Kabuto

Interesting to read that, Jipe! Maybe my chain length issue is something specific to SRAM long cage derailleurs meant to work with 42T cogs.

For Shimano derailleurs, only two links extra are needed on top of the big-to-big cog chain length, whereas SRAM recommends four links.

With the 52T chainring and 32T cog at the back, that worked out to 114 links. I tried 112 link and 114 link chains I had laying around, and both worked ok other than poor shifting from 9T to 10T. I put the 118 link chain back on, and it works like a charm.

Edit:

> Maybe my chain length issue is something specific to SRAM long cage derailleurs meant to work with 42T cogs.

↑ Yup, after a little more digging I'm fairly certain this is the reason. Both the Shimano Ultegra RD6800-GS and 105 RD5800-GS derailleurs Jipe has used/is using are designed for a maximum cog size of 32T, which the Bailout cassette has, so there should no issues with setting up those derailleurs normally.

However, my SRAM X1 X-Horizon long cage rear derailleur is designed for a maximum cog size of 42T whereas the maximum cog size of 32T on Bailout cassette is considerably smaller (same size as 3rd gear on the SRAM 10-42 cassette I was running). The solution to my shifting problem was to set up the derailleur normally for the 42T cog then effectively "never use" any gears below the 32T "3rd gear".