 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I recently bought a second hand bike and found the chain was worn to 1 percent, so I changed it and the rear cassette. The jockey wheels in the derailleur look worn on one edge of the teeth, but other than making them spin are the teeth really that important? What's the threshold for needing to change them?
It's an XTR shadow, can I assume any 11t jockey wheels will fit? I guess plastic ones will have better self lubrication than alloy with regards to contact with the chain. I try to avoid gimmicks but like to do worthwhile upgrades, in this case is standard best?
Thanks in advance for the help on this admittedly noob question.
You can keep using them for ages, still function well enough well into the shark-tooth phase, and then passed that and become almost like rollers, this tends to be on the commuter bike though so not much of an issue. Feels a bit weird though. Generally I just replace when they feel odd, much less regularly than a chain or cassette. Race bike has posher ones, see below.
XTR Shadow are a weird size (M972 anyway), width wise, so need either a like for like replacement, which are expensive, or a compatible after market one   https://mtzoom.com/jockey-wheels/speed-wheels/  these fit and the teeth last much much longer, as do the bearings. KCNC do some too but the bearings aren't very good and so do Token, don't know if they fit XTR though.
A couple of people recommended the Uber bike jockey wheels when I asked along with a discount code too. I don't know if there's a current discount code. Those Mt Zoom ones look like too spindly for my liking...
Have a look at SJS cycles.com
They keep a good range of jockey wheels, model specific and also universal. I recently bought a set of Tacx from there and they came with spacers/adaptors to fit into the cage. (Old Shimano CX group set).
Very happy with them.
Are the xtr jockey wheels ceramic bearings?
I always manage to buy things that are an odd size, or hard to get parts for....
I did strip them and clean all the crud out of them, they span ok I guess, but they were not anywhere near shark toothed I would say. More rounded off. I'll leave them on a little longer.
Thanks, especially for the good leads on replacement. I had no idea they were an odd size so you've saved me a bit of mucking around.