Desert Storm...Bring the Tank
Written: Mar 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Built Like a Sherman Tank! Takes abuse beyond belief...
Cons: Very Very Heavy and seems like a moving land mine to me!
The Bottom Line: If you want some real good advice. Spend some cash and get yourself something that is good and not this piece of junk.
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| SmakNuts's Full Review: Shimano Altus |
First off let me start by saying that the Altus is commonly used as a stock derailleur on a large amount of multi speed bicycles out on the market today. It is definitely not a racing derailleur nor is it light and it is very cheap to acquire one of these.
I had one of these that came stock on my Bryce Canyon Mountain bike and it worked horribly. One thing I did hate about it though was the fact that the attaching bolt which held it in place and onto the bike would have an extreme tendency to come loose very easily. I couldn't tell you if this was due to a flaw in the building process or if this was just a problem specific only to my bike but this problem started not long after I had purchased it.
This problem eventually led to one of my accidents! I was riding along and the bolt completely came out and my derailleur came loose and cocksided locking up the chain and also my rear wheel and the outcome of this was that I was thrown into my handle bars and then to the ground. When the bike locked up the entire rear of the bike went airborne and so did I.
One thing that shocked me though is that after all that, the derailleur still worked after I had to bend a few metal pieces back into place. This is definitely one tough product, but I just didn't like the fact that it caused me to have an accident. To make this known. I do maintenance to my bike twice a week at least...Sometimes even more than that so I know it wasn't a problem caused by lack of maintenance.
The shifting isn't all that. Right after I had bought the bike I had brought it to a bike shop like 15 times and the darn thing still never shifted properly. I would always have some sort of trouble getting the derailleur to shift into different gears. Now I have a different derailleur and I must say that I have no problem with the shifting on this one.
When I removed the Altus Derailleur from the bike I found it to be extremely heavy for something so small. This is definitely not a derailleur that any bike racer would want. The tensioner spring is also not strong compared to the rest of the Shimano derailleur family. Don't get me wrong here that Shimano derailleurs stink. They don't. It's just that this one must have been the black sheep of the family.
Always believe the saying, "You get what you pay for!" That statement is definitely true and it shows through in the Altus. You do get one toughly built derailleur, but it sure as hell does not perform very well.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
SmakNuts
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Member: Jeff Keenan
Location: New Orleans,La
Reviews written: 73
Trusted by: 2 members
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