Sierratim
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Nevada City, CA & Paradise Valley, AZ
My Vado 5 was equipped with a 11-42t 11-speed cassette and a 48t wide/narrow chain ring. This has worked well on all my rides, with one minor exception. I did a 45 mile loop with over 6,000' of climbing. On the last long climb of the day I was in the granny gear and Turbo assist for several miles being more tired than I realized. No problem getting home, but I don't want to get stranded late in the day on any of these steep back road routes without cell service. So, I saw two options;
1. Don't ride steep back roads where there's no cell service, or
2. Change the ebike's gearing so there's virtually no chance I won't be able to ride home no matter how tired I am.
Obviously #2 wins...
So all the new parts are in. I'll be converting my medium cage XT Shadow Plus derailleur to a long cage, changing out the cassette to a 11-50t, and changing the chain from 120 links to 126 links.
Yesterday I tackled the derailleur;
A new long cage derailleur is something like $120 so I went with the $27 solution, new cage arms and a longer B screw. Obviously my derailleur needdd a good cleaning anyway so as a first step I took it apart...
Lots of parts, even without removing the 3 adjustment screws! I scrubbed most parts in warm soapy water them 'orange' degreaser followed by a rinse in the water and air quick dry with the compressor. My normal practice is to lay the parts out in order of disassembly to help me remember how to put them back together! I did take the silver colored dust cover/spacers off the jockey wheels expecting to find loose bearings that I would clean and grease. They've got sealed bearings! So a quick clean and dry for them was all that was needed. After cleaning all the parts I sparingly added grease where needed using a silicone grease on o-rings and the smallest parts and Park tool's poly grease elsewhere. Time to reassemble...
My almost like new and very clean long cage derailleur is ready to reinstall on the Vado, after I change the cassette. The clutch had me stumped for a bit. Luckily I had my wife's Vado available as a reference. I was assembling the clutch correctly. I just needed more spring tension on the arm. I got this my extending the derailleur's cage for clearance and rotated the arm 360° to preload the tension spring. Worked great! On to the cassette...
1. Don't ride steep back roads where there's no cell service, or
2. Change the ebike's gearing so there's virtually no chance I won't be able to ride home no matter how tired I am.
Obviously #2 wins...
So all the new parts are in. I'll be converting my medium cage XT Shadow Plus derailleur to a long cage, changing out the cassette to a 11-50t, and changing the chain from 120 links to 126 links.
Yesterday I tackled the derailleur;
A new long cage derailleur is something like $120 so I went with the $27 solution, new cage arms and a longer B screw. Obviously my derailleur needdd a good cleaning anyway so as a first step I took it apart...
Lots of parts, even without removing the 3 adjustment screws! I scrubbed most parts in warm soapy water them 'orange' degreaser followed by a rinse in the water and air quick dry with the compressor. My normal practice is to lay the parts out in order of disassembly to help me remember how to put them back together! I did take the silver colored dust cover/spacers off the jockey wheels expecting to find loose bearings that I would clean and grease. They've got sealed bearings! So a quick clean and dry for them was all that was needed. After cleaning all the parts I sparingly added grease where needed using a silicone grease on o-rings and the smallest parts and Park tool's poly grease elsewhere. Time to reassemble...
My almost like new and very clean long cage derailleur is ready to reinstall on the Vado, after I change the cassette. The clutch had me stumped for a bit. Luckily I had my wife's Vado available as a reference. I was assembling the clutch correctly. I just needed more spring tension on the arm. I got this my extending the derailleur's cage for clearance and rotated the arm 360° to preload the tension spring. Worked great! On to the cassette...
