Originally Posted by
noobinsf
I would say even within the 70's... The difference between my previous bike with a Suntour GT (long cage, but heavy steel and low end) and my current bikes with first-gen Cyclone GT and Blue Line GT are night and day. The Cyclone and Blue Line still represent some of the best friction shifting available, I would imagine, especially when coupled to modern ramped rear cassettes and freewheels. When compared to my other bike with a Microshift Centos short cage in friction mode, I could not perceive a difference.
Very true, I didn't give enough credit to some of the excellent derailleurs of the 1970s.
My main point, I guess, is that there haven't been any performance-based reasons to stick with short-cage derailleurs for a long time. Just vanity remains at this point (which I will admit to on one bike.)
