Glad that we're a good 30 years past all of that!

And you're right, seems this new Nivex uses soft indexing or friction, not both together (whew). Not sure how I read that into what was said, other than my previous interpretation of "soft indexing".
Just needs firm enough detents to control one's hand while riding over a moderately bumpy surface I guess.

Shimano got called out in legal procedings decades ago for requiring bike makers to buy complete drivetrain ensembles, but looking back it's clear that was perhaps most of the reason why their early indexing systems worked reliably on all of the new bikes that they got fitted to.

I'm sure that a lot of work went into this new derailer's design, even as the ancient examples clearly suggested how it should function. Getting all the pieces manufactured (perhaps a hundred or so sets of parts?) was no doubt another load of work as well.

It has been around for a long time. Rene Herse derailleur is just updated materials.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...87d2e67f89.jpg

Anybody remember blasdelf (Fred) over at VSalon? I can see him having fun with the RH RD on one of his bikes.

the pull-pull setup reminds me of white industries failed derailleur
 

https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...erailleur.html

that design used a normal mech-mount and had the wonky linear motion design, so was still quite different...but it had 2 cables!

This kind of point is made all the time but it just isn’t that interesting, almost everything has been around a long time and is just updated materials. It doesn’t really mean much.

Dual cable derailleurs have come and gone since before and after the Nivex derailleur. They typically only appear for a short time before they disappear again. There are multiple disadvantages, the main one of which is that you now have to have two complete cable paths. They also are more prone to freeplay (slop) in the mechanism, as you have to keep both cables taut. The return spring system is simpler in many ways: You only need a single cable; the spring keeps the cable taut and removes freeplay and slop.


One might note that the one of the first indexed shifting systems, Shimano Positron, had a dual cable system. For the next iteration, called Positron II, then used a single cable.

2 cable systems have nice advantageous though. More tolerant of friction in the cables and reduced shift lever pressure. The slop problem isn’t a huge deal as long as the system has some adjustment but it and with downtube shifters the addition of the 2nd cable path really isn’t a big deal.

It is true that in the end single cable systems won out. For a couple decades the only dual able system has been rohloff.

It's actually kind of a backward step. The Suntour S1 chainstay mounted derailleur (from 30 years ago) incorporated a slant parallelogram and shifted well enough to be fully indexing capable.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sKyrXRBpG...crisscross.jpg

Hard to tell in the pics but the RH derailleur seems to have some slant as well.

What brakes do you have now and what would you switch to?

Greyfox

Fat chance of that happening, Rivendell already holds the patent

Are they also selling a shifter?

Jan should send those with every order.

He has a point about the design of modern deraileurs being based on a permanent implementation- the hanger- of what was essentially a hack.

Gotta agree...and that $729 doesn't include the very unique frame required to even mount the thing...
OR the $249 shifter...yikes.
To say this market is small, is quite the understatement.