As title; Front mechs (mine top swing XT M770) seem to be designed these days to accumulate as much mud and debris as possible. I seem to be constanntly clearing this, both mid and post ride. Some of you bright sparks must have come up with a solution. Rubber gater? Deflector? Show me your solutions!!
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top swing mechs are terrible for collecting mud.
have you got room for a bottom swing (conventional) mech? they don't have the 'shelf'. so don't collect it anywhere near as badly.
Dave
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HTH
3 very helpful pictures there 😀
Mud finds a way in, if not from the rear tyre splattering it onto the convenient flat shelf left there by messrs Shimano, then the front tyre's filth will inevitably clog it.
The solutions are to clean the mud off each ride and to lube the pivots of the mech regularly or to go for a big cassette (36T) and a single chainring and guide.
Spare a thought for those of us running a front mech AND a dual chainguide. Declagging that lot takes patience. Mud and water seems to collect behind the bashring too, which makes the chain rust if you're unwary.
Lizard Skins Grunge Guard?
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could go 1x9/10 and avoid that whole problematic situation 😀
Yes, I should have seen the obvious retort to go single ring (1x9/10 or ss). I was just thinking there may be some more creative solutions out there. Milkie, that grunge guard looks worth considering. Does it work for top swing mechs?
PJM1974, "clean and lube" is my current solution, but I seem to be cleaning mid-ride quite a bit and hence the thread...
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cut a piece of inner tube, poke hole for the cable to pass through, ziptie to the seatube to create a mudflap that can be trimmed to suit. Been using mine for years, very effective, also have one on the downtube covering the suspension pivot bearings.
1x10
hth
Get rid of the front mech?
Funny, I have never had a problem with dirty front mech's not working? Is it a problem, or do you not like crap gathering there?
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TJ's solution is about as good as you will get. I had something like that for a while, not for mech, but to reduce the amount of crap getting into my BB bearings
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to OP... have a look at the Shimano Mud Flad....
without being a smart arse and posting pictures of bikes that don't hae a front mech, i'll try and propose a proper solution to your problem.
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i've had one for years and in that time i've looked at my mech (by that i mean serviced/cleaned or ignored it) about twice and never had to do anything with it.
have a look at the following links. i'm in germnay, so google only throws up german sites. maybe one of them delivers FOC to the UK....
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/a2366/mud-flap-umwerferschutz.html
http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/shimano-mud-flap/aid:41427
never knew such a thing existed!
hmm annoyingly Madison don't bring them in by the looks of the b2b site.
Will tweet the boss man and see if I can get some of them - handy wee thing!
Code = SM-MF10 i think.
Bosh. Boss man at Madison getting someone to look into it tomorrow.
The mud flap looks like the best solution, but i don't think my front mech has ever stopped working due to mud clogging.
alpin - that's exactly what I was looking for! UK mud and no UK cycle shop stocks them. Wonder if Rose ship FOC...
you're welcome....
like i said, i've had one on my bike for years and it has prevented to mech from clogging in mud and snow. it weighs next to nothing and does its job without any fuss. fit and forget...
well done thebikechain 8)
Looks very much like the inner tube one I made for mine 🙂
...or a cut down STI hood