Quote Originally Posted by ridebikeme View Post
Ummmm... my suggestion is also to stop crosschaining... or perhaps even change to a compact crank.

You didn't mention whether your bike is a double or triple, however the Saint hub would be quite a bit of work for a shop to set up. The long cage derailleurs are setup for cassettes that are 27 tooth and up.. is yours in that range?

You mentioned that your derailleur hanger keeps bending ... have you replaced it each time that has happened? You can generally bend these back, but obviously they are not as strong as they once were...

Good luck with this!!
To address above important points:

YES! I need to stop crosschaining -- however, VERY surprised that a 53-21 or 53-23 combo would cause this problem (thought it would happen only at extreme level of 53-26). I don't crosschain at extreme level, but at the other gears. I have been working on dropping to lower 39-15 or 39-16 to compensate. I have a traditional double 53/39 crank with a 13-26 cassette. I may eventually change to compact 50/34 and 12-25 cassette. I would not use the Saint hub.

As for derailleur hanger bending, yes, I have had LBS realign it -- which I guess is bending it back. I am thinking about getting a speciality/welding shop to weld me a new hanger made of stronger material such as steel or ti. Not sure if this can be done, but I think it could be ...

Bottom-line, thinking the problem is with the derailleur hanger, so that is what needs to be strenghtened. After that it would be a gear combo issue and the need for a compact crank. Any one have thoughts on my thoughts?