squirtdad

Strangely enough I find my self thinking about a build with this and the rene herse cranks.... as kind of a anti-big component build not doing, but thinking, would be kind of fun

Lattz

something like......?


with the water drops it looks more lifelike and does not pop out as much as I looked at the RD alone on the studio photo. So now if someone could explain me is it like the Vespa shifting? One cable for down and a separate up?

USAZorro

One lever. Two cables. Essentially yes, one moves the mechanism in the direction to upshift, and the other moves it in the direction to downshift.

BFisher

Not knocking the effort, the ask, the naming - but if I'm plunking down that kind of coin on a derailleur, get rid of all of those hideous sharp angles and edges!

Beauty? I just don't see it. To me it looks like a prototype. It's been tested and works. Fine. Now sculpt and smooth that thing out.

The Huret Jubilee is beautiful. Campagnolo NR/SR = beautiful. Suntour Cyclone = beautiful. There are others. This thing = not there yet.

tiger1964 

So, that "hole filler" screw in the dropout where the RD normally resides -- is that actually an unusually-small-headed screw that fits the threads, or a much smaller one with a nut to retain it? As I want to go IGH on one frame that has a dropout w/integral hanger, I genuinely would not mind knowing. Neat place to attach a taillight, even if it is on the "wrong" side.

Olang

Not knowing much of the brand myself, or the history of the derailleur/shifter combo it's trying to emaluate, I didn't know you could charge 200 bucks for ONE center pull brake - with all the accessories to even mount two brakes you are looking at 500 total. Just to get something which essentially is a copy of MAFAC Racer. And then you still have to get the levers, too.

Lattz

Maybe - I say MAYBE - just because it looks like the MAFAC racer like most period centerpulls do, this way we could say that any bike which has two equal sized wheels like the first Bianchi with such had are just copies of it for way more momo? Unless you bought all your nice bikes for gaspipe price, you give out more money but on another hardware closer to your heart, no?

With well established brands and quality products price is an out of question thing, since the target consumer group couldn't care less if it's 500 EUR or more - and for some of them the more the merrier for show off. I guess the problem would come when a well established brand has no good product just the name and the high prices, and while I most possibly will never have any Herse products, not even a tire, they are not infamous on these pages for their ****** quality.

gugie 

Operators at the switchboard at the Bike Butcher of Portland's Atelier are standing by for the first frame mod order.

It's not like I can't be talked into doing crazy stuff to a frame.

jdawginsc 

That was the first thing I was thinking about...a 650b/Braze on centerpull/chainstay modification Gugification for a dual cabled Rear mech.

Lots of possibilities. Maybe a left down tube braze-on for a fog light...opposite the single shifter.

79pmooney

I like! I also see this as just a start. (For one thing, I'd want better wheel changes. Totally spoiled by the QR and dropout hung RD. That 15 seconds of footage of the woman jumping out of the wheel van, doing a full rear wheel change and pushing the rider off. The bike I raced was in that league.)

People scoff at the knowledge and technology of the 1930s and before but: the brightest minds were designing, thinking about and dreaming of bicycles, not computer software or aerospace. Very good machine tools were in common use. No, not digital, no laser, but good enough to make Swiss watches connoisseurs still drool over. And, they didn't have 50 years of indoctrination that "a derailleur has to look like this". (Granted, a lot of that now is because some engineer at SunTour drew up and built a very good one of new design in the 60s.)

Maybe my next custom geared bike will be spec'd with that RD braze-on. And top mounted, inboard shifter bosses. And a "wedding ring"; a brass band around the DT between the bottle bosses to hold those two cables (and FD cable) off the DT as they run to an under DT and chainstay. (My Mooney now sports a wedding ring for the day it might go back to gears. I hate traditional DT shifters beside the . Hit them and got the 13 tooth cog way too many times climbing the walls I loved to conquer.)

I'll have to mention this to Dave Levy. He's a type who might get on board.

79pmooney

Easy now. SunTour developed the concept that made the sweet Cyclone possible in the 60s. Took a few years to get that work of art out there. This just happened. Let them focus on getting it completely right (including easy to manufacture) before they spend those manhours beautifying, We all gain.

HelpSingularity 

Wow, how is it that this is the first I've heard of this derailleur. Neat-o!

tricky 

Ok, I'll give you that the derailleur looks pretty in a slightly brutalist industrial way but this toothed lock washer on the shifter looks like something that belongs on a Walmart Huffy. Jan, what the heck.

AdventureManCO 

Not for me, but I think it's freakin sweet and don't get all the grouching. This is the exact opposite ethos of all the new electronic-y platic-y stuff.

The fact that you can get replacement springs alone makes me like it. Wish I could get some for my Cyclone M-II instead of trying to repurpose V-brake tension springs.

tricky 

For the record, I don't have a problem with this. It's a cool niche thing that sounds like he will be able to sell and make some kind of profit. I am thankful that the White Industries and Paul derailleurs from the 90s exist and those were very niche as well. They are all out of my price range but fun to ogle non-the-less. Don't get me started on the carbon "Rene Herse" though.

cudak888 

This thread is proof that if Cambio Corsa were released today, someone would be griping that it's "too expensive, needs special dropouts, and what loco weed is Tullio smoking?"

-Kurt

BFisher

Maybe they will. It is an interesting endeavor, regardless.


As for scoffing, well, you'll have that anywhere. But I didn't see a whole lot overly negative here. It takes balls to bring a product like this to the market and ask such a price. You gotta know the hits will come, some justified, some maybe less so. I'm sure he sells enough tires not to care what a bunch of dudes on here think of them. And no, scoffing at a four figure ask for this product does not make a cheapskate. Bargaining on a $20 Schwinn from Farcebook, sure. But not this.

gugie 

That was Rae Dawn Chong (Tommy Chong's daughter of Cheech and Chong fame) in American Flyer.
And it was 7 seconds.

obrentharris 

Some people are more sensitive than others. They can feel their bike "planing." They can discern the difference in speed between a 32mm tire and a 35mm tire. They are bothered by the inferiority of every other "analog" derailleur available. If this derailleur allows them to better enjoy riding, who am I, a less sensitive sort of guy, to disparage them?

I'm looking forward to the first C&V ride report.
Brent

iab

I'm currently in the market for an RD that is also technically a knockoff of the original. Yet I suspect it's cost will make this offering look downright cheap.

Please, insult me for how I wish to spend money.

BFisher

Since you asked nicely...

Are you nuts?! Don't you know how much Bud Light/lottery tickets/Pokemon cards/hookers and blow/Taylor Swift tick...(wait, nevermind), you can get for that?

TiHabanero

I am the customer this thing speaks to, and it speaks very loudly. It is unique, unconventional, very different from the rest of the creatures in the sea, and I can rest assured no other rider in my area will have one anytime soon. A real standout component unlike the plethora of generic, same faced, all look the same stuff available from the big three (some exceptions apply upon inspection, but not from a distance).

I LIKE IT VERY MUCH

ralphs

The RD looks like a beta-test proof-of-concept project. It might be functionally beautiful, but really needs to be revised to make it worth what they're asking.

The front lever looks like it was designed and built by a different team. The machined parts look terrible, and lack the functional beauty of the RD. The stud/ star washer/ nut looks like it belongs on my 1974 snowblower, and using a socket head cap screw/ jam nut arrangement to limit lever travel? Against the Aluminum lever?
That's just my two cents. .

kunsunoke 

The Nivex has got a "primitive cool" look to it, and it's good that it has ROC-based (and some Italian and French) engineering behind it. It's going to be just the thing on Jan's retro-steeds, and probably a whole bunch of other bikes. I'm sure it's going to show up at the PHL bike show on some artisan builds next year, and maybe on some of Konno's creations.

Not for me, though.

JulesCW 

No insults from me -- just a deep desire to eventually see what you spend those $$$ on and to examine and ogle it. It's still probably less than the $$ my ex-BIL wants to spend on a new golf cart!