Huret Champion:
The oldest derailleur in the museum at the moment – this Champion from the early fifties has a sliding coil spring to move the cage, operated by a toggle chain like a hub gear. Because of this, it’s Rapid-Rise, like the latest Shimano mechs 😉
Simplex Prestige Delrin:
Almost 40 years before SRAM started making plastic derailleurs, Simplex was at it with is model from the early ‘60s, with matching plastic shifter. The plastic was too flexy for accurate shifting, however, so they quickly changed to steel parallelogram plates – as you can see in this brace of Simplex mechs from the ‘70s:
Huret Duopar Eco:
This was one of the best derailleurs of the time – early ‘80s. The paralellogram was horizontal, but the cage moved on a second unsprung parallelogram to let it cope with a very large range of sprockets. This is the steel Eco version – the original Duopar was titanium…
Mavic 801:
The lightest mech in the collection – the 801 was made in the late ‘80s, but it was already a bit outdated – it doesn’t have Suntour’s sloping parallelogram. It does have hollow titanium bolts and pivots, though, and a very light aluminium cage and parallelogram. It is also completely dismantleable…
Zeus derailleurs
Good Spanish Campag copies…