Derailleur History Question

LewisBricktop said:

Does anyone know what years higher number of sprockets were introduced into le Tour? For example, what year 9 speeds were introduced, 8 speeds, etc... all the way back to Campagnolo's introductory version in 1947(I think thats the right year)? I've been looking all over but haven't had any luck finding anything yet.

This is the Grand Tours forum not the GEEK forum.

whiteboytrash said:

This is the Grand Tours forum not the GEEK forum.

You are such a [censored] sometimes WBT.

Quoted post said:

Does anyone know what years higher number of sprockets were introduced into le Tour? For example, what year 9 speeds were introduced, 8 speeds, etc... all the way back to Campagnolo's introductory version in 1947(I think thats the right year)? I've been looking all over but haven't had any luck finding anything yet.

I'd say you'd be best off contacting the companies (Campag, shimano) that make the gear as it's unlikely anywhere else will have a record of stuff like that.

Eldrack said:

You are such a [censored] sometimes WBT.

Thank-you !

Anyway you might want use the French spelling; dérailleur and not the American spelling. You might have better like finding stuff.

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http://www.campyonly.com/history/timeline.html

Various derailleur systems were designed and built in the late 1800s. The French bicycle tourist, writer and cycling promoter Paul de Vivie (1853-1930), who wrote under the name Velocio, invented a two speed derailleur in 1905 which he used on forays into the Alps. Some early designs used rods to move the chain onto various gears. 1928 saw the introduction of the "Super Champion Gear" (or Osgear, from the company founded by champion cyclist Oscar Egg), and the Vittoria Margherita; both employed chainstay mounted 'paddles' and single lever chain tensioners mounted near or on the downtube. However, these systems, along with the rod operated Campagnolo Cambio Corsa were eventually superseded by parallelogram derailleurs. Derailleurs did not become common road racing equipment until 1938 when Simplex introduced a cable-shifted derailleur. In the early 1950s the cable-operated, parallelogram variety used on today's bicycles was introduced by Tullio Campagnolo, who also invented the quick release skewer for attaching the wheels. With Campagnolo's introduction of the parallelogram derailleur, Campagnolo became the standard for high quality derailleurs for several decades with its Gran Sport, Record, Super Record gears. Before the 1990s many other manufacturers also made derailleurs, including Simplex, Huret, Galli, Mavic, Gipiemme, Zeus, Suntour, and Shimano. However with introduction of indexed gears which required all parts of the drivetrain to be compatible, and the increasing use of groupsets made by one company, today Campagnolo and Shimano are the two main manufacturers of derailleur gears, with Campagnolo only making road cycling derailleurs and Shimano for both road and mountain bikes. American manufacturer SRAM specializes in derailleurs for mountain bikes, but in 2006 SRAM has introduced a drivetrain system for road bicycles.
In 1964, Suntour invented the slant-parallelogram rear derailleur, which let the jockey wheels maintain a more constant distance from the different sized sprockets, resulting in easier shifting. Once the patents expired, other manufacturers adopted this design, at least for their better models.

Some french links:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur

http://spader.free.fr/musee/histoire3.htm

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/tandem.noir/pages/tandem-d.htm

thanks for the replies. ill give the stuff a look, and i guess its a good thing ive had some french.