BluePx10

I have ridden extensively (in no particular order) Huret Allvit, Jubilee, Challenger; Simplex Prestige, SX410, SLJ; Shimano 600 EX; Campy Nouvo Record, Victory, Athena (1st gen); SunTour Vx, Cyclone, Cyclone II, VGT, Sprint 9000 and Superbe Pro (friction). For pure shifting performance, Superbe Pro is the best.

Allvit is the worst. Jubilee and NR are on par with each other but not up to the second tier--Victory, Athena, 600 EX, Simplex, Cyclones and Vx. The Sprint 9000 in friction is indistinguishable from SP but neither as light nor pretty.

iab

First gen Vittoria Margherita. Nothing as smooth as moving that chain with your own hand. Real men (and women) don't need fingertips when they put them into the spokes.

djkashuba 

Yep stunning...

Raleigh Competition by djk762, on Flickr

Vx with Power Shifters my fave.

Motobecane Grand Record 650B by djk762, on Flickr

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Question is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a "Best" Derailleur. They're all inelegant solutions to an IGH.

Grand Bois

I have the cheaper Eos long cage model of that Sachs Huret and it's an excellent derailer for friction or indexed. I had it on my PX10 for a while and the only derailer I liked better on on was a Suntour V GT Luxe, but not by much. The PX10 now has a 1st generation Rally. It shifts just okay, but I like the way it looks.

LeicaLad 

Thanks, G.B., that's good to know. I might get around to trying it yet. I do most thoroughly agree that the Rally is among the best looking of all the derailleurs, both 1st and 3rd generation. The aesthetic is somehow just right.

Cheers.

frpax

I'm a Suntour Superbe Pro guy, myself.

Creme Brulee

i always find that the cassette/freewheel makes more of a difference as long as you're using a regular derailer. chainline too

dyander

I never tried the Superbe Pro, but the first gen Cyclone gets my vote for combined performance and appearance.
I am also still running a Suntour VX GT and Deore XT for wide range work. The Campy NR of course has a place and works just fine. Nothing you haven't already heard though.

auchencrow

You haven't tried Campy Valentino.



I've since upgraded to this:

northbend 

^ Now that is funny! ^

top506

If you like the Svelto you must love the Luxe:





The long cage is the only RD I could not get to work. Not even with a 5 speed block.

Top

Dawes-man

IME, the SunTour Vx works very well indeed:

[IMG] The 1984 SunTour RD looks the part. by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]


And working on this for a friend earlier today, I was very impressed - snickety-snick:
[IMG] RD after oxalic acid and a bit of alloy shining... by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]


And this works flawlessly when changing down, under load, going uphill - knocks spots off the 1st gen. Campagnolo Rally but loses to it on looks:
[IMG] IMG_7649 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

The only other derailleurs I have experience of are Campagnolo's Gran Sport and Nuovo Record - they both work fine.

Dawes-man

[QUOTE=auchencrow;14936409]You haven't tried Campy Valentino.

Dave Mayer

Question to the group here.... I have a couple of Sachs New Success rear derailleurs, and the lesser Sachs 5000. They index perfectly with Campy Ergopower (8 and early 9-speed) shifters. Which means that they are not Shimano index compatible. Has anyone tried setting up an older Sachs Quartz unit as shown in the pic? I am curious about an alternative to the increasingly hard to find and expensive vintage New Success or Campy derailleurs.

puchfinnland

My valentino deraileur was not that bad!
far better then Huret!

robertkat

Funny that no one has mentioned the Nivex rear mech. I'd say Dura Ace comes in second.

zukahn1 

Well is there much point in debating wether the low end Hurets from the 60's or the Valantino are worse. Just about any good working modern DR including the $5-10 stuff is better than most 60's DR's from a practical standpoint.

redxj

Probably because no one has used a Nivex or much less seen one in person most likely.

For friction shifting I find the various Suntour derailleurs to function the best. I have some early Suntour Cyclone/Superbe derailleurs sitting in the parts bin just in case for a future build? I probably won't end up using them since more of my bikes end up with more modern drivetrains. Campagnolo NR/SR look cool, but I am not much of a fan of their shifting. Maybe that is why I don't have a vintage Campagnolo equipped bike anymore? The only full vintage bike I have is equipped with first gen Dura Ace. The other bikes have upgraded 9+ indexed drivetrains for the most part.

noglider 

Ooh, them's fightin' words!

That Nivex looks like a weapon.

I have a Campagnolo Gran Turismo. It's beautiful and heavy and works terribly. I can shift OK but then it keeps drifting, as if someone is messing with the shifter constantly.

robertkat

Good point. I agree that for older friction mechs, it doesn't get much better than Superbe Pro, and I do love Dura Ace 7400. I'm curious though - for those out there that have experience using a Jubilee, what kind of gear range can it handle? I'm curious how well it would do with an 8 or 9 speed cassette and a small compact (46/34 for example).

Chombi

I still remember back in the 80's how pretty much all the LBS's discouraged me from buying a Huret Jubilee RD, even with my wallet already ready to pay for it, as they all explained that the derailleur was supposedly so flexible and wimpy that it would supposedly shift really badly on my bike and probably asplode on me on the road. That's how I eventually ended up with my first Campy NR RD. Built like a tank, shifted kinda slow but OK enough...but maybe I could have lived with any idiosyncrasies that the Jubilee might have thrown at me back then anyway as my bikes were French.....I kinda found the NR RD quite boring after some years of using it.
Now that Jubilees are kind of out of my price range, I just say to myself, I guess it was never meant to be.
I bet those LBS's were just lying to me about how bad they were, so they can keep those Jubilees for themselves.....

Chombi

noglider 

I had a full Jubilee set on my Raleigh back in the 70's. It worked well. I changed the rear for a Campy NR, and it worked a lot better under load. But the Jubilee wasn't bad by the standards of its day. It was neither fantastic nor awful.

Catnap 

i commuted on a bike with a long-cage Jubilee RD for a few months last year. buttery smooth shifting with Simplex retrofriction levers. No complaints and no issues, although when I later built up a new touring bike, I opted for a Shimano Deerhead M700 due to its history as being more reliable. The Jubilee is a very cool derailleur, IMO, but not the "best ever".

martl

I can only assume that you never used the long MTB one. I had that piece of crap (still have it, some pics on Velobase show mine), even used it (albeit very shortly) and for the price they asked, it was a joke.

Pro: stainless steel bolts, full demountable. End of pro.

Con: Weighs a ton and half. Cage is built from, no, stamped out of of a soft iron sheet metal they must have gotten cheap from a transformator company. No one even bothered to remove the ridge from stamping. Can be bent like putty.
Impossible to convince it to cooperate with exotic stuff like Shimanos 7-speed cassettes, unless you had an endless supply of various width shims, and patience to match.
FD with no shifting help whatsoever, just two straight sheet plates. One clamp size available (a very large one), adapt to smaller tubing by using plastic reducer rings. Soft ones.
The acoompanying shifters have as handles a massive square steel bar bent to a circle with the two ends standing out so it can be clamped to the drum-like indexing system by a massive 5mm bolt. All the better for it because you need a lot of power to shift and so you can grab it with all five fingers.
Put the things on a table next to a contemporary Suntour and a Dura Ace, then remember it did cost more than he other two combined, and cry.



If someone told me that thing was a bad russian copy of whatever, i would have no reason to doubt it. Is it an interestig piece of bike history? betcha. Is it a good derailleur? Gimme a break, it sucks, big time.