Dura Ace AX rear derailleur design?

Sir Ridesalot said:

Hi again.

I am sitting here looking at an old Dura Ace AX rear derailleur. I
have a question regarding the design of the cable routing and why it
never seemed to catch on.

I noticed that when this derailleur was on the bicycle that there was
no external housing between the derailleur and the chain-stay. This
looks like a design that would have less friction and there for fewer
problems than the designs that utilize a section of outer cable from
the chain-stay to the derailleur. Almost all front derailleurs
havedone away with cable housing between the derailleur and the frame.

My question is, why did the cable-housing-less design of the Dura Ace
Ax (and 600 AX & Adamas AX) never catch on?

Was the reduction of friction not as great as it appeared?

Thanks from inquiring Peter

For the D-A AX, the wire goes above the chainstay. Just about that
time frames started coming with under BB cables.

Sir Ridesalot said:

I am sitting here looking at an old Dura Ace AX rear derailleur. I
have a question regarding the design of the cable routing and why it
never seemed to catch on.

I noticed that when this derailleur was on the bicycle that there was
no external housing between the derailleur and the chain-stay. This
looks like a design that would have less friction and there for fewer
problems than the designs that utilize a section of outer cable from
the chain-stay to the derailleur. Almost all front derailleurs
havedone away with cable housing between the derailleur and the frame.

My question is, why did the cable-housing-less design of the Dura Ace
Ax (and 600 AX & Adamas AX) never catch on?

Was the reduction of friction not as great as it appeared?

Suntour did an even better casingless rear changer- the sealed body
Superbe. ( AX was made before the slant parallelogram passed out of
patent). Shimano killed AX with the seminal New Dura Ace. Which sold to
a magnitude or more better than AX.

Who knows why things sell or do not? Marketing, function, price,
aesthetic, buzz, a combination? It is seldom technical merit alone. If
it were, we'd still be riding Roval tubulars, eh?
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Apr 24, 5:09 am, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Sir Ridesalot said:

Hi again.

Quoted message said:

I am sitting here looking at an old Dura Ace AX rear derailleur. I
have a question regarding the design of the cable routing and why it
never seemed to catch on.

Quoted message said:

I noticed that when this derailleur was on the bicycle that there was
no external housing between the derailleur and the chain-stay. This
looks like a design that would have less friction and there for fewer
problems than the designs that utilize a section of outer cable from
the chain-stay to the derailleur. Almost all front derailleurs
havedone away with cable housing between the derailleur and the frame.

Quoted message said:

My question is, why did the cable-housing-less design of the Dura Ace
Ax (and 600 AX & Adamas AX) never catch on?

Quoted message said:

Was the reduction of friction not as great as it appeared?

Quoted message said:

Thanks from inquiring Peter

For the D-A AX, the wire goes above the chainstay. Just about that
time frames started coming with under BB cables.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Exactly right...you're excluding lots of frames that don't have your
preferred cable routing scheme. The Suntour Superbe Tech from the same
era had the opposite problem (among others) - it only worked with
below-the-stay routing.

Those Superbe Techs looked and shifted great, though - until they
broke. Which they invariably did. They only made it that one year.

On Apr 24, 8:09 am, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Sir Ridesalot said:

Hi again.

Quoted message said:

I am sitting here looking at an old Dura Ace AX rear derailleur. I
have a question regarding the design of the cable routing and why it
never seemed to catch on.

Quoted message said:

I noticed that when this derailleur was on the bicycle that there was
no external housing between the derailleur and the chain-stay. This
looks like a design that would have less friction and there for fewer
problems than the designs that utilize a section of outer cable from
the chain-stay to the derailleur. Almost all front derailleurs
havedone away with cable housing between the derailleur and the frame.

Quoted message said:

My question is, why did the cable-housing-less design of the Dura Ace
Ax (and 600 AX & Adamas AX) never catch on?

Quoted message said:

Was the reduction of friction not as great as it appeared?

Quoted message said:

Thanks from inquiring Peter

For the D-A AX, the wire goes above the chainstay. Just about that
time frames started coming with under BB cables.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thank you.

I had completely forgotten about that.

Cheers from Peter