Do you need a clutch rear derailleur?

Simon Smythe wonders whether road riders need to avoid chain slap in the same way mountain bikers do

Ultegra RX

Shimano’s road developers have traditionally borrowed from the company’s mountain bike tech: as far back as 1989, the Japanese company took the internals of its Rapidfire shifting system and created the first STI — arguably the biggest game changer in road cycling of the last 50 years.

Now Shimano has just launched the Ultegra RX clutch derailleur, a roadgoing version of its Shadow Plus system, testing it earlier this year at the cobbled Classics with the Trek-Segafredo team, whose RX-equipped bikes appear in Shimano’s PR photographs.

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