In your opinion, what is the best looking rear derailer?
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Short cage DX is a looker too
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They are all pretty ugly, so I go with what’s the best shifting rear derailleur. Of course we are talking CV friction.
Tim
Tim
#29
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It is very nice looking, especially for ‘87. It is really not that far off in looks from the RD-7703 above.
John
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Knock-offs usually don't look nicer than the derailleurs they copy, but this one is an exception. Not that the Crane GS looks bad by any stretch, but Shimano's properly-designed b-knuckle isn't quite as pretty as Campagnolo's exploding b-knuckle (at least prior to it exploding), and I'm not quite sure what Shimano was going for with the sorta-drilled-esque tensioner cage plates.
One extra-beautiful thing about Shimano's 600 Arabesque derailleurs is that its knock-offs are beautifully weird.
One extra-beautiful thing about Shimano's 600 Arabesque derailleurs is that its knock-offs are beautifully weird.
#32
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+1 Huret Jubilee. I had one on my old Raleigh Super Course from 1975. Beautiful design, light weight and great shifter. Piece of cake to adjust.
Simplicity....
Simplicity....
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I love the classic Campy, Suntour and Simplex mechs shown in this thread. But just to mix it up, here are a few interesting ones that I think look pretty cool:
Rotor Uno
Mavic Mektronic -- kinda weird looking, but also pretty cool. The French seem to be good at this type of thing - like a Citroen or something. Deserves props for being (I believe) the first electronic derailleur:
Paul Powerglide. These usually came in gaudy anodized color combinations (very 90s), but it's a really cool looking chunk of metal IMO:
Hard to find a good picture of this one, but I always thought the Gripshft (later SRAM) ESP 9.0 carbon rear derailleur looked nice. I had one of these on my MTB in about 1996 I think.
Rotor Uno
Mavic Mektronic -- kinda weird looking, but also pretty cool. The French seem to be good at this type of thing - like a Citroen or something. Deserves props for being (I believe) the first electronic derailleur:
Paul Powerglide. These usually came in gaudy anodized color combinations (very 90s), but it's a really cool looking chunk of metal IMO:
Hard to find a good picture of this one, but I always thought the Gripshft (later SRAM) ESP 9.0 carbon rear derailleur looked nice. I had one of these on my MTB in about 1996 I think.
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1st generation Suntour Superbe:
Fresh out of it's red & gold 1980 box... still had the hanger bolt twist-tied to the derailleur. Gorgeous satin finish, little stipples under the black anodizing on the label area, the lettering on the pivots is super sharp and crisp... hell, even the spring is pretty. (It's one long piece of wire, with a neat-o little pentagonal "pad" bent into it where it bears on the parallelogram body... durned thing probably took forever to bend.)
And it shifts even better than it looks.
--Shannon
PS: Also, the Mavic SSC was a knockout.
Fresh out of it's red & gold 1980 box... still had the hanger bolt twist-tied to the derailleur. Gorgeous satin finish, little stipples under the black anodizing on the label area, the lettering on the pivots is super sharp and crisp... hell, even the spring is pretty. (It's one long piece of wire, with a neat-o little pentagonal "pad" bent into it where it bears on the parallelogram body... durned thing probably took forever to bend.)
And it shifts even better than it looks.
--Shannon
PS: Also, the Mavic SSC was a knockout.
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#38
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I bought a frame simply to put 600 tricolor on it and then proceeded to ride the frame once and hang it up and stare at it occasionally. Not that I disliked the bike I just had so many and so much going on it just isn't really what I want to go for when I ride but it looks nice. That tricolor logo just always makes me smile maybe 7400 shifts a little better but tricolor and 600/Ultegra in general has always looked better except maybe the 9 speed era.
#42
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Another vote for the Campagnolo Nuovo Record. Preferably 1976, if only because that's the year I started cycling "seriously." All I could afford at the time was a Motobecane Mirage with decent Suntour and other components, one step up from rock bottom (Huret, I think, on the Nomade, which I also had briefly)... while lusting over the Campy goodies in the magazines and stores.
It just looks right... as long as you need only a corncob freewheel with five cogs and don't plan to shift much in a hurry.
I enjoy this summary from the excellent Disraeli Gears site:
In terms of form and function, I must be partial to both the Suntour GPX Accushift and Shimano 600 (6401) Tricolor rear derailleurs, because I use both. They're cosmetically similar: blue/grey accents, mostly smooth lines, rounded edges, shrouded pulleys. Pretty simple, reliable, subdued good looks.
Both work equally well, once the Suntour drivetrain is tweaked. After piddling with the GPX RD for the first year, fussing over minor issues, I realized the main problem isn't the derailleur but the original Suntour chain (awful, the crudest built chain I've seen on a modern bike) and Alpha freewheels. Switching to a KMC Z72 chain and SunRace MFR30 or MFM30 freewheels resolved all my shifting complaints. And I replaced the draggy original sintered bearing pulleys with excellent but affordable Tacx Delrin sealed bearing pulleys, which I even prefer over Shimano Centeron.
And I have some Dura Ace 8 and 10 speed stuff, but for some reason haven't installed 'em yet. That was my 2020 project but all I wanted to do was ride my bike, so the DA stuff is still in a box waiting for that round tuit.
It just looks right... as long as you need only a corncob freewheel with five cogs and don't plan to shift much in a hurry.
I enjoy this summary from the excellent Disraeli Gears site:
Frank Berto caustically comments that the Campagnolo Nuovo Record rear derailleur shifted poorly, but was so well constructed that it would keep on shifting exactly as poorly - forever.
In terms of form and function, I must be partial to both the Suntour GPX Accushift and Shimano 600 (6401) Tricolor rear derailleurs, because I use both. They're cosmetically similar: blue/grey accents, mostly smooth lines, rounded edges, shrouded pulleys. Pretty simple, reliable, subdued good looks.
Both work equally well, once the Suntour drivetrain is tweaked. After piddling with the GPX RD for the first year, fussing over minor issues, I realized the main problem isn't the derailleur but the original Suntour chain (awful, the crudest built chain I've seen on a modern bike) and Alpha freewheels. Switching to a KMC Z72 chain and SunRace MFR30 or MFM30 freewheels resolved all my shifting complaints. And I replaced the draggy original sintered bearing pulleys with excellent but affordable Tacx Delrin sealed bearing pulleys, which I even prefer over Shimano Centeron.
And I have some Dura Ace 8 and 10 speed stuff, but for some reason haven't installed 'em yet. That was my 2020 project but all I wanted to do was ride my bike, so the DA stuff is still in a box waiting for that round tuit.
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After reading this thread, I'm concluding that derailleurs are like feet...
#45
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Function or style?
This is a great one for style points.
This is a great one for style points.
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I like pretty much all the SunTour Cyclone/GT series, and even though Disraeli Gears can't stand its beefier pulley cage arm or whatever, I dig it, and it just looks like what nicer bikes had when I was a kid, before Shimano indexed became ubiquitous.
#49
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I'm not big on derailleurs (more of a single-speed fan) but that Campagnolo C Record looks amazing.
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What a blast from the past, I can't believe how many of these beauties that I owned at one point. The Superb was a very underrated product, it shifted incredibly well in its era and was elegant.