Review on 🚴 Enhance Your Cycling Performance with SHIMANO Deore RD-M592 Rear Derailleur by Lucas Hale

After a lot of research I chose this derailleur to shift on a vintage MTB with a Shimano 6 speed cassette to which I installed a custom large 36 tooth rear gear. It replaced a 1988 Shimano M730 XT rear derailleur that could only shift to a 32-tooth gear. Fun Fact: The gear ratio of this 9 speed is the same as the older 6, 7 and 8 speed manuals. There are no compatibility issues as the indexing is in the shifter and not the rear derailleur. The only change I had to make from the old Shimano derailleur cable was shortening the rear housing and the cable itself. The cable attachment point is slightly different, but not the actuation factor (the distance the cable has to pull for each gear), so it worked great with my Shimano XT M730 6 speed index derailleurs. Another useful fact: This derailleur works with the latest Shimano 10-speed cassettes shifted with Shimano STI combo brake/shift levers. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but the activation factor works for this combination as well. The 10-speed STI doesn't use the same gearing as the 10-speed MTB thumb shifters - it keeps the old gearing. I bought a second derailleur in case I wanted to fit an 11-36 10 speed cassette on my 2010 Ultegra STI road bike for steep mountain use. A final word of caution, do not attempt any of these with current Shimano derailleur models such as DynaSys, clutch, etc. Changing to a newer 10 speed derailleur model will only buy you incompatibility. My research shows that the M592 is the newest wide-ratio model that will work with the old stuff and/or STI.