Ray,
I know that the some of the constructeurs of the day used Huret Luxe derailleurs. Have you tried one of those? I tried to find a Dilecta in Jan's book for reference but none are listed.
Mike Schmidt Stirling, NJ USA
On 11/1/06 5:19 PM, "wheelman@nac.net" <wheelman@nac.net> wrote:
> Upon cleaning and updating my Dilecta touring bike I ran into an issue
> that at first did not concern me. The bike came equipped with a Suntour
> front derailleur but the rest is pure French. Since this has a wide range
> triple ring set, the Suntour managed nicely but was not desireable to me
> as it obviously is not French.
>
> Admittedly I did things the hard way. I removed the Suntour and went to my
> collection of derailleurs and pulled out a few period French models to
> replace it. Well by now some of you have guessed my predicament. None of
> these derailleurs worked. They either could not handle the triple because
> they move laterally or they interfered with the chain on the smallest
> ring. After trying about 4 derailleurs I suddenly realized why the Suntour
> was there to begin with.
>
> Now I know this bike did not come with a Suntour front derailleur but that
> leaves me to wonder what did it come with. The Suntour uses the slant
> parallelogram that allows it to run up and down the cogs without
> interference so there is no problem with accommodating the triple. Since
> this is a cable driven front derailleur, I am perplexed what French
> version might have been used to to the same job. The period correct Huret
> and Simplex items I have can't cut it.
>
> Ray Homiski
> Elizabeth, NJ