
10 weird and wonderful derailleurs – and how they changed cycling - robin_reala
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2018/jun/07/10-weird-and-wonderful-derailleurs-and-how-they-changed-cycling
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Nivtitif
Some nice derailleurs here ! The Campagnolo copy is pretty spot on, even on
the brand engraving.

I'm surprised there isn't any Simplex derailleurs. Until the 90s they were in
the top with Shimano and Campagnolo.

More good derailleurs here :
[http://www.disraeligears.co.uk](http://www.disraeligears.co.uk)

I kinda love the Landrider auto-shift :
[http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/LandRider_Auto_Shift_red...](http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/LandRider_Auto_Shift_red_derailleur.html)

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leetbulb
Aside from what I would imagine being an absolute nightmare on climbs, the
auto-shift is genius. Thanks for sharing that! I cannot imagine the
maintenance on some of these designs.

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awongh
I've always felt that there are a lot of parallels between bicycle design and
digital technology- how standards get picked, how that influences what gets
made and what is successful and what fails.

Is the current parallelogram design of the derailleur really the best? There's
no way to find out, because so much already depends on how a derailleur
currently works and would be very slow to change.

Also consider that the original mountain bike wheel diameter of 26 inches was
apparently picked because the import tariffs from asia (a large majority of
all bicycle parts are produced in asia) on those goods was significantly lower
than larger wheel sizes (small wheels were considered to make a bicycle a
children's toys and taxed at a lower rate)

Compare that with how we ended up with javascript as the default standard
language of the web browser....

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tonyedgecombe
>With the introduction of this model, Shimano finally 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 bike industry is as infested with fashion and status signalling as any
other.

