In a message dated 5/7/02 10:10:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Gjvinbikes@aol.com writes:
<< 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. >> They don't break, but they do give up some of their tension over time, particularly if left parked in the large cogs. Then they shift slower. With bar end shifters and the extra cable they use, it makes a difference.
<<Where do you get replacement springs anyway? Campy doesn't make or sell them anymore>> I have a supply and they are still around and available. You have to look, but they're there.
<> I've never had them lose tension on a long ride. I think I set them up better than most people. Not to blow my own horn, but I have never seen anyone else set them up as well as I do and the ones I have worked on for other people have always been praised for how much better they work than when they were new. The real advantage with the Campys is I think they have better "feel" through the lever. I've tried the Sun Tours and didn't like the loss of information about where I was in the shift.
<> So? I guess I'm so used to it I don't notice.
<<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 generally don't use over a 26 on the back and for years used a 21 or 24. We always called corn cobs the straight blocks with one tooth jumps. I didn't use those a lot because there are hills in San Francisco where I grew up. You're right that Campy front derailleurs don't handle wide range triples well, until they came out with the OR stuff that is probably OT. When Frank or anyone else, says it's a "significant improvement" you have to qualify that. Sure, you need it for index shifting and super wide ratios. But I really like the way the Campys shift over the range of gears that I ride. I tried the other ones and found zero practical improvement. They were not enough different to make me want to change either the front or the rear. If that means I disagree with Frank, then I respectfully disagree. We're all free to use the parts we like. It just so happens that I really do like the way the Campy stuff works. I had a NR on my mountain bike (with a long cage). I liked it way better than the DuoPar I tried because the NR was more rigid. Frankly, I liked it a lot better than the vintage Japanese stuff too. It all shifted well when it was new, but rigidity seemed to go away in a relatively short period of time and then it didn't work as well. The Campy stuff didn't work its best until it "broke in", and then it had a much longer working life. Stevan Thomas "oh so flat" Alameda, CA