Originally Posted by
noglider
@
bulgie, the first one or two generations of the Campagnolo Rally derailleur had a spring-loaded top bolt.
Yeah, when I wrote about dual-sprung being "something Campy never did back then", I meant in the '50s and '60s.
Speaking of the original Rally, I recently got Jim Merz to rivet the top knuckle of a Rally* onto the rest of a NR. It's just a Rally in every way that matters, but it has the front parallelogram arm that says Nuovo Record, which I find amusing. I don't know what bike I'll put it on -- one where I don't need the rear mech to shift really well I guess! (I like 'em OK; not as good as a Suntour V-GT, but not terrible like a Gran Turismo.)
* No Rally derailer was harmed to do this -- I somehow stumbled on just the top knuckle of a Rally, NOS, never been assembled into a derailer, sold as a replacement part. The first Rally design did frequently break there, like if the bike just fell over, so they made the second iteration with more metal in that thin neck where they break.
Similarly, no NR was sacrificed to make this hybrid -- I used an NR where the top knuckle was damaged, so this brought a dead mech back to life.
-Mark Bulgier, Seattle