David,
My thesis was not "that these derailleurs were made up by distributors". I was suggesting that a private individual was responsible, possibly because large quantities of NOS GS and Rally small parts are still available from some distributors. That means it is easy for people to obtain the parts, fairly inexpensively, to make the example on Ebay.
Who is your ex-colleague, and what gives you so much confidence in his opinion? I don't mean to be condescending, but I feel very confident in my assessment.
Marc Boral Long Beach, CA
At 07:49 PM 11/27/2001, David Benson wrote:
>Marc,
>I dispute your thesis that these deraillers were made up by distributors.
>Subsequent to my earlier posting I spoke withan ex-colleague who confirmed
>that these deraillers were supplied, by Campagnolo, sometime in the
>early/midEighties.
>David Benson
>Auckland, NZ
>
>Marc Boral wrote:
>
>>The derailleur in question is not a factory unit from the approx. dates
>>stated. It was simply created from the NR and GS and Rally
>>derailleurs. This particular example shown on Ebay is VERY easy to
>>assemble. The obvious clues that this is not a derailleur from the dates
>>claimed, are:
>>
>>1) The spindles (808/A) are steel type, from '80s.
>>2) The outer arm (806/A) is late style. The early NR outer arms are
>>distinguishable by fatter letters, amongst other things.
>>3) The upper body (805/A) and return spring (98/A) are late style, 80s.
>>4) No date on upper body....'84 on.
>>
>>There has been no spindle replacement. Someone simply took a fully
>>assembled LATE MODEL NR parallelogram assembly and mounted it to some
>>Rally cage plates. They used a GS spring cage bolt (3505) and spring
>>cage cover (3508) instead of a NR for some reason, but no skill
>>required....once the cage plates are off, just slip the original
>>bolt/cover off and slide the replacements on.
>>
>>Now, if you want to make the argument that Campy possibly made these
>>"RARE" :-) derailleurs in the '80s, that would be a little more
>>believable. But what has happened here is someone just converted a bunch
>>of derailleurs. We can only speculate what the person's motive was. My
>>guess is that there is an abundance of NOS GS and Rally small parts
>>available from some distributors.
>>
>>Marc Boral
>>Long Beach, CA
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>At 10:56 AM 11/27/2001, Hilary Stone wrote:
>>
>>>Another identical one NOS in its original box turned up earlier this year in
>>>England. I think however that Campagnolo almost certainly used parts from
>>>their own parts bin. This derailleur came off a one owner bike and I think
>>>that its history is beyond question - there is certainly no question of it
>>>being a forgery in the sense that someone has deliberately put together an
>>>ultra rare derailleur. And Chuck Schmidt has come across a couple of
>>>similar derailleurs to the one I have turned up but has no other info on
>>>them.
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>
>>>Hilary Stone, in rather miserable, drizzly Bristol
>>>
>>>
>>> > Hilary posted this for sale and talks about it being a NR that was made
>>> > perhaps prior to the Rally?
>>> >
>>> > This is a "first" to me... Anyone see this one before? It sure does have
>>> > those somewhat nasty GS hex head pivot bolts.
>>> >
>>> > http://ebay.com/
>>> >
>>> > Dale Brown
>>> > Greensboro, North Carolina