[CR]Early index shifting

(Example: Racing:Wayne Stetina)

In-Reply-To: <743395.68442.qm@web55406.mail.re4.yahoo.com>
References: <743395.68442.qm@web55406.mail.re4.yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:21:23 -0800
To: Larry Myers <curmudgeon1957@yahoo.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: [CR]Early index shifting

At 9:47 PM -0700 10/27/07, Larry Myers wrote:
>BTW- just take a look through the 'Data Book' or 'The Dancing
>Chain'....you'll see many examples of vintage equipment that could
>be said to violate our set of rules- indexed shifting by Nivex &
>Cyclo,

Nivex and Cyclo were later developments (1920s and 1930s) and did not have index shifting. It was always the first derailleurs that had index shifting to persuade a reluctant group of cyclists that shifting really wasn't that hard. Once people were used to derailleurs, they were happy to use friction shifting.

So the first cyclotouring derailleur, the Le Chemineau (and the Funiculo a bit later), was indexed. The first racing derailleur that found widespread acceptance in the pro peloton (at least in France), the Osgear Super Champion, also had an indexing shift lever.

The arrival of index shifting in recent decades follows a similar pattern. It was mostly used to overcome the reluctance of casual cyclists to derailleur-equipped bikes.

We tested how these early derailleurs shifted on the road, and reported on that in the "Riding with Classic Derailleurs" articles in Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 2 (Cyclotouring derailleurs like Cyclo, Funiculo, Nivex, Spirax, Huret Allvit, Duopar, Campagnolo Rally, etc.) and Vol. 4, No. 4 (racing derailleurs like Super Champion, Campagnolo Cambio Corsa, Gran Sport, Record, Simplex Tour de France, SLJ, Suntour, etc.).

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com