bikemeister

Came across an Campagnolo rear derailler yesterday at the local bicycle salvage place. It's a Gran Tourismo. Looks like chromed steel throughout - large cage - not rusty. It must be OOOOLD!
What's this thing worth? The guy said it was not for sale (they are going to do a display bike?) - but I thought if I offered a nice chunk of change, they might let it go. I'm wondering what i should offer.

vjp

A very early rare variant sold on Ebay this year for around $6,000 or so, but generally they are around a $100.

Kommisar89

The Gran Tourismo is pretty much the bottom of the Campy line. It is based on the Valentino standard cage RD which wasn't the best to begin with and with the long cage it is reported to be one of the worst shifting derailleurs ever made although I've never ridden one so I can't say from first hand experience. I'm not sure how much they go for actually. The much better Campagnolo Rally long cage RD (loosely based on Nuovo Record) goes for around $100 so I would expect the Gran Tourismo to go for considerably less.

schwinnderella

Not worth much at all,in fact I bought a mildly damaged one this weekend at a bike show for $1.00,although they are worth more than that.

MalcolmsFrejus

I got one, NOS, in the box for $40 plus shipping on ebay a few months ago. I see them with BIN around $50 or so usually.
All this before I learn how poorly they're supposed to shift...............
I haven't mounted it and still don't know if I will.
Won't get the bike back from the painters for awhile so......it will sit in the box while I contemplate what I was thinking in the first place.
I could always use it as a boat anchor.

bikemeister

Thanks for the advice, guys. Guess I won't be losing sleep over it tonite!

dannyg1 

They are though, probably the coolest looking long cage ever! Too bad about their functional reputation.

Danny

cudak888 

-Kurt

evwxxx

Beside the fact they weigh like a ton or so,,,

CV-6 

In keeping with the new policy...

$3.50 or whatever the market will bear.

OFG rules!

Road Fan

When I haunted teh bike shops in Chicago as a kid, all the sales and wrenches said anything but Nuovo Record sucked and shifted horribly. I found it was not true, just salesmanship. You have to be willing to accept some trade-off to have a vintage part, to have it on a bike set up for touring, to not have teh benefits of modern cog teeth that grab the chain so well, et cetera. If it's suitable for the brand, style, and configuration (gear pattern) of your bike, it's a good solution given a vintage approach. You may have to learn to deal with slower shifting or the need for an overshift/pull back strategy, but hey that is the vintage experience especially with wide range gearing. The best shifting of the old days ('60s and early '70s was with Camy Gran Sport, Record, and Nuovo Record on 14-21 clusters or even straight blocks (13-18). Next in the functional order were Simplex and Simplex Prestige, and then only for a few years until they began to wear. Mid and late '70s Suntour and Shimano came into the higher-end market and provided some good touring parts and just some alternatives, but those might not be suitable for a vintage European bike from a vintage correctness point of view.

I have a Rally, and btw I don't think it's a very good shifter, either. It's certainly lighter than the Gran Turismo, but so is a Huret Allvit.

For a really good vintage rear derailleur try a Huret Duopar or EcoDuoPar. DuoPar means dual parallelogram, and that system just rocks. It beats the Rally by a huge margin in terms of shifting performance. I've used them on two bikes, with no reliability or readjustment issues. I can't say that about any Allvit system I've used or the Gran Sport or Record I had. The Nuovo Records have shown similar stabiilty.

Bad shifting does not always mean not usable. It might still be teh best compromise in a vintage context.

Road Fan

cudak888 

Of course - they wanted to sell your an NR rear mech for your Varsity...kiddo.

-Kurt

Skip Magnuson

I have a Gran Tourismo on my 1971 Italvega and it shifts just fine. I think many comments are base on hearsay and not experience. The Gran Tourismo does take care in shifting - a little overshift then a little back off. It's maybe not the fastest or easiest to use but I like it.
Skip Magnuson
Spokane, WA

Road Fan

Sheesh, I knew that when I was a sophomore! Besides, it was an English 3-speed with steel drop bars. Next after that was a Falcon, with Gran Sport!!!! So they did succeed!

Kommisar89

This is really true - I've certainly never ridden a Gran Turismo so I was only going by what Frank Berto said. And he had a tendancy in his 1988 book to dismiss anything that wasn't the new (at that time) Shimano indexed gear. To be fair though, his book was about upgrading your bike in that era not finding period correct gear to match a certain 35 year old bike style. Back in the day I had Valentino and Simplex Prestige. Since I didn't know any better and had no point of reference, they shifted just fine. I just rode a century on Saturday with my Rally on a 14-34 freewheel and it shifted well enough. I wouldn't want to race with it but it met the need of a long cage derailleur to handle a wide range freewheel that would look appropriate on an early 70's Italian bike being ridden in centuries and charity rides.

Road Fan

Just to be fair to Frank, he did a super job of analyzing and explaining the how and why. He did form his preferences, however! Now that the significant patents have expired, everyne (Shimano, Campy, and SRAM) uses the same basic designs, and has rather uniformly good performance illustrating the concepts he presented. The DuoPar still stands out as an exception, however.

I'd like to put a Gran Turismo on a bike just for the looks, that 1950's modern swoop that the cage has.

Road Fan

Kommisar89

One of my future projects, when the right bike comes along (and I haven't seen any in a long time - you'd think they'd as plentiful as Varsity's and UO8's), is to build a bike boom era Bottecchia Special to recreate my original one. Who says you can't go home again? Anyway, while the original came with Simplex Prestige which was later swapped for and ridden with Valentino Extra for many years, the replica will almost certainly be equipped with a Gran Turismo as I can't can't push the old 13-21 freewheel I rode then (I grew up in the flat lands) up the hills here in Colorado. It does have that old time flair about it. I really won't care how well it shifts.