Bicycle Tutor

Hi everyone,

Complete newbie here, trying to fix up an oldish cheap bike of mine. I fixed up basically everything but am stuck with needing a new front derailleur and was wondering what I should look for when buying online.

Unfortunately I don't have any way to get to a bike store, so I'm really hoping you guys can help me out.

My bike is a Repco 26" YS628 MTB, the rear derailleur says shimano and the front one says falcon. There are six sprockets on the rear axle and three on the front.

Basically I was wondering if I could buy this part and if it'd work for me. Do I need to worry about things like the angle of my upright I'm clamping it too or the size of the three sprockets? Or is this all standard?

Cheers

There are a couple things you need to check on your front derailleur (FD).
- Any "ATB" or "MTB" FD should handle the triple gears fine, just amae sure you don't get a road derailleur intended for 2 front gears.
- You need to know the "clamp diameter" which is the size of the tube the FD clamps on to on your frame. Probably 1", but you should check.
- You need to know if your current FD is "top pull" or "bottom pull". This is basically which way the cable comes out. If the cable goes down from the FD under the bottom bracket, it's a "bottom pull" and vice-versa
- Angle of the seat tube is probably not an issue unless you have a unusual frame design.

It looks like the one you link to should work, but I wanted to give you the details so you know what the issues are.
good luck

What you picked will work - but that is an expensive FD.

I like the Shimano M413, which can be had for less than $10- on ebay; can be cabled for top or bottom pull, and is very easy to set up.

The thing you have to watch for is the diameter of the seat tube. There are three standard diameters: 28.6mm (1.125"), 31.8mm (1.25") and 34.9mm (1.375"). There are shims available. Mid level FD for 34.9mm are often very inexpensive, I purchase a short piece of 6061 tubing with 1.125" ID and 1.375" OD, cut pieces to length and slice length wise to make shims. You can see examples:
http://forums.bicycletutor.com/thread-3167.html
http://forums.bicycletutor.com/thread-3036-page-1.html
both have 28.6mm OD seat tubes with 34.9mm FDs