Rene Herse Derailleurs

[pbarry]

^^Now there’s an apt comparison.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by FriarQuade

Jan's widget is different and I'd be curious to try it out. There's too many compromises to make it worth switching to over a modern groupset though. Wheel changes, gear range, DT shifter and custom frame requirements are pretty big deals to a 99% of people. Can he make a few bucks selling these to that last 1%, sure but they're the ones that will drink that special brand of Flavor Aid.

Of course an updated Nivex rear derailleur isn't for 99% of people. That never was the point.

But among a small sliver of that 1% there may be a dozen or two people who have read about the legendary Nivex derailleur but knew there was no chance they'd ever even see one in real life, never mind get the chance to try one. And now they can.

There may also be some owners of classic frames originally made to use this derailleur who have been unable to source one. And now they can.

And who knows - perhaps the Nivex is as good as legend says. Perhaps for downtube friction shifting users maybe it might just be a viable alternative to trying to figure how to adapt a contemporary component to a style of usage the mainstream component makers have abandoned.

This is another of Jan's bikes. As you can see, he is a downtube shifter fan.



This bike has a 10 speed Campagnolo drivetrain. However there was no Campagnolo 10 speed indexed downtube shift lever. These levers were made by converting Campagnolo 10 speed bar end shifters. Those 10 speed Campagnolo indexed bar end shifters aren't available now either.

Whether electronic integrated brake/shift levers and disc brakes are "better" or "worse" really is not the point. What if you simply don't want to go that way?

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by palincss

Whether electronic integrated brake/shift levers and disc brakes are "better" or "worse" really is not the point.

"Our goal is to offer a derailleur that surpasses the best from the ‘Big 3’ in function and durability. Like all our components, you’ll buy it because it works well and offers something you can’t get from the mainstream makers, not because it’s ‘cool’ or ‘retro.’"

Apparently to some people it is in fact the point.

[Spoker]

The best shifting derailleur no longer made , are the Shimano negative rise mtb ones.
I hear the drop bar hipster riders are recognizing their qualities.

[goonster]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

He seems to be unable to say that he likes something, but it's not as good as something else.

I've always read him as saying that he likes something, and then giving specific reasons why. This all happens within a discourse whose parameters he has set, sometimes quite narrowly so, but he's very open and clear about it.

We could say that the Jan critics are unable to say that his opinions drive them crazy, without bothering to understand their full context.

The Nivex makes perfect sense to someone who has been steeped in Rebour drawings for twenty years, and now finally might have a chance to ride some of this stuff.

[vitaly66]

Or he just enjoys pegging the ridiculous meter.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by vitaly66

Or he just enjoys pegging the ridiculous meter.

If you prefer friction shifting with downtube levers (as he does, and actually many people, although not myself) what is ridiculous about the Nivex? By repute it works better than anything else in that mode.

Jan was serious enough about it that when he was having his first Herse built he sourced an old one and had it rebuilt. This time, for his new Herse (aka dream bike version 2.0) he had a new one made from scratch, cleverly making the R&D a business expense with the happy side effect that any of the score of similarly minded people in the world who have been longing for a new Nivex now can buy one.

If may be off the beaten path, right up there with geocaching, entomology and fly fishing, but ridiculous? I don't think so.

[El Chaba]

Just as a historical note on the original Nivex derailleurs....They went out of production sometime in the 1950s, but there were people who thought enough of the design/function that there were very expensive and exquisite bikes commissioned from Rene Herse, Alex Singer, and others to use the no longer made Nivex right up through the 1960s. Those builders would often have the parts chrome plated and otherwise finished them off a little above their fighting weight class just like they did with Mafac brakes and other parts.

[Mark McM]

Another historical note: This isn't the first time that the Nivex design has been re-incarnated. In the early 1990s, Suntour introduced the S1 derailleur, which was similar to the Nivex, and also had a slanted parallelogram like the new Rene Herse derailleurs:





Unlike the Nivex and Rene Herse, the S-1 used a single cable, and was indexed. More on the Suntour S-1 derailleur can be found at:

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/...leur_S100.html

[sg8357]

Originally Posted by Eli Bingham

The Werner Herzog of cycling has successfully trolled you all again.

New t-shirt, Werner Herzog & Jan Heine are both wrong.

Insert image of Jan towing a giant trailer of derailleurs over
Baby Shoe pass in the winter.

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Another historical note: This isn't the first time that the Nivex design has been re-incarnated. In the early 1990s, Suntour introduced the S1 derailleur, which was similar to the Nivex, and also had a slanted parallelogram like the new Rene Herse derailleurs:

There was someone on ebay selling these not so long ago. I know someone that is having a bike modified to work with it.

[wernerherzogsid]

Originally Posted by sg8357

New t-shirt, Werner Herzog & Jan Heine are both wrong.

Insert image of Jan towing a giant trailer of derailleurs over
Baby Shoe pass in the winter.

I will agree with this assessment purely on the sentiment both Jan and I reject the reflexive, mechanical orthodoxy of our respective professional pursuits.

But upon examination, this new simulacrum of that which was old even in my youngest years, I find only the despair of a man desperately wishing for a world that does not exist today, and only briefly existed then.

It is a uniquely misanthropic endeavor, this gear changer and it's lever. Dragging a ship over a mountain is more sensible than this.