Sachs Quarz Stars and Stripes

Marty McFly · Mar 28, 2025

Hi all,

I've been wondering about my Sachs Quarz "Stars and Stripes" derailleur, which I installed on my Specialized in the late '90s, as my rekindled enthusiasm for mountain biking grows. I've already searched for information but haven't found anything detailed. Does anyone have background info or know how to classify the special colors?

Regards
Philipp

joglo · 2025-04-03T15:46:47+0100

wow,
I allays thought this stars n stripes derailleur was an idea of SRAM for celebrating their 10 year anniversary 1998 and just introduced for their own ESP series (btw already using Sachs powergrip grip shifts)

SRAM ESP Captain America Stars-and-Stripes aus Bike 1998.webp

also called Betsy

Looking at yours seems that even the classical Sachs Quarz derailleur, offered from 1996 onwards, even than a bit in parallel to Sachs Dirt and SRAM ESP (after SRAM bought Sachs 1997), had this too.

al · 2025-04-03T20:50:39+0100

I see stars but no stripes, Phillip.

Looks like a 96-97 mech.

You could try asking in my Gripshift group on Facebook.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/693628678126299/

al.

Marty McFly · 2025-04-04T08:38:57+0100

al said:
I see stars but no stripes, Phillip.

Looks like a 96-97 mech.

You could try asking in my Gripshift group on Facebook.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/693628678126299/

al.

Haha... There are some stripes, indeed...

But yes, hard to see... The paint job is very subtle, and why blue stars on a white background were chosen doesn’t make much sense to me either...

joglo · 2025-04-04T08:53:36+0100

This Sachs Quarz derailleur is called RD-MQUM1 and was sold from 1996 on

but still also in a 1998 Sachs catalog, next to the new DIRT series products.

As Sachs was at this time already owned by SRAM, maybe SRAM decided to celebrate their 10year anniversary not just with the Betsy ESP-based stars n's stripes products (see above) but also by allowing Sachs to dress also some of their products in that way?

Something one may consider a "final" or "USA"- edition in 1998 for the former Sachs designed products, before shifting focus completely to the US-product lines and stopping classical Sachs products completely (only the polished/classical hubs an some selected DIRT products made it into the SRAM 1999 catalog)?

al · 2025-04-04T08:54:00+0100

You say you installed the mech, so do you remember where you bought it from?

al.

Marty McFly · 2025-04-04T08:56:31+0100

joglo said:
This Sachs Quarz derailleur is called RD-MQUM1 and was sold from 1996 on
View attachment 946991

but still also in a 1998 Sachs catalog, next to the new DIRT series products.
View attachment 946990

As Sachs was at this time already owned by SRAM, maybe SRAM decided to celebrate their 10year anniversary not just with the Betsy ESP-based stars n's stripes products (see above) but also by allowing Sachs to dress also some of their products in that way?
(before shifting focus completely to the US-product lines)

Thanks for the info. I was just curious whether other users also have Sachs components painted like this. I hadn’t come across any until now.

Sachs Quarz Stars and Stripes

Marty McFly

Retro Newbie

joglo

Senior Retro Guru

al

Marty McFly

Retro Newbie

joglo

Senior Retro Guru

al

Marty McFly

Retro Newbie

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