cmcanulty

I use the cheap ones and they last forever, the trade off is mostly weight. On bicycles less weight=higher price

Retro Grouch 

I think that it's kind of like throwing a tennis ball for a dog to retrieve. My bet is you'll get tired of the test before that derailleur gives out.

EKW in DC

Sorry to resuscitate and then hijack a thread that's been dead for a couple weeks, but you were actually talking about my gear (and not totally dissing it out of hand), so I thought I'd ask the following nooby-ish question:

I've got a cheap-o hybrid w/ a Tourney RX-30 rear derailleur on it that is my only bike and a daily commuter at that. The rear wheel is shot (bent axle, broken spokes galore) , and I'm looking to replace it. The current wheel has a 7-speed Shimano freewheel on it, and I'm looking at a possible replacement wheel that has a Deore LX hub, on which I'm thinking of running a 7 speed Shimano HG50 cassette w/ similar gearing to what I have now.

Before I plop down my limited funds on a new wheel, cassette, etc., I just wanted to make sure there shouldn't be any issues with a conversion from freewheel to freehub as far as my Tourney derailleur and current shifters (basic Shimano V-brake easy-fire trigger type) are concerned. 7 speeds=7 speeds, whether they're on a freehub cassette or a freewheel, right?

Or is it overly naive to assume that a 7 speed Shimano shifter, a 7 speed Shimano rear derailleur, and a 7 speed Shimano cassette are all compatible?

Again, sorry for the hijack and bump, but I thought you all might be able to clarify things and hopefully reassure me enough so I can pull the trigger on this purchase and finally get my wheel woes taken care of. Cheers!

EKW in DC

Never mind. Got the answer I needed...

Kevinator

I've been using a Tourney TX51 on my electric folder for maybe 6 months and so far its held up great....$10 well spent. Like others have mentioned, it has big plastic gears and the cage is huge (which is a good thing if you like carrying more links for a better chainline, but adds more weight). But I've found that even with electric motor power and 20" wheels, neither have become an issue.

The rear hub/gear cluster and the chainring takes most of the load (and I shift under full throttle most of the time). I can't really imagine banging the derailleur on anything on the road since I'd be more likely to hit something with my pedals first. Also,

I only got the Tourney to get my bike project together and had planned on upgrading to something nice once I figured out my drivetrain layout. At this point, the Tourney has worked well enough for me to consider sticking with it until it blows up. Even after that, at $10 each, I can afford to buy 10 of them vs. a nicer derailleur. Of course...this is because:
1) weight/size aren't my major concerns
2) under motor power, even a cheap derailleur feels good...so long as its properly adjusted

I'm using my Tourney with a Shimano Alivio trigger shifter and both work great. The Tourney rapidfire shifters are decent too.

RT

I have 1,000+ miles on my Nexsave RD purchased from nashbar.com for $5. At that price, I figured anything would be better than God-awful looking Acera RD that came with the bike. Still going strong. I agree with those who say, that like a car, you take care of her, she'll take care of you. Regular maintenance is not only necessary, but fun, too.

|3iker

IIRC, there are a few variants of the Tourney series. Anyhow my old hardtail has Tourney tx50 or something. It shifts fine. Like anything, adjustment of the cable is critical. RD rarely acts up. It's the FD even though its task is to push the chain back and forth that has most issues. And it is the part where mfg skims on because often times consumers hone their eyes on the Rear Derailleur on the spec sheet.
BTW, isn't plastic supposed to be lighter than metal?

Is the Tourney RD larger than Altus, Deore and XT RDs? Never noticed that.

CNsylvester

Hi New here and found this tread interesting.

I have an old Shimano Tourney rear derailleur (about 20years old) which I'd like to replace as its bent out of alignment. What do I need to check before buying a replacement Shimano Tourney. (its a 10 speed mens road racer) Thanks in advance!

Ken

noglider 

Show us pictures. Are you sure it's the derailleur and not the hanger that is bent? Take pictures from behind as well as from the right side.

lopek77

That is the way most companies grow their business. In this case it's creating inside competition, creating image and needs - even if we don't really need it. Do I need Cadillac if I can get the same car under Chevrolet name and for less? Are HID lights, leather or build in GPS helping me get to my work faster?

I didn't notice any huge difference between older LX, SLX, Tourney, Acera, Alivio and Deore. All of them was shifting pretty quick and always perfectly. Price difference was huge on other hand.
Shimano is actually rebranding "yesterdays" high tech technology and putting it in "today's" low end components.

And I'm so sorry to open an old thread...I'm such a terrible person. I did it again...and all against all the rules...I even hacked Reply option to make it work...I'm a bad person... LOL

Retro Grouch 

Before spending any money, try this:

Shift into a gear combination that makes your derailleur arm point downward. Now lean your bike against something as vertically as you can and look at your derailleur from the back. If it looks like the bottom of your derailleur arm is pointing toward the tire, that's bad. Bend it back so that it points straight down.

My bet is that'll fix it. If it doesn't you haven't lost anything and you can still buy a new derailleur.

Drew Eckhardt 

20 years unless you get offended by the aesthetics and replace it sooner.

Campagnolo Record plastic pulleys hold up fine and run quietly.

Retro Grouch 

Yup. How thinly can you slice the baloney? I think that all levels of Shimano components at least work pretty darn well. I suspect the other manufacturers stuff does too but I have less experience with them.

I used to tell people that, if I moved up or down 2 component groups I could sense a difference in the crispness of operation but I couldn't feel a difference moving up or down only 1 group. I also think that derailleurs work best when matched with same group shifters. I think that the lower end shifters are less precise and allow you to overshift a tiny amount to make up for the slop in a lower end derailleur.

Turtle Speed

My Tourney derailer rocks. Thousands of miles through rain and snow and still shifts perfectly.

noglider 

lopek, good points.

Long ago, I was a bike biz employee. The wholesale prices of low end and high end components had tiny price differences. Interesting, huh?

cwacycling

I found this thread by Google and how similar your thoughts are with mine about how little there is to more expensive components.

My experience is also with Shimano Tourney and low end no group set parts.

In 2005 I bought a cheap bicycle from market, it did cost around 200 euros and it has Renault logo in it, it is perhaps something like european city bike, but also it has properties of hybrid bike. 38C rubbers, 700c wheels, v-brakes, 21 gears, SR-Suntour crankset, DNP front derailleur, fenders and rear rack, all the usual bits.

This bike had Shimano Tourney rear derailleur, I did ride all of my shopping trips, exercise etc. with it as I had not enough funds for car upkeep at the time, 2 years I drove year around, in snow, coldest ride I have ever done was during that time, -40C, gears did not work too well then, also had issues with brakes, but cold was the worst, nothing in bike did not fail, after bike warmed up everything worked just fine.
I didn't do any mainentance, when chain got very noisy I put some oil on it so that it was soaked and then started riding right away, little I did understood about mysteries of chain lubrication.

Then there was few years that I did not ride that much, a little bit every year, but not much, I think that it was around 2009 that I started to do some exercising again and drove one longer trip that took around 6 hours, gearing in that bike was horrible, especially to hills I had to push pedals with all my might to keep going forward.

2010 SR-suntour crankset and cheap chinese pedal got divorce, pedal just falled off, treads were gone. Also some time earlier I had to replace brake pads, but still no any cable replacement, no lubrication to any other bit than the chain and never cleaning the chain.

It was during this 2014 spring that bottom bracket failed, I had improved gearing before that, but I though that maybe Tourney rear derailleur is to blame from noise and upgraded that to SLX rear derailleur Deore STI shifter and Deore rear cassette, as local bike forum consensus seemed to be that Tourney is junk and SLX/deore is minimum that one should buy.

Well, there was nothing wrong with Tourney rear derailleur, SLX rear derailleur is a lot more challenging to adjust, it does not keep it's adjustments either as well, despite new cables and all, also I get ghost shifting or then one or two gears, usually 4 & 5 are not changing properly. Cheap Revoshift shifters seemed to work better with Tourney and with years old unmaintained cables than these supposedly higher end parts.

Now I need to adjust every time before the ride, also SLX has no adjustment knob, have to adjust from shifter's end and it is not as convenient.

I got also new bike for mud and soft gravel, Trek 3700, it had low end components, I did swap after a while those drivetrain bits that came with Trek to to Renault and from Renault SLX and Deore bits to Trek, I find that now Renault with low end parts shifts much better than Trek.

Currently I'm waiting new bottom bracket to come for Trek to fix chainline issues, but I have no high hopes of getting it as smooth as lower end parts were.

If something is better in higher end parts, it might be that they do tolerate more mud in chain before chain starts to stick at front and slip at rear, but such still happen before 30 minutes so it is meaningless improvement.

Poor roads at sprintime, often rims are sank so deep that can't see them inside the mud and rear derailleur plows in mud, pedals flapping to top of mud, so my riding is perhaps quite hard for components, it is wet sand and clay kind of mud, good for paint removal purposes.

So, for me lower end has worked so far better than higher end.

Also it bothers me how there are no any scientific numerical data about this 'better', ok, there is some numbers about weight if one manages to dig that data out from somewhere, but for example claims about better efficiency, how is it measured? Where is the data, how many watts with lower end and how many watts with higher end?
And what about faster and more precise shifiting, for example how many shifting errors for 1000 shifts and how that is tested? How many milliseconds shifting minimum is for lower end and how about higher end?

Without data it is easy to boast these 'better' features, but if there is no data to back it up, they weight nothing, imo. It is only hype.

I think that there are no proper test results from these because there are no real differences that would really matter.

On another note, it is wonderful how you can get low end Shimano product with so little money and how well it does perform for that money, it is really good price to quality ratio!

GravelMN

I think there is a sweet spot where quality, durability and value come together. For me (I'm a Shimano guy) Alivio has been a good workhorse group that I highly recommend for a MTB, commuter, or tourist on a budget. For my old steel bikes Deore and LX derailleurs, shifters, and brakes along with Alivio cranksets have served me very well. For my road bike, I'm very happy with modern 105 and can't even complain about my Tektro brakes or FSA crankset.

Minisushi1212

Shimano Tourneys are actually pretty decent derailleurs. I have a Giant Glory running a Deore XT and it shifts amazing. On Craigslist, I found a road bike for $80. I bought it and noticed that it had a tourney on the back. The first thought was to replace it with a Ultegra or a 105. I used the road bike for a while and it turns out that even a piece of plastic and molded steel can work pretty good. I guess it doesn't matter about derailleurs if you tune it up properly and not abuse it. More expensive derailleurs are lighter and they have more crisp shifting.

noglider 

@Minisushi1212, what you say is true. The rear derailleur doesn't affect the ride of a bike as much as we would like to believe. If it works, it works, and you shouldn't even notice it.

Bike Gremlin

On my road bike, I switched from 10 speed 105, to 8 speed Sora with Claris STIs. The 8 speed shifts a lot crispier - probably because of bigger gaps between sprockets.

As far as MTB equipment goes, my MTB has cheap shimano shifters with some chinese RD - no name one. Works flawless at 3x6 speed.

In my experience, Shimano low end stuff: Acera for MTB, Claris for road bikes works very well with little maintenance. Lower than that (Tourney, Altus) does get a bit loose, doesn't shift as well. But it works. Going up, I think up to Deore/Tiagra, one gets a bit smoother working, while going even further mostly reduces weight and gives a better look.