If I understand you correctly, you prefer to ride pre-1985 Campy NR derailers partly because they have return springs that are more convenient to replace ?
In all my years of riding Campy NR rear derailers, I never had a return spring fail. In fact, I have never had a return spring fail on any derailer, at all. In my case, derailers wear out by developing "pivit slop", Campy NR's being perhaps a little bit longer-lasting that way than other derailers. Where do you get replacement springs anyway ? Campy doesn't make or sell them anymore, though their derailers originally were guaranteed forever...I would consider a return spring breaking a warantee return issue.
I also used the Campy's "sneeky-pete" bar end shifters, being partial to bar ends in general. I switched to SunTour Barcons because they felt better to me, what with the ratchet-assist and all, and they didn't lose tension on long rides like the Campy's did. The Campy shifters sure looked nicer than the SunTours, which I think is a lot of their appeal.
I always had to overshift the Campy NR rear derailer a bit to get it to finally shift up, then back down. Do you disagree with Frank "Dancing Chain" Berto (and most everyone else ?) that SunTour's slant-parallelagram was a significant improvement to derailer design ?
Perhaps our impressions differ because of our usage habits. I used pretty wide freewheels back in those days, because I lived in the mountains of NC riding around in quite hilly stuff and front shifters (not even Campy's excellent front shifter) did not handle large ring changes well back then. I also thought triples were for wimps (oh, well, I'm a wimp now). Perhaps the NR derailers were designed for tight (corncob) clusters only ?
Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC
In a message dated Tue, 7 May 2002 12:42:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, NortonMarg@aol.com writes:
>In a message dated 5/7/02 9:21:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>Gjvinbikes@aol.com writes:
>
><< I generally don't use vintage Campy components, even on my vintage bikes,
>because they do not work well compared to other options (I make an exception
>here for the excellent Campy hubs, particularly front ones). Would you really
>rather shift with a Campy NR rear derailer or a SunTour VGT Luxe or even a
>modern Shimano 105 ? >>
>Well, now that you mention it, yes I would. Either a pre 1985 Nuovo Record or
>Super Record are MY first choices. In part because I can change the
>derailleur return spring without having to unrivet the lower body like on the
>later Campys. I use handlebar end shifters (yes, Campy, thank you) and have
>noticed that it is sometimes necessary to change that spring. On ALL of the
>Japanese derailleurs that I have seem, that spring is fitted on a one-way
>drive pin. You can't change it, you get to throw the whole derailleur away
>and replace it. By the way You CAN make them last longer if you always park
>the bike in the small cog.
>Stevan "more of a rider than a collector" Thomas
>Alameda, CA