John Jorgensen wrote:
> In review of some of the patent applications of Campagnolo during
> this period of the late 70's early 80's, they appear to be desperate
> in an attempt to get around the slant parallelogram patent!
That wouldn't surprise me. Shimano seemed to have their facilities all
tooled up and ready to go when SunTour's patent expired -- the Dura-Ace
slant-parallelogram derailleur hit the North American market within a
couple months.
> Remember
> this period was a time of a shrinking market for road bikes as well,
> with the rise of the mtb.
I think Campy also got blind-sided by other two major changes in the bike industry: the arrival of SIS shifting that really worked, and the advent of clipless pedals (not counting the Cinelli M71). Shimano lost no time in licensing Look's design, while at the same time working on their own implementation. It didn't take long before the majority of bikes had SIS drive trains, and the hotdogs bought into the pedals as well. Pretty soon Shimano owned the market.
--
-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA