Swap components between bikes

[stevie_b]

I've just bought a second hand bike to replace an older mountain bike (Gitane circa 1995). The newer bike has an Alivio rear derailleur and a generic Shimano top-swing front derailleur. The old Gitane has Deore LX components throughout. Both bikes are 8x3 speed.

Without spending a lot of time swapping components over and trying them for a while, it's tricky to work out if the older but (at the time) better Deore LX components would work better (i.e. shift smoother) than the newer but lower-spec kit.

The front derailleur, for example, seems like a rather basic component, so I can't see how upgrading to a higher-spec model would gain me any advantage. Any thoughts?

 

[T4tomo]

if it shifts smoother on the gitane, then it will also on the new one, which bike it is strapped to will make no difference. If there is no perceptable difference then just keep the Deore stuff as a spare, or change it over if having the deore stuff makes you feel better.

if you are going to swap then check is the cable rooting the same - you probably want to swap the shifter too in case the pull ratio is different..

 

[stevie_b]

I've only ridden the newer (Ridgeback) bike for 15 minutes, but the shifting seemed more sluggish. That may be because the Ridgeback uses trigger shifters, whereas the Gitane uses Gripshift (when it works, it works well, but can be awkward with worn grips in wet weather), or it may be the different cassette (Shimano reckon the Deore LX stuff uses profiled teeth for easier shifting). I don't intend to swap the cassettes over as the older one is near the end of its life.

I suppose what I'm asking is, all other things being equal, would you expect 15 year old Deore derailleurs (light usage) to be noticeably better than 5 year old Alivio/generic ones? I know the only way to answer this definitely is to swap it over and try it for a while, but that's quite a lot of faff (and introduces other factors like me not getting the cable adjustments quite right). Would you bother swapping if it was you?