has enough leeway to accommodate it. If you know another derailleur from the same era that could do it that would be also useful to me.

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Typically, a derailleur designed for a double doesn't work well with a triple - the cages are shaped differently among other things which makes proper clearance hard (so you should probably run a double - I don't know if there were road triples in that era). See Sheldon's take here: sheldonbrown.com/front-derailers.html
    – Batman
    Mar 4, 2014 at 1:22

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

Usually racing front derailleurs like an arabesque will not allow the extra tolerance for a third ring. With that being said, the only way to know for sure is to try it.

One thing to keep in mind is that the spindle length on your bottom bracket affects this as well. While your derailleur may have the extra tolerance to fudge it in some cases, if your spindle is longer than shorter, then it may push your crank too far out for your fd to reach, even with the limit screws taken completely out.

To try it, just throw the crank and fd on. Take some bare cable and attach to the fd so that you can pull it with your hand. Take the two limit screws all the way out and manually induce pull so that the cage moves all the way out, to check for the large ring. Then just see if letting go all the way will shift back down into the small ring.

Generally, I'd say it won't work... trust me, I've thought of the same thing before. I always end up finding another 28.6mm clamp fd that was meant to support three rings.

Improve this answer
1
  • I did find one super rare piece and it seems to fit :)
    – Aleksandar Savkov
    Mar 13, 2014 at 17:11
2

A road triple will work. I run a shimano 600 arabesque drive train, chainrings 52-45-38 .28-13 7 speed cassette,double front der,short cage rear der.to make it work I use a 117.5x68 bb spindle and set the chainline up using the middle chainring and the middle cassette cog this setup works very nicely in the coast mtns where I live. When I ride in the Sierra mtns I switch the cassette to a 32-14 7 speed with a long cage rear der.I limit the cassette setup to a 7 speed as any more cogs on the rear you are limited in gear selection by chain crossover.

Improve this answer
0

Normally, it doesn't but there are some rare pieces that do support three wheels. I just bought one (Shimano 600 Arabesque), I haven't installed it yet, but it seems to fit.

Thanks to Booker for his input.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.