Catnap 

I’ve got a Shimano Crane rear derailleur, short cage length. I also have a Shimano Titlist GS rear derailleur, long cage. Can I swap the long cage from the Titlist to the Crane?

The Golden Boy 

Here's my Crane GS- would you like me to take some pix of the back and stuff to see if the Tourney GS cage mounts the same way?

Shimano Crane GS Rear Derailleur by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

Catnap 

thanks! I looked on Velobase and they appear to be identical, with the only difference being that the Crane has a barrel adjuster but the Titlist does not. (I know I said Tourney before, that was wrong. There’s no Tourney GS).

Titlist GS:



Crane GS:

3alarmer 

.
...Disraeli Gears has some of the technical documents with parts and assembly diagrams for Crane and for Titlist.
It's been a while since I've had one apart, but the Crane had two iterations, which you can see have different cage pivot bolts.

So it might work , and it might not. I would probably just use the long cage Titlist as is, if that's possible. But I am lazy as hell these days.
The only real difference between these two rear derailleurs is that the Crane was a little lighter and had better finish. IME they function about the same.

majmt 

Coincidence. I was going to post a similar question. This might be what you’re considering. I picked it off of eBay last year and I’ve been wondering if it’s a Frankenpiece. I thought the long cage was reserved for the Crane GS like the one shown above. Except for this one, I’ve never seen a black Crane with a long cage. I haven’t tried it but it looks right. I can post more detailed photos.

OldCoot

Odd this should come up, as I have a short cage Crane, and just got a Titlist GS. Was wondering same thing. Most likely just use the Titlist solo though as my sensibilities to mixed parts is having a hard time...

let me know how it goes

JohnDThompson 

IIRC, the biggest difference between the Crane and Tourney rear derailleurs was the pulley cage: the Crane pulley cage was aluminum, while the Tourney was steel. By putting a Tourney cage onto a Crane body, you're essentially just turning the Crane into a Tourney. Unless the name on the face plate is really important to you, why not just use the Tourney derailleur as is?

Catnap 

It is mostly about looks, but also that the Crane has a barrel adjuster on the cable stop. That’s a good counterpoint re: the aluminum vs steel cage. I’ll give it a try next week and report back.

Glennfordx4

Looking at the pics of the two I would have to say yes it would work.

Glenn

bulgie 

Not what you asked, but a Fun Fact: A Crane cage (short or GS) bolts right onto a Campy Record, the older steel and bronze one (early '60s) that preceded the NR.

If you need a wider gear range than a Record can wrap, and you refuse to put a proper touring derailer on your old racing bike for sentimental reasons, the GS cage can make that happen. It's not going to fool anyone, but you can plausibly claim it was done back in '72 or whenever, to salvage a little vintage cred.

I sorta lied about "bolts right on", there is a tiny little blip of aluminum you must remove from the GS cage, but it takes 5 seconds with a Dremel and it doesn't prevent it from working on the Crane mech if you switch it back (non-destructive)

• Don't remove the entire raised bump if you want to be able to put it back on the Crane. Try mounting the Record spring cap to the cage and you'll see where you need to remove a little aluminum. It's a small portion of the entire raised bump. so the bump still works as intended on a Crane.
• Tapping threads for the "pawn" bolt is optional. That bolt isn't touched at all while riding, it's just for making wheel changes a little easier. It does the same thing that the raised bump does, when on a Crane, keeping the cage from over-rotating while the wheel is off.

The fact that the GS cage already has a hole right there where the pawn bolt needs to go, the right diameter to take a M5 thread, and not used for anything else, makes me think maybe they actually intended this cage to work on a Record mech. Crazy, but why else is that hole there?

Even putting the short Crane cage on a Record improves it's shifting and range a little, and saves some weight (the Record cage is steel). But I'd only do it if my Record cage was mucked up somehow. Otherwise, keeping it original trumps the tiny advantages of the "upgrade".

Note, a NR or Rally cage will not bolt onto a Record, their attachment is different. Similarly the Crane cage will not bolt onto a NR. If you have a NR then the long cage to get is the Rally, or the modern repro of it, sold by Soma.

Mark B