Front derailleur for large gear range advise

[jambee]

Hola comrades,

I'm looking for advise on a front derailleur for my touring bike. The bar-end shifters are Shimano 10s (indexed). Crank is White Industries 22/44 teeth. The crank is sitting on a wide bottom bracket (122mm if memory serves me right). The rig is setup for top pull.

I tried to use a Shimano CX70 derailleur but found that it does not come out enough - i.e. it could not reach to the large cog.

Right now I have a Shimano XT on it, but it's ugly as all hell and seems to really force the chain and not gently move it up. It also abstracts my ability to mount mudguard on the back wheel.

The bike is a gravel tourer which is why I wanted a big gear range and I'm totally not opposed to Shimano on it, just, which one? Other solutions are also welcomed.

Any ideas?

[Ken Robb]

That sounds like a very wide BB for a double crank. How is your chainline? You might solve the problem by using a narrower BB.

[jambee]

I wish I could, but the chainstays are super wide and the tubes were not bent so that is pretty much the only option other than taking the bike back to the builder and having him make some changes. At least it's steel, but man that will be a long process :-)