At 8:48 AM -0700 5/7/09, donald gillies wrote:
> "Get a Campagnolo Rally, it works almost as good as Suntour!"
> "Some Rallys had a slant pantograph, until Suntour interceded!"
No Rallys had a slant parallelogram. It was a "dropped" parallelogram like Simplex used, but it wasn't slanted. Suntour did not intercede, because there was not patent infringement. Perhaps Simplex interceded? I don't know.
Suntour's slant parallelogram made it possible for the pulley to follow the contour of the freewheel. The Nivex did that, too, in 1939, but it required mounting on the chainstay. Suntour's system was revolutionary, because it could be mounted on the dropout, which by the 1960s had become the standard place to mount derailleurs.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com