Campagnolo Rally Rear derailleur

[ferrus]

Beguiling is the word.
I started collecting derailleurs because I found Campag’s design and finish almost impossibly beautiful. When I first beheld a Nuovo Record mech at the age of 13, I could hardly believe bicycle parts could be so delicious. (Where else in life do you see engineering as elegant as a fine 70s/80s racing bike?)
Years later with over 400 mech’s in the collection, it’s the Campag’s that still captivate the most.

 

[ferrus]

The beautiful stainless tie rod tries cleverly to achieve what the slanted parallelogram does naturally.

You can feel the strained pride of Valentino Campagnolo desperately trying to convince himself that they were still at the cutting edge of design, and absolutely, no way needed to be copying anyone else

 

[KermitGKona88]

Did somebody say Suntour?

 

[ferrus]

The beautiful stainless tie rod tries cleverly to achieve what the slanted parallelogram does naturally.

The slant parallelogram was a revolutionary solution. But something no one ever acknowledges is that the Huret Allvit achieved similar years before.

 

[Deleted member 69416]

Thank you.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Thank you.

For what?

 

[Deleted member 69416]

For what?

The elephant in the room !
Suntour made some of the best in all respects . Their finish is not as good as Campag and their marketing was pony but in terms of bang for buck and function they were unbeatable really.

 

[ferrus]

Couldn’t agree more. Cyclone was/is an absolutely brilliant mech IMHO and so light too.
Superbe Pro wasn’t far off the build and finish of Campag’s finest. A wonderful derailleur!

 

[27motorhead]

Can't believe no one else reacted to this...

Years later with over 400 mech’s in the collection

400??? @ferrus this is museum level of collecting!!! I can't even think what x400 mech's looks like, apart from rather heavenly!!!

 

[ferrus]

Ha ha. In the last house, about 200 were on display, so it was a bit of a museum (including chainsets and other interesting/rare parts)
I’ve been steadily replacing many of the mech’s with NOS examples so there are quite a lot of duplicates. About 2/3 of the collection is NOS now.

Unlike the Disraeli Gears chap I’m not a derailleur scholar, so the collection isn’t particularly (historically) comprehensive. It was initially just an indulgence in mech’s I found attractive or interesting (hence not much Shimano!). But collectors being what they are, I couldn’t resist the various iterations of certain models (there are 7 or so Titanium Duopars, several Zeus 2000s, Huret Jubilees’ etc), and for no good reason at all, quite a few hilarious Campag Gran Turismos’.

In truth it’s been an obsession that’s become a bit of a burden.
There are only a couple more mech’s that I want, and inevitably they’ll be ridiculously expensive when they eventually turn up.
Top of the list is a Sanko Procyon. This utterly amazing mech is so rare and collectible there’s no way I’ll be able to afford it - but what’s a mech’ nutter gonna do when the last piece of the jigsaw surfaces? Makes me feel sick contemplating it!