A Cyclist's Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

This device is exquisitely CNC machined. I refer to it as a ‘device’ to convey a greater sense of the intricacy of its construction. It’s as much a work of art and engineering as it is a derailleur.

Replaceable parts:
Firstly, it’s completely rebuildable. The inner and outer link plates are removeable as are the pulley cages and upper / lower link knuckles. The pivots are held in place by tiny grubs screws. Allen head bolts are used throughout – even the High (H) and Low (L) derailleur limit screws utilise allen key fasteners!

Materials & overall finish:
Secondly, both the derailleur body and hardware are CNC machined 7075-T6 aluminium. The pivots are made of 6Al 4V Titanium. There is no side play whatsoever in the parallelogram link mechanism. In fact I can’t see the pivots ever becoming sloppy (unlike my SRAM X7 rear derailleur which is only a year old). I reckon this derailleur will just about be breaking in when other units are wearing out… So yes, this derailleur is built to last. Overall, you can tell that the body is precision machined. There are no burrs and the anodisation process is perfect.

How does it perform?
I’ve been using it exclusively with Vertebrae ceramic housing and I have not been disappointed. The only modification I needed to do was apply some loctite to the barrel adjuster threads. I also wrapped plumber’s teflon tape around the H and L limit screws to stop them vibrating loose. That was 6 months ago. Since then, I haven’t touched it. Shifting is flawless.

The bottom line:
I hope mine lasts the next 10 or 20 years and I think it probably will. The only down side is the exclusivity; these are not easy to get hold of because almost nobody sells them. They’re definitely not cheap but then they aren’t as expensive as the new campagnolo super record derailleurs sold by online retailers…

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