Derailleurs Through The Ages - A History

[Vapin' Joe]

Fascinating stuff, never heard of many of them -

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Derailleur_brands_A_to_R.html

 

[Drago]

Ive browsed there before. It is indeed an interesting and absorbing website.

 

[Cycleops]

Its great site, helpful for dating them too.

 

[chriswoody]

The Guardian also has this piece today about them:

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...rful-derailleurs-and-how-they-changed-cycling

Some of the photos are brilliant and I absolutely love this quote about French design:

"When a market gets bland and homogenised you can often look to France for some light relief. The EGS Up Cage was a masterpiece of incredible but doomed euro-technology in the fine tradition of the Citröen DS and the Concorde airliner. First find a blind alley, then charge up it at maximum speed, all the while deploying astounding creativity, inimitable panache and a reluctance to compromise on anything, least of all quality."

 

[Globalti]

"Finally Shimano gave in to the inevitability of having to sell its top-of-the-line groupset to fat middle-aged men who want low, low gears. The introduction of the Dura-Ace 7700 GS indicated that the portly wallets of portly gentlemen counted for more than the alluring image of speed, youth and fitness that Shimano had carefully cultured for Dura-Ace over two and a half decades. It was a triumph of beer-fueled reality over EPO-fueled fiction."

 

[Alan O]

Fascinating stuff, never heard of many of them -

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Derailleur_brands_A_to_R.html

Yes, it's an excellent site. I found it very helpful when I was building up a couple of vintage bikes and wanted to find out about the derailleurs I could find on eBay.

 

[youngoldbloke]

THE book if you are into this -

The Dancing Chain: History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle

 

[Moodyman]

The pink Italian is eye catching