Ratio Technology Tease Direct Mount Derailleur Conversion

Ratio Technology, a UK-based company that specializes in drive train upgrades, recently posted images of a direct mount derailleur conversion they are developing. In this case, the direct mount bracket was 3D printed on an HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) machine, then attached to a SRAM 1×11 XX1 derailleur that was equipped with Ratio’s 12-speed Wide Cage upgrade kit.

according to The ratio“We plan to try aluminum or titanium, but we haven’t settled on a material yet – it depends on the usual trinity of strength, weight and price. If we think a product offers a variable improvement, then we intend to make it a custom kit, even if we know this will probably involve some specialized tooling. Lastly, since this is in the prototype stage, we’ll only make it available if we think we can do it without stepping on SRAM’s toes. We appreciate that there’s a lot of intellectual property around the design.”

“You’re looking at a pretty early prototype, but we thought we’d share some pictures to see what people thought of the idea. We thought a lot of our shifter troubleshooting emails are solved with a hanger alignment tool, so whatever. derailleur frame interface more accurate and makes it more repeatable for our customers. We fully understand the uncertainty surrounding this new system. It’s no use if incremental improvements increase the chances of eliminating an expensive diverter in the process, not good for your pocketbook or the environment.

“That said, sacrificial parts aren’t a fancy solution to crash protection; everything else on the bike is strong enough not to break or designed with a degree of freedom to absorb impact. Brake levers are a good example; hit them hard enough and you’ll usually be perfectly fine. push them harder and in most cases they will spin on the bars instead of breaking.

“SRAM has designed the UDH with the same solution. For us, there is a lot of testing left to confirm for ourselves and everyone else that this is the case, but if it is, it can be a good thing. All that said, we will always design them to be as easy as possible to replace if they break. and cheap parts.”

We have also seen it lately unreleased SRAM direct mount derailleurs at the World Championships. We have also seen a few frame manufacturers such as Ibis, Badand are prohibited from upgrading their rear triangles to the UDH standard.

What do you think? Are direct mount derailleurs something we need or is a sacrificial hanger still the best solution?