I have a long cage XTR M960 rapid rise rear mech but now need a medium cage, can i buy a medium cage and fit it to my existing mech or am i better off buying another mech?

Just thinking of the price of a new one compared to possible price of just a cage.

If it is possible are there any guides to follow to make sure i don’t mess it up?

Thanks

I assume it’s just a case of changing the plates and re indexing. HOWEVER, I’m not sure you can remove the non-drive side plate on newer xtr mechs. You also have the problem of getting hold of a medium cage. There are a few aftermarket CF ones but last time I checked they cost as much as new mech.

you can use a long cage mech where you’d otherwise have a medium surely?

Ignore (some of) my last post. Xt/slx you can’t change. Xtr you can. It’s just a case of getting hold of a medium cage, in which case you have the choice of above mentioned CF ones, xtr ones or saint ones.

I can’t say for sure what can and can’t be done but if you have the bits it can be worth experimenting… says the man who is running an XT medium cage on an SLX mech.

Is it possible to buy the cage without the mech?

Ignore (some of) my last post. Xt/slx you can’t change

Ignore that bit too, m780 xt can be changed for definate as I did one last night

Not sure if they do the exact one you are after but try these;

Fibre-Lyte

Yeah you can replace the cage on an XTR (or Saint) mech. You can’t on the cheaper ones (XT down).

Pretty easy to do and you can choose cage length.

You can definitely do it on current XT Mad Pierre. Otherwise Shimano wouldn’t offer the cage plates as spare parts.

RD-M780 parts diagram

kevj – Member
Not sure if they do the exact one you are after but try these;

Fibre-Lyte

I think those are for one side only… so you would still need the correct “short” other side.

You need to find someone with a broken rear mech the same as you have but with the short cage to build a frankenmech(tm)

thanks for the replies guys, will look into the links etc and exploded diagrams on shimano website again

messiah, love the frankenmech term lol 8)

wwaswas, it is running fine but would like a bit more clearance, just in case, not necessarily a need as first posted just something i would like to change.

I would love a saint m810 rear mech but can’t afford a new one at present, have tried wanted ads for medium cage mechs but no replies 🙁

You can definitely do it on current XT Mad Pierre. Otherwise Shimano wouldn’t offer the cage plates as spare parts.

Used to be the case. Might have changed on newer ones?

Last time my mate’s XT spring popped out inside the mech (mid-ride) it wasn’t possible to whip the cage off and fix it (as you can with saint/XTR) because the cage was not bolted on…. not sure how old it was tho?