Attention: even more, opposing anecdotal evidence follows.
On today's group ride, on a relatively mellow part of trail, a 12 speed SLX RD spontaneously decided its cage would be better off with a 90° twist. The owner's ride was ruined, but it's unclear what caused the issue.
So I'd argue rear derailleurs are indeed quite fragile almost everywhere ;)
Regarding the weight savings, one could surely argue that rotating weight matters more for acceleration behaviour, and unsuspended weight affects suspension performance negatively.
I personally would be happiest with a wide-range, few-gears-hence-robust kind of system on my FS.
The hardtail's fine as a singlespeed. On that note -- maybe it's just us singlespeeders who go back to a geared bike once in a while and get annoyed by how finicky and fragile chain-based shifting systems tend to be :)
Oct. 24, 2019, 12:07 p.m. - twk
Attention: even more, opposing anecdotal evidence follows. On today's group ride, on a relatively mellow part of trail, a 12 speed SLX RD spontaneously decided its cage would be better off with a 90° twist. The owner's ride was ruined, but it's unclear what caused the issue. So I'd argue rear derailleurs are indeed quite fragile almost everywhere ;) Regarding the weight savings, one could surely argue that rotating weight matters more for acceleration behaviour, and unsuspended weight affects suspension performance negatively. I personally would be happiest with a wide-range, few-gears-hence-robust kind of system on my FS. The hardtail's fine as a singlespeed. On that note -- maybe it's just us singlespeeders who go back to a geared bike once in a while and get annoyed by how finicky and fragile chain-based shifting systems tend to be :)