John E

https://steel-vintage.com/gerbi-camb...ke-1949-detail

I came across this while browsing around on the Internet. Beautiful machine, unfamiliar marque to me. What particularly caught my interest was the right rear dropout, which was designed to accommodate either the Cambio Corsa (toothed axle slot) or a more conventional rear derailleur. Was this common?

The Gerbi history sounds much like the Capo history, with a retired cycling champion starting his own frame building shop.

repechage

Not common to have provision for both but not unheard of.

way back there was bike shop urban legend concern that the added friction of a derailleur equipped bicycle would be very limiting.

that freewheel is at the max or beyond for a Cambio Corsa unit, paired with two front rings... most likely beyond. But I doubt there was large/large cross chaining being used.

iab

What is interesting is that by 1949, Gerbi was second news at best. Technically, Gerbi was run by the Red Devil's (Giovanni Gerbi) sister, Artemisia Gerbi. In 1921, Artemisia hired Francesco Galmozzi, father of Angelo Galmozzi. Prior to WW2 it was very typical for a manufacturer to make a couple of brands of bikes. Bianchi/Touring, Legnano/Wolsit and Frejus/Rola are some examples. In 1922 Francesco started the Gloria brand at Gerbi.

So not only was Gloria losing its luster in 1949, I figure Gerbi was mostly being sold in the greater Milan area, the location of their shop.

iab

After 1952 it was. Campagnolo offered the dropout so the customer could choose which derailleur to use. Campagnolo did not make these in 1949, take the date from SVB with a grain of salt.

iab

If interested, a 1920s Gerbi is on ebay.it.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/bici-velo-CI...16.m2518.l4276

martl

There also was Girardengo/Gira

T-Mar

I concur, it's defiitely not 1949, as the Gran Sport parallelogram rear derailleur which would have used the hanger wasn't even introduced until the autumn of 1950. The dropout was still in the catalogue that was released in the autumn of 1955, so it should have been available as least as late 1956.

Depending on the point in that timeline it could be viewed as forward or backward compatible. Either way, it was a hedge against obsolescense, which would have been attractive to consumers. Based on what I've read, there was a real problem with Gran Sport availability during the first year or two. So, buying a new bicycle with this feature at that time, allowed a easy upgrade when availabilty permitted. Also, back then, it was far more common for amateur racers and avid cyclists to first invest in a good frame (often from the local framebuilder), paired witha good set of wheels. They'd use their old components or whatever they could afford, until they had the means to buy newer, higher grade components.

I imagine that once Campagnolo's parallelogram derailleurs became readily available and well established, that the use of these dropouts fell off rather quickly. I wouldn't be suprised if the inclusion of these dropouts in the autumn 1955 catalogue was primarily the result of leftover inventory.

billytwosheds 

That fork crown, too, though.

Wow.

SJX426 

And the seat cluster