FD-6600 mounting problem...

billym99 said:

Hey guys,

I'm currently building up a new bike and have run into a problem with mounting the front derailleur. The frame is a 48cm Orbea Onix. I installed an FSA compact crankset (50t outer ring) and to get the correct mounting height for the FD (outer guide 1-3mm above large chainring) I would have to have the clamp sitting smack on the the lower bottle mount bolt. Currently I have the clamp as close to the bottle mount bolt as possible and it's right at 5.5mm...

Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

Either mount the derailleur BELOW the water bottle mounting hole, and possibly switch to a smaller chainring ... e.g., 48t.

OR, consider the 6603 (?) derailleur which is intended for a TRIPLE ... the parallelogram is longer on Shimano's TRIPLE front derailleurs (at least on the 6503), and that it may mount in a slightly different (but, perhaps, not different enough) location on the seat tube.

billym99 said:

Hey guys,

I'm currently building up a new bike and have run into a problem with mounting the front derailleur. The frame is a 48cm Orbea Onix. I installed an FSA compact crankset (50t outer ring) and to get the correct mounting height for the FD (outer guide 1-3mm above large chainring) I would have to have the clamp sitting smack on the the lower bottle mount bolt. Currently I have the clamp as close to the bottle mount bolt as possible and it's right at 5.5mm...

Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

A quick peek at the Orbea website shows that they spec this bike with Ultegra10 FDs and 105/10 FDs. I'd contact their tech support and ask them why you are having this problem. Maybe you got a frame with the bottle cage bolts installed in the wrong position. If I paid that much for a gorgeous Orbea frame, I'm pretty sure I'd be pursuing this as a warrantee issue.

See the "Contact" page on the Orbea site:

http://www.orbea-usa.com/fly.aspx?mId=m2&layout=history&taxId=8
(for "in the USA"😉 - they even have phone numbers!

http://www.orbea.com
(for elsewhere)

I actually just emailed Orbea about 20 minutes ago... I've emailed them before and they are normally prompt with their responses.

You can actually use the Orbea "Made to Order" portion of their website and spec an Onix with an SLK Megaexo compact and full Ultegra 6600, so I have to believe that I'm doing something wrong here.... Then again I also read elsewhere from another onix owner about using bottle cages that don't have anything connecting the parts that are bolted to the frame together because on the smaller frames you will have to clamp the derailluer between the bottle holder mounts....

billym99 said:

Hey guys,

I'm currently building up a new bike and have run into a problem with mounting the front derailleur. The frame is a 48cm Orbea Onix. I installed an FSA compact crankset (50t outer ring) and to get the correct mounting height for the FD (outer guide 1-3mm above large chainring) I would have to have the clamp sitting smack on the the lower bottle mount bolt. Currently I have the clamp as close to the bottle mount bolt as possible and it's right at 5.5mm...

Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

One suggestion I have is to use a braze-on front derailleur with an accessory clamp adapter designed to allow use of the braze-on FD on frames without braze-ons. These generally allow quite a bit of up-and-down adjustment. You may be able to mount the adapter clamp below the bolt, and slide the FD up on the adapter to get it at the right position.

This link to a picture of a cheap one from bike nashbar shows how much adjustability there is:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile_moreimages.cfm?category=83&subcategory=1038&sku=2189&brand=

I use one of these with a Veloce FD and it works very well and actually looks suprisingly nice for how inexpensive it is.

Campagnolo and Shimano make a nicer ones, but they don't allow the sliding adjustability but rather convert the braze-on FD to a fixed position clamp-on.

billym99 said:

I actually just emailed Orbea about 20 minutes ago... I've emailed them before and they are normally prompt with their responses.

You can actually use the Orbea "Made to Order" portion of their website and spec an Onix with an SLK Megaexo compact and full Ultegra 6600, so I have to believe that I'm doing something wrong here.... Then again I also read elsewhere from another onix owner about using bottle cages that don't have anything connecting the parts that are bolted to the frame together because on the smaller frames you will have to clamp the derailluer between the bottle holder mounts....

If your ONLY concern is clamping the the front derailleur BETWEEN the water bottle bosses, then that isn't really a problem ... or, it shouldn't be. I've certainly mounted a water bottle cage where a 9-speed Ultegra band was beneath the cage's anchoring plate ...

At least half the water bottle cages (if not all) the ones I have will easily straddle the bosses when a front derailleur's clamping band is mounted between the water bottle bosses ... if you need to, you can certainly add a spacer/spacers (washers) between the frame and the water bottle cage.

Unless you are using carbon fiber OR plastic water bottle cages, you can also put a small serpentine bend into the tabs which hold the water bottle cages to the frame to offset it an incremental amount ...

OR, you will find that the water bottle cage's anchoring plate should flex enough to allow you to mount the cage.

Well, to end this thread Orbea responded with basically what John M. said... The guy from Orbea told me that they use braze on derailleurs and clamp adapters on most of their carbon and aluminum frames as a carry over from when their frames used braze on. So i'll just replace my clamp on with a braze on and buy the adapter that John M. posted and be on my way.

Thanks for all of the responses.