Yes, it's toys out the pram time, on my usual subject.
This time it's Shimano.
I was cleaning the Jekyll, and decided the rear deraileur was
sufficiently cacked up that it needed to be stripped. So I stripped it,
and dropped the bits in a path of parafin. After much scrubbing with an
old toothbrush and some scraping with a screwdriver I had two
reasonably clean jockey wheels... but they weren't the same. One has a
sealed bearing, one does not. Ignoring for the moment the fact that
washing a sealed bearing in a bath of parafin probably hasn't done it a
great deal of good, I need to know which of these little beasties is
the top one.
So it's onto Shimano's website.
We won't go into the technical stuff.
On the matter of presentation, I'm trying to peer at the information I
want in a little teenie window which is clearly designed for a 640x480
screen. Shimano are true democrats. They aren't going to allow the fact
that I've plutocratically gone out and bought myself a monitor that's
1200 plus pixels across buy me any advantage: no, I have to peer
through the same tiny window as the paupers.
Of course, looking at a FAQ with a lot of questions in a tiny window is
very difficult (and also of course it would take a long time to
download on a pauper's 9600 baud line), so Shimano has helpfully
divided their FAQ into a near infinite number of pages each with
exactly five questions. How are these ordered? Not by topic. Not
alphabetically. Perhaps there's some system but if so I can't guess it.
So how do you search the FAQ? Well, Shimano has made that extremely
simple too: you don't. You, err, can't.
But there is an advanced catalogue search. Whoop-de-do! Enter 'Deore XT
rear deraileur' and you get... nothing. Riens, zilch, nada. Bugger all.
Deore XT? What's that? Some gobbledegook? If you enter 'Deore XT rear
derailleur' you get a PDF which describes the 1999 model. OK, that's
something, but mine's a 2003, and it doesn't look the same.
Start again, try 'product search' for 'Deore XT rear derailleur', and
you get:
Quoted message said:Shimano Catalogue Search Result
Hits in Categories
Sorry, no hits.Hits in Product Series
Sorry, no hits.Hits in Products
Sorry, no hits.Hits in Exploded Views
download RD-M750 (1999)Hits in Service Instructions
Sorry, no hits.
Now, OK, lets be fair about this, the help-text alongside the 'product
search' box says '(e.g. PD-7750)'. How do I know, sitting with a Deore
XT rear mech in my hand, whether it's a 'PD-7750' or a 'PI13-07-900'?
Answer: I don't. It doesn't have RD-M750-SGS[1] stamped on it. It has
'Deore XT' stamped on it.
Come on, I'm only a customer, I only buy your products, I only keep you
in business, you might help me out a little here.
Finally, I find the 2004 version of the part, and its exploded diagram.
It shows two pulleys. They're clearly different. But neither of them is
labelled 'sealed bearing' or 'ceramic bush'. In the description of the
part it says
Quoted message said:Guide Pulley: sealed ceramic bushing
Tension Pulley: sealed bearing
but the jockey wheel in the exploded view that looks like the sealed
bearing one I have in my hand is labelled '13: guide pulley unit', and
vice versa...
[1] Which is what it turns out it is (probably). But now I've told you
I'll have to kill you, because Shimano consider it a state secret.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
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