microdrive ?

magicmistertea · Oct 10, 2007

umm forgive me for being an idiot..... but what is the diffrence between microdrive and ermm normal drive ! ? what is compatable with what or not etc .................
cheers

Stick Legs · Oct 10, 2007

Microdrive is just a 11t rear sproket and smaller chainrings. Suntour wisely realised that most humans don't push 46/12 very often and would appreciate more fexibility in the mid range.

Shimano 'went microdrive' in 1995 with 22/34/44 rings and the 11t-28t block.

Suntour Microdrive is front compatible with Shimano, but it is not really rear compatible unless you are very paitient with the mix 'n match.

Campagnolo also used smaller rings on the front from about 1994.

LTS Biker · Oct 10, 2007

Yep,

only Shimano called their version compact drive.
The rest is the same.
Smaller chainrings, and a smaller sprocket. For reducing weight.

P20 · Oct 11, 2007

Some of the shimano microdrive have only a 38T outer. The only ones i can think of were the cheaper alivio and altus chainsets. I remember Claud Butler speccing them with a screw on rear wheel. 38T with 14T :roll:

ashes_mtb · Oct 11, 2007

Yeah, I remember the cheapo groups with 38t outer rings. Ridiculous....

I think 42T outer was the standard for quite a while too, but has sensibly been replaced by a 44 these days.

fuzzywig · Oct 11, 2007

I'm sure suntour microdrive inner rings have a 2mm smaller bolt diameter, compared the shimano compact drive. I can remember middleburn RS2's coming with a chice of three spiders for a while (MTB, compact and microdrive)???

cce · Oct 11, 2007

my brother had one of those claud butlers with the 38t top ring

it was laughable. used an e-type front mech as well so you couldnt change it even if you wanted.

Benandemu · Oct 11, 2007

fuzzywig":v0ikttrw said:
I'm sure suntour microdrive inner rings have a 2mm smaller bolt diameter, compared the shimano compact drive. I can remember middleburn RS2's coming with a chice of three spiders for a while (MTB, compact and microdrive)???

Yeah, that's right. Obvously Shimano's marketing and volumes meant most people and manufacturers followed their measurements. Microdrive became a little redundant in most bike shops.
My mate is still looking for a Red microdrive granny ring for his toplines...proving rather difficult!

P20 · Oct 11, 2007

cce":3lts8ow0 said:
my brother had one of those claud butlers with the 38t top ring

it was laughable. used an e-type front mech as well so you couldnt change it even if you wanted.

Yeah that was the one. A colleague didn't realise and sold one for commuting with slicks on. The customer wasn't too impressed when the found out about the set up

JustKev · Oct 11, 2007

Stick Legs":2ubo633a said:
Suntour Microdrive is front compatible with Shimano, but it is not really rear compatible unless you are very paitient with the mix 'n match.

If you use a suntour mech and derailleur, and a shimano cassette it'll work.

microdrive ?

magicmistertea

Stick Legs

LTS Biker

Senior Retro Guru

P20

ashes_mtb

Devout Dirtbag

fuzzywig

Onnnne Huuuunnnndrreeed and Eigggghhhhty

cce

Benandemu

P20

JustKev

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