I just picked up a used Titus Racer-x and one of the parts I was upgrading was going to a new 2004 xt front der.
Interestingly enough it seems the new 2004 top swing front der. does not travel as far in as in past years and no where close to a xt bottom swing front der. I could not even get the chain to drop into the granny ring in the bottom half of the cassette. Now granted I realize I'm running a narrow set of FSA carbon cranks on a 110mm JIS bottom bracket instead of spine cranks on a 113 spline BB, but still. The new xt has such a thick linkage area that it keeps it from getting close enough to the seat tube. I played with it for about 30 minutes, then went back and got a xt bottom swing top pull front der. and had that working in 5 minutes, with enough to spare to the inside I could actually get it to drop off the inside of the granny ring.
It probably works fine on a full 2004 setup, but for those of us upgrading that are still running narrow cranks beware. I didn't try a older top swing style xt to see if that would work, didn't have one available to try. However I can say I've set up other 2003 and older top swing xt front der. on narrow crank/bb combos and never had this problem before. Possibly the combination of my setup is just a odd ball but it's something to keep in mind.
Todd
Interestingly enough it seems the new 2004 top swing front der. does not travel as far in as in past years and no where close to a xt bottom swing front der. I could not even get the chain to drop into the granny ring in the bottom half of the cassette. Now granted I realize I'm running a narrow set of FSA carbon cranks on a 110mm JIS bottom bracket instead of spine cranks on a 113 spline BB, but still. The new xt has such a thick linkage area that it keeps it from getting close enough to the seat tube. I played with it for about 30 minutes, then went back and got a xt bottom swing top pull front der. and had that working in 5 minutes, with enough to spare to the inside I could actually get it to drop off the inside of the granny ring.
It probably works fine on a full 2004 setup, but for those of us upgrading that are still running narrow cranks beware. I didn't try a older top swing style xt to see if that would work, didn't have one available to try. However I can say I've set up other 2003 and older top swing xt front der. on narrow crank/bb combos and never had this problem before. Possibly the combination of my setup is just a odd ball but it's something to keep in mind.
Todd