View Single Post
Old 06-08-21, 11:02 PM
  #18  
Vintage Schwinn
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 635
Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 341 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 388 Times in 254 Posts
It took the Japanese (Maeda SUN TOUR -and- SHIMANO) to be able to reliably shift the "Thirty-something 1ST GEAR.
The well respected Europeans (Campagnolo, Huret , & Simplex) could not at that point in time!
Certainly, you can make a case that the Japanese "borrowed" (perhaps almost stole) the best of the existing European rear derailleur designs and then further refined them with better component materials and better manufacturing tolerances as well as slightly better workmanship for a better overall engineered product.
You can thank the Japanese for the massive improvement in the area of rear derailleurs.
Japanese engineering revolutionized electronics, stereo high fidelity gear, televisions and soon after that bicycle rear derailleurs, automobile manufacturing & automobile engineering and many other unrelated manufacturing areas beginning in the mid sixties and spanning through just about the remainder of the 20th Century.
The Japanese take-over in rear derailleur dominance was massively swift, perhaps quicker than their earlier ascent to the domination of electronics, tv-stereo industry.
To borrow the old ad tag lines from the two biggies in the electronics industry..........The One and Only....&......Just Slightly Ahead Of Their Time..........................--well, yes indeed, the Japanese just slaughtered those three respected European names because their rear derailleurs were that much improved. The Europeans never came close once Shimano and Maeda SUNTOUR took over in the Seventies!
-------Basically, if your vintage rear derailleur doesn't say SHIMANO or Maeda SUNTOUR , it isn't a great vintage rear derailleur!!
Vintage Schwinn is offline