Gang:
Campy question here:
4 hole SR front Derailleur
What is the time line, rarity, and its guesstimated evaluation?
Thanks,
Jack (Giacomo) Gabus Laguna Beach, CA
I have bad news about that 4-hole SR front derailleur that you're holding, Jack. It doesn't exist! Imagine that's hard to accept given that you have one, but there you have it.
Okay, now for the less smartaleckey answer.... As far as I know the 4-hole front derailleurs were discontinued before the SR model was introduced. The only thing distinguishing the SR and Record front derailleurs of a given vintage is that the arms of the SR were anodized gloss black to match the upper and lower body parts of the SR rear, while the Record was bare aluminum. Now, if you have an actual 4-hole front with the black anodized arms, well, that's either something very rare that undoes my understanding of the timeline, or it was pieced together. The inner arm is easily exchanged with basic tools, and the outer would only require replacing one rivet, which I assume is not terribly hard. I would exect the peening on the rivet to look "wrong" if it was redone, unless someone took great pains.
If you have a genuine SR 4-holer, I have no idea what the Japanese heavy hitters would be willing to pay for it. It would depend on your ability to verify that it is authentic, and on the condition, of course, as well as the whims of eBayers. The Record 4-holers sell for a premium over the 3-holers in like condition, but often not a huge premium, given their relative scarcity... though at other times the prmium is substantial. Again, you never know with eBay. The garden variety 4-holer should also have a narrow band clamp with no points. These tend to break. I've seen 4-holers with the newer, pointed clamp that I took to be a replacement part, but they also may have been factory. That is, Campy may have improved the clamp before modifying the cage to have 3-holes. On the other hand, I've seen 3-holers with the narrow calmp, and it could be that Campy cahnged the cage first.... and as ever with Cmpy they could have waffled back and forth depending what parts they found in a basket on the floor that week.
As indicated above, the narrow clamp was deleted due to breakage. My understanding is that the placement of the 4-hole resulted in chain rivets snagging on the cage and damaging it or snapping it off.
The timeframe for the 4-holer is early post CPSC. I think Campy may have briefly provided an old style hole-less front with the old larger clamp that had the CPSC-required lip, but such a derailleur only shows up in Catalogs as Gran Sport (Nuovo Gran Sport). The 4-holer was around by 1978 or so. I think it roughly coincides with the Nuovo Super Record rear and one-bolt post, but it could have been closer to the (earlier) date of the CPSC changes, or even at that same time... I don't think it was later, after the intro of the new rear der and post, but I could be mistaken. As I recall, the catalogs do not resolve this.
The SR front came a little later... like 1981 or so. I think the 3-hole Record was already around, but again I'm not certain. It is possible that the SR front (with 3-holes) came out the same day as the Record 3-holer... I just don't think that's the case, based on memory.
One interesting thing to note is that the illustration of the SR front in at least one catalog depicts a four-hole cage. This is a drawing and we know how unreliable the drawings are in the Campy catalogs. What this does suggest, however, is that the cages still had 4-holes when the SR version was first concieved. This sorta kinda supports the idea that the change to 3-holes came at the same time as the intro of the SR version.
Anyway, there were obviously a few hard-to-date front derailleur changes from the post-CPSC era through the early 80's. There was one more that few people notice. The winged wheel logo on the cage comes in two sizes. There is a larger one that extends almost across the full height of the cage, then there is one that is about 80% that size. It seems too small to me, visually. Because the 4-holers all seem to have the big logo, I assume that it is the earlier marking. As such, the 3 holers with the big logo I assume to be older... and the smaller logo newer, of course. While I'm pretty confident on this, it could always be the case that some die was switched back and forth between the sizes over time. Again, however, all the old 4-holers seem to have the big logo, so I think there was a distinct switch when the "big logo" die(s) wore out. If it was a discete change, I have no idea on the date, but it was after the intro of the SR front (which may or may not have been later than the intro of the 3-hole Record) because both Record and SR 3-holers come with both logo sizes. Whew....
Tom "Giving Broderick a run for his money" Dalton Bethlehem, PA
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