I think it needs to be added that while Frank Berto carefully and scientifically came to the conclusion that Suntour's slant parallelogram shifted the best, other writers, just as passionate about bike equipment came to a different conclusion. Eugene Sloane was very clear that Campy Nouvo Record and Super Record held a slight edge over Suntour's best effort. Of course this was before the time when Shimano raised the bar even further. What I gleaned from my multiple readings of the Dancing Chain and others that I have read and from people in the industry, is that indexed shifting as an aside issue, the performance of Campy and Suntour were actually quite competitive with each other. Even though I have yet to set up my Campy SR Gios Torino, I fully expect to find the Campy shifting to be very good and about on par with something like Suntour Superbe Pro. As a further issue, isn't what makes the newest derailleurs from Campy and Shimano so good, not the derailleur mechanism itself, but the cabling and the indexed shifting mechanism?
Others on this board have stated that Campy was not innovative, and Shimano and Suntour led the way during the early 80's. My own experience is that derailleur performance deteriorates with many miles and that perhaps Campy's concept of quality control and durability and rebuild-ability was a good way to go. I have had to replace derailleurs because bushings and such just wore out. The fact that so many people on this board have pulled NR and SR Campy derailleurs from the garbage and used them successfully 30 years after their manufacture, says quite a bit about the value of Campy engineering. Just try pulling some STI equipment out of a flea market 30 years from now and expecting them to function at all.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl.