Things I find in my basement...

[Ti Designs]

Not so long ago there was a thread about a recently purchased 1st generation C Record derailleur - a very nice piece of hardware (that weighs about as much as most carbon bikes). I was looking in my collection of parts and I wound up opening my box of old campy parts. If one time capsule derailleur gets noticed, how 'bout two? The first one is a C Record 180. The second one is far more rare...

Edit: the pictures are in the wrong order, the second one is the C Record 180.

[Steve in SLO]

Nice. Looks like we have the same derailleur and table.
Keep it around and it could pay for your retirement.

[saab2000]

Croce d'Aune.

Never understood what the rod is for but I always liked it. Campagnolo stuff from that era still makes me weak.

[Ti Designs]

Croce d'Aune.

Never understood what the rod is for but I always liked it. Campagnolo stuff from that era still makes me weak.

The solid rod takes the place of the cable between the two pivot points on the derailleur body. One side is fixed to the upper pivot bolt, the other side is attached where the cable anchor would go. The gears are shifted by rotating the derailleur back on it's upper pivot blot, the rod pushes the derailleur body inward. Most of them died an early death 'cause it took a lot of force to shift and the limit screw stops were kinda flimsy by comparison. If you think a derailleur going into the spokes by getting pulled by a cable is bad, try a solid steel rod jamming that sucker in there.

[Mark McM]

The solid rod takes the place of the cable between the two pivot points on the derailleur body. One side is fixed to the upper pivot bolt, the other side is attached where the cable anchor would go. The gears are shifted by rotating the derailleur back on it's upper pivot blot, the rod pushes the derailleur body inward.

This was Campagnolo's attempt to improve upon the dual spring-pivot slant parallelogram derailleur (which Shimano was using successfully for their S.I.S. indexed shifting system). The idea was to make the derailleur rotate downward as it moved inward, so that the jockey pulley tracked the freewheel sprockets more closely (yes, Campagnolo was still using freewheels when this derailleur came out). From the Croce D'Aune page in Campagnolo 1988 catalog (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/campagnolo/crocedaune/crocedaunebrochure%203.pdf):

REAR DERAILLEUR AND ERONT DERAILLEUR
The basic problem a derailleur has to solve is that of moving its jockey wheel cage so that it follows the geometry of the freewheel. The traditional derailleur uses a vertically hung, jointed parallelogram to move the jockey wheel cage on an axis that is almost parallel to the axle of the wheel.

The new slant-parallelogram derailleurs have improved shifting by moving the jockey wheel cage on an axis that is parallel to the cone shape of freewheel. This allows the cage to be very close to each individual cog on the freewheel thus eliminating the overshifting necessary with the traditional system.

The innovative design of the CROCE D'AUNE derailleur is an improvement on the above mentioned systems and achieves its efficiency through Campagnolo's patented" "TWIN-AXLE System". The "TWIN-AXLE System" is an articulation of the geometry of the derailleur which combines two movements to move the jockey cage across the freewheel while keeping it equidistant from all the cogs regardless of how big or how small they are in diameter.

The "TWIN-AXLE System" of this new derailleur works in this way: when the gear cable is pulled the derailleur rotates on its pivot bolt (fig. A) causing the jockey cage to alter itself to suit the increasing diameters of the freewheel cogs. At the same time, a rigid, stainless steel arm on the diagonal of the parallelogram moves the cage plate along the freewheel (fig. B) guiding the chain from one cog to another. The movement of the parallelogram is controlled by a return spring. This spring is not, however, preloaded like on other derailleurs which can cause needless friction. Thanks to the elimination of friction at this point the derailleur's shifting action is much lighter and smoother than other gear changers.

The "TWIN-AXLE System" of the CROCE D'AUNE derailleur is a new break-through in derailleur technology and is destined to set new standards for competition derailleurs. In races like the Giro d'ltalia and Tour de France where steep mountain roads torture both man and machine it is extremely important for the derailleur to perform flawlessly because one missed shift or slipped chain can be the difference between winning and loosing.

Somehow, this design didn't "set new standards for competition derailleurs", and Campagnolo shifting systems didn't compete well with Shimano's systems until they adopted the Shimano derailleur design.

[maxdog]

Very cool. I love digging through my old stuff.

[FlashUNC]

Seriously gorgeous. And yes, the market for vintage Campy is completely out of control right now.

That could buy you that villa in the South of France.

[choke]

Somehow, this design didn't "set new standards for competition derailleurs", and Campagnolo shifting systems didn't compete well with Shimano's systems until they adopted the Shimano derailleur design. The slant parallelogram derailleur was invented by Suntour and Shimano only started using it once the patent expired.

[GRAVELBIKE]

The solid rod takes the place of the cable between the two pivot points on the derailleur body. One side is fixed to the upper pivot bolt, the other side is attached where the cable anchor would go. The gears are shifted by rotating the derailleur back on it's upper pivot blot, the rod pushes the derailleur body inward. Most of them died an early death 'cause it took a lot of force to shift and the limit screw stops were kinda flimsy by comparison. If you think a derailleur going into the spokes by getting pulled by a cable is bad, try a solid steel rod jamming that sucker in there.

Challenge accepted.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/004/457/challenge.jpg

[Mark McM]

The slant parallelogram derailleur was invented by Suntour and Shimano only started using it once the patent expired.

Yes, which is why I said dual spring-pivot slant parallelogram. Nivex was the first to use a parallelogram derailleur (not the Campagnolo Gran Sport, as often claimed), Simplex was the first to use (non slant) parallelogram with dual spring pivotos, and Suntour was the first slant parallelogram (with single spring pivot). But Shimano was the first to put them all together in one design, a slant parallogram with dual spring pivots.

[EDS]

Yes, which is why I said dual spring-pivot slant parallelogram. Nivex was the first to use a parallelogram derailleur (not the Campagnolo Gran Sport, as often claimed), Simplex was the first to use (non slant) parallelogram with dual spring pivotos, and Suntour was the first slant parallelogram (with single spring pivot). But Shimano was the first to put them all together in one design, a slant parallogram with dual spring pivots.

That is a great historical recap of derailleur development!

[Mark McM]

I highly recommend the book The Dancing Chain: The History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle (http://www.thedancingchain.com/) by Frank Berto for anyone interested in how the modern derailleur bike came to be. It also included good information on the history of other bicycle technology that was developed along the way.

[monkey1]

nice

[Ti Designs]

I highly recommend the book The Dancing Chain: The History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle by Frank Berto for anyone interested in how the modern derailleur bike came to be.

Before there was a Wheelworks there was an Ace Bicycle shop in Cambridge, when Wheelworks purchased the building we kept the Ace name and Ace Wheelworks was born. The building came with a room full of old bikes and parts and frames and about 20 wooden rims hanging from a broomstick. Back then there were no standards, each bike builder had their own bottom bracket design and headset bearing holders. With this room of stuff came a guy who knew how most of it went together - he was the source of much of the information that went into Frank's book. I got to restore and build a bike from that room, I picked a 1906 BSA stayer bike because I could identify most of the parts by their stack of rifles logo. I also loved the Major Taylor style stem and the reverse rake fork. There were derailleurs down there that predated what anyone thinks of as a derailleur. Orient from Waltham Mass and Iver Johnson from Fitchburg both had early shifter designs, but they only built singles of them so nobody knew. We also had a Pope with direct drive and suspension. The thing that amused me about the changes over time is how they clung to the past. With high wheelers there was a step on the side, you would push the bike up to speed, step on the step and hop in the saddle. The first safety bikes with same size wheels also had a step, and people would get on the same way. I would love to have seen the face of the first guy who figured out that all you have to do is throw a leg over it...

[Fixed]

I was scared to open thinking what could be in ti's basement ,
Now I am glad I did nice stuff
stuff like That is kiind of like a 401 k for you :)
Cheers

[parris]

I just took one of those off of my club special and reinstalled the s.r. that I had on the bike for years. There's a lot of material with that piece:)