To the true bicycle fanatic, the derailleur isn’t just the dirty undercarriage on a bike – it’s more like a bike’s dirty bits, dangling there like a naturist’s prize possessions. Look up there at those complex little twisted, intertwined, pivoting and sweeping pieces of metal and plastic. Aren’t they beautiful? Of course they are.

Go on, look at it, you know you want to...

The Inquisition is not going to minutely explore a topic which, to most people, is either mundane or arcane. Instead, what follows is a brief examination of the evolution of an integral part of most bicycles.

Derailleurs ARE interesting…

The derailleur is a humble, yet brilliant, piece of sports equipment. It can strike cold apathy into the hollow ironic hearts of facile hipster/fixie aficionados while simultaneously easing the cardiac workload of the middle-aged man wheezing up an “epic” climb on a sportive. A superb invention, the derailleur is in equal turns immensely useful, while being equally neglected. Simple and refined, it has been, and continues to be, perfected through iterative developments.

Some form of mechanical gear change that can be used while still pedalling has been around for almost 150 years. While the modern peloton is considered to be a rolling laboratory for testing experimental cycling technology, this was not the case when the derailleur was in its infancy. Up until efficiently sprung parallelogram derailleurs, gear changing involved complex, bodged, Heath Robinson-like and jerry-built solutions that resembled the result of crazed tinkering in a dark shed, and consequently were not often allowed into races.

As a result of this disparate sequence of isolated developments, the history of the derailleur is a murky one, where many firsts overshadow others and are then outshone themselves. Regional, national and corporate pride obscure true firsts. True innovations are discounted by flash new variations on older technologies. Redundancies abound and products are poorly documented for posterity (but well documented for marketing…) The proof of the pudding is in the tasting and it is thus that modern derailleurs were arrived at – trialling, testing, upgrading. On the 8th day God did not create the perfect derailleur, nor is there a Platonic paradigm we are working towards. The derailleur is still very much a work in progress.

Product testing is crucial. Here Coppi relies on Campagnolo's tried and true quick release levers, saving his race.

Product Development and Testing

The peloton, or ranks of professional riders, has in recent decades been the last staging post in the pre-general release product testing line for any number of carbon components, aerodynamic tweaks, widgets and dongles.

This state of affairs where the sport’s upper echelon riders were testing products that would have monied consumers drooling in the following season has not always existed.

The Tour de France, the race by which all others are judged, is now a barometer of cutting edge cycling technology (a recent example being the unveiling in 2009 of Shimano’s electronic shifting, which was itself beaten by Mavic’s short lived 1992 Tour de France unveiling – the Zap), although this was not always the case. The 1936 Tour de France was the first to allow derailleur changing at any level. This was only for privateer racers and strictly not for the professionals. The race was a battle of man against nature and not an exhibition of cutting edge technology. Although even by this stage, derailleurs were not considered cutting edge.

Plans for the Osgear

In fact, the first overall winner of the Tour to use a derailleur did so in the following year, which was the first time they were allowed across the board, due to a restructuring of the race’s governing body. Roger Lapébie won the 1937 tour on a bike using a Oscar Egg’s Osgear Super Champion groupset (you can see a great image of an Osgear here). This was just a year after another professional, Félicien Vervaecke, received an 11 minute ban for two of the gravest infringements – accepting food from his wife along the route and using a replacement bicycle that allowed the changing of gears while still rolling! Shocking.

What is a derailleur? How does it work?

In 1895 Jean Loubèyre introduced the Polycelere to the world. The world, in due course, ignored it.

Essentially though, the Polycelere (trans. as Multi-speed) was the first true derailleur; a mechanical device, controlled by the rider and allowing gear changes without having to stop, take off the rear wheel and spin it around to use a different sized cog on the other side. There had been other cumbersome and unwieldy solutions to changing gear, using variable velocity drivetrains and more… These were not primarily designed for use with the safety bicycle. No Polyceleres are known to still exist, so any comment on its historical importance must be tempered by its almost mythological status.

The aspect of the the Polycelere being a true derailleur, as we would recognise it now, is that it had two cogs, or speeds, shifted using a fork, but crucially did not rely on straight alignment as modern systems also do.

This is the simplified physical expression of what the derailleur does – it sweeps the chain across arrays of cogs of increasing or decreasing sizes. This changes the ratio between the forward cogs (chain-rings), the rear (cassette) and the rear wheel which makes the perceived effort easier or harder. It changes the pedalling efficiency – each pedal stroke changes its relationship to each complete turn of a wheel. If one pedal rotation were to result in one complete wheel rotation, the perceived effort would be very easy, but would result in a high cadence while still at low speeds. Therefore the ability to change these ratios is crucial for energy-efficient pedalling.

It was quite some time after the Polycelere was ignored before derailleurs took off, beginning with cyclo-tourers, and with varying degrees of success such as the L’AS derailleur from 1920 which required backpedalling to change from one gear to the other.

Some stepping stones

The models visually represented here may not be the precise models referenced and are shown here for illustrative purposes only.

William Van Anden's American Velocipede

1869 – USA
William Van Anden patents a design for the freewheel in Poughkeepsie.

A Humber Safety Bicycle

1880 – England

Thomas Humber invents the precursor of the modern chain for use on the range of bicycles he manufactures.

1895 – France
Jean Loubèyre’s afore-mentioned polycelere makes an appearance. The device has been lost to posterity.

A freewheel - here six pawls allow power transfer in one direction only

1897 – Germany
Ernst Sachs begins to market the freewheel. This proves to be equally crucial to the chain for gearing, meaning gears can be changed more easily by lessening the load on the drivetrain temporarily to allow smoother shifting. Up until this point cycling was fixed-gear only.

Velocio

1905 – France
A functional four-speed derailleur is manufactured by Paul de Vivie of France in 1905 and sold under the Velocio mark. The gears, mounted on the crank, are designed for cycle touring. A contemporary account, “Paul de Vivie, AKA Velocio, champion of the multi-gear derailleur system and mentor to the, School of St. Etienne‚ cyclotourists. In 1903, at the age of fifty, Velocio rode 600 miles, from Saint-Etienne to Menton and back, in four days on a bicycle”. This stunt, and others, led him into confrontation with the Tour de France organisers.

Simplex Champion de France

Simplex front derailleur. Image used under a Creative Commons licence and is by Flickr user Jipol

1923 – France
Lucien Juy introduces the Simplex. The first parallelogram derailleur. After many false starts, dead-ends and non-starters the future has arrived.

Bartali stoops to use his Cambio Corsa

A Cambio Corsa close-up. Image is used under a Creative Commons licence and is by Flickr user Going Slowly

1946 – Italy
In the wake of the war, the Italians enter the fray, becoming a lasting cycling favourite with a rich heritage. Campagnolo makes a dual-rod derailleur system called the “Cambio Corsa”. The two levers move the chain and, awkwardly, also moved the wheel axle back and forth to take in the chain slack. In essence the (rolling) gear changes were made by releasing the quick release with one lever, move the chain with the other lever, and tighten the wheel back up. Taking up this slack is a major issue when cog sizes change. Modern systems are sprung to maintain tension.

Campagnolo's 1949 dual cable development

1949 – Italy
Again Campagnolo claims a first – a cable operated derailleur. It works by moving the chain with an articulated parallelogram, called a cage, operated by cables. That model uses two cables – up for going up the gears, one down. The numbers produced were miniscule – less than ten by some estimates.

The Campagnolo Gran Sport - a game changer. Image is used under a Creative Commons licence and is by Flickr user Tutam

1950 – Italy
One year later and Campagnolo shows why it would gain such affection in cyclists’ hearts. The first single (push/pull) cable parallelogram derailleur is Campagnolo’s Gran Sport. Campagnolo claim this to be the first articulated parallelogram. Read that carefully – Campagnolo did not invent gears. They did not invent parallelogram designs for gears. They did not invent articulated gears. They might have brought all that together, but it wasn’t worlds apart from Simplex systems of the time. This raises a serious issue for bicycle historians – nothing is new, all innovations are riffs on what went before to come up with novelty. Interestingly changes are made from the downtube, a design that would last for 40 years.

Shimano's first commercial derailleur, the catchily named 333

1956 – Japan
Shimano begins manufacturing its derailleurs, which it called external speed changers. Costs to the consumer begin to fall.

There it is hiding under the bar. Not the exact model, but you get the idea...

1989 – Japan
Shimano’s Rapidfire trigger changing system is unveiled. Fast, precise and immediately adopted by cyclists.

Shimano STI - handle, brake and gear change integration

1990 – Japan
Shimano introduces the STI (Shimano Total Integration). It combines the gear change lever with the brake lever, and is a development for racing bicycles using the previous year’s raidfire technology. In tandem with this, they redesigned the teeth on their sprockets under the “Hyperglide” system name, for more efficient shifting.

Campagnolo Ergopower - handle, brake and gear change integration

1990 – Italy
Campagnolo releases its version of the same, that same year – the Ergopower. Much like Shimano’s offering aside from having a much better name…

Shimano's latest electronic shifting groupset - Di2

Jun 5, 2001 – Italy
An electrical control device for a motor-driven derailleur for bicycles is patented by Valentino Campagnolo on June 5, 2001. Shimano will eventually beat them to the market. Although electronic shifting had been in existence for ten years, it had poor uptake, worse reliability and high costs. Better system controls, reasoned Campagnolo and Shimano, would change this.

11 gears! Mind-blowing. I suppose.

2008 – Italy
Campagnolo introduce the Super Record 11. The number of cogs on a freewheel have been increasing. The Italian gurus add one more.

A belt-drive on a Trek Soho. Image is used under a Creative Commons licence and is by Flickr user ChDot

The Future

The future in cycling is always easy to predict – lighter, smoother, stronger, electric, automatic but always faster.

Finally

Perhaps more than most, cyclists can be a nostalgic lot, but don’t forget progression is a good thing. Old technologies have disappeared because they were crap. They still look good though.

Bibliography
Disraeli Gears – THE online derailleur museum
The Osgear at Classic Lightweights
Non-Campagnolo winners of the Tour de France – People actually list out thus stuff!
Great collection of early systems clearly photgraphed – Bike Race Info
Cyclorama’s run-down of old gearing systems for bicycles
Patent Pending Blog’s version of the same
M-gineerign – a Dutch site with great close-ups on cycling tech bits and bobs
Tony Hadland on derailleurs
Tony Hadland on Schmitz derailleurs
Tony Hadland on other derailleur systems
Blazing Saddles, Matt Rendell, Quercus, 2007
bicycle maintenance book
Google’s data generated timeline of the history of the bicycle derailleur
French site’s definition of a derailleur
Jim Lnagley on the history of the bicycle
Veloweb discusses how cylco-tourers were the early adopters of derailleur technology
Probicycle’s long history of the derailleur
Beautifully renovated Simplex front derailleur
Wikipedia on derailleurs
The Dancing Chain – a whole book on the topic
The history of Campagnolo by Campy Only
iBike – The bike since 1418
Simplex at Classic Lightweights
Jaques Anquetil riding Simplex components in the sixties
Nice shots of a Simplex system which is very similar to its contemporary, the Osgear
Unnamed very old cable operated derailleur, probably Simplex Super Champion
Simplex super Champion levers
1933- 2008 75 Years of Passion – 2008 Range Catalogue, Campagnolo, 2008
Campagnolo’s Gran Sport
Shimano’s history
Simplex Super Champion 3 on a Roold

Original content created by: The Inquisition

To write something critical on the internet is futile – a metaphorical scream into a pillow, a cathartic reaction. Now, bear in mind that what follows is far from revelatory; the fact that cars and bicycles collide can hardly be considered a secret. The fact remains that we continue to accept a traffic environment that allows this happen. What the Inquisition will describe is a minor altercation, but multiply this out across populations and infinite other complicating factors and sadly, injuries and fatalities will eventually occur.

Picture a scenario.
You are a cyclist travelling between two lanes of traffic, on your way to your destination and using the correct road positioning. As you ride between these two lanes cars pass on either side of you. You are, in essence, part of the traffic flow. All is as it should be considering your country subscribes to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which clearly states that the bicycle is a legitmate means of road travel, equal to any other.

Now, as you proceed, minding your own business, you are passed on your outside by a car blaring its horn. As this car passes, it slows so the driver can gesticulate and inform you that they wish to proceed with due care on the footpath/get off their road/fuck off and die under a truck. Then, moving ahead, they pull in on top of you, suggesting by doing so, that they would like to impress upon you their unimpeachable rectitude. Just as they would like to impress their wheels on you, all over your head.

The first time this happens, you might be taken aback by the naked aggression, shocked that a vehicle was used in such a potentially lethal manner, simply because someone didn’t want to share THEIR road. You might also question your road positioning and awareness.

But every time it happens after that, you are always in the right. You are not impeding their progress, just holding your own position within the flow. These drivers obviously want you off their roads, they just see you as a second class road user and long for some kind of transportation apartheid.

No matter what, this is an infringement of a cyclist’s rights under international law. Not that this fact will help; you aren’t exactly going to go crying to the police that a bad person shouted at you because you were on a a bike, are you?

But the feeling of being right is reassuring. Even if someone is trying to impress their views all over your face.

The Problem

Still, clearly the initial hypothetical driver felt he had some legitimate grievance, namely that a cyclist should never take precedence over a car. Excepting the fact that he may just have been a contrarian looking for confrontation we are left with the obvious assumption that the driver in question sees traffic regulations differently to how they actually operate in Ireland (or wherever you are reading this).

So how to get a foreigner driving in Ireland?

If you are from another EU country, then welcome to our roads, where you may speed and cause carnage before returning home in the dead of night on a last minute flight.

Add to that the following countries who may partake in the pandemonium on our roads, for 12 months, without needing to exchange your licence for an Irish one:

• Australia
• Gibraltar
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man
• Japan
• Jersey
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Switzerland

Now, if you are a proper foreigner with a full licence, you also have 12 months grace after which you must undergo a theory test, do time in the purgatory of learner status and then complete your full test.

How there is no immediate equivalency test, or identification sticker, as with learners, is baffling. In other words, you may carry on as normal, obeying any rules you feel apply for at least 12 months. Then, you can do the test, or leave because you have killed someone.

The Side Swipe; a classic, this remains the favoured takedown move by bad drivers worldwide. If you live in one of those, frankly barking mad, countries that drive on the right look at this diagram through a mirror.

A Word to the Wise

The injustice of cycling increases exponentially in relation to the proximity of a cyclepath. If you are going straight on but the cyclelane goes left or right only – good luck! Uneducated traffic will push you from your chosen path like motorised sheepdogs herding a flock. Nevermind the fact that mandatory cyclelane usage which denigrates pedal traffic to second class status stands contrary to the Vienna Convention. They just want you off their road.

The Convention Signatories

The Geneva Convention on Road Traffic was drafted in 1949 and only three signatories did not renew, meaning it is still in force there but not replaced by the newer 1968 convention. Which three troglodytes of transportation? US, Australia and New Zealand. Take a bow, ye cretins.

Who did renew and signed the 1968 Convention?
The following:

• Aden Colony British Guyana (ADN)
• Albania (AL)
• Alderney (GBA)
• Algeria (DZ)
• Argentina (RA)
• Austria (A)
• Bahamas
• Bahamas (BS)
• Bailwick of Guernsey (GBG)
• Bangladesh (BD)
• Barbados (BDS)
• Belgian Congo (RCB)
• Belgium (B)
• Benin (DY)
• Botswana (RB)
• Brazil (BR)
• British Honduras (BH)
• Brune (BRU)
• Bulgaria (BG)
• Côte d’Ivoire (CI)
• Cambodia (K)
• Cameroons under French mandate
• Canada (CDN)
• Central African Republic (RCA)
• Chile (RCH)
• China (RC)
• Costa Rica (CR)
• Cuba (geen letters)
• Cyprus (CY)
• Czech Republic (CZ)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (CGO)
• Denmark (DK)
• Dominican Republic (DOM)
• Ecuador (EC)
• Egypt (ET)
• Estonia (EST)
• Faroe Islands (FO)
• Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
• Fiji (FJI)
• Finland (SF)
• France including French overseas territories (F)
• Gambia (WAG)
• Georgia (GE)
• Germany (D)
• Ghana (GH)
• Gibraltar (GBZ)
• Greece (GR)
• Grenada (WG)
• Guatemala (GCA)
• Haiti (RH)
• Holy See (V)
• Hong Kong (HK)
• Hungary (H)
• Iceland (IS)
• India (IND)
• Indonesia (RI)
• Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)
• Ireland (IRL)
• Isle of Man (GBM)
• Israël (IL)
• Italy (I)
• Jamaica (JA)
• Japan (J)
• Jordan (HKJ)
• Kazakhstan (KAZ)
• Kenya (EAK)
• Kyrgyzstan (KS)
• Lao, People’s Democratic Republic (LAO)
• Latvia (LV)
• Lebanon (RL)
• Lesotho (LS)
• Lithuania (LT)
• Luxembourg (L)
• Madagascar (RM)
• Malawi (MW)
• Malaysia (MAL)
• Mali (RMM)
• Malta (M)
• Mauritius (MS)
• Mexico (MEX)
• Monaco (geen letters)
• Morocco (MA)
• Myanmar (BUR)
• Namibia (NAM)
• Netherlands (NL)
• Netherlands Antilles (NA)
• Netherlands New Guinea
• Nicaragua (NIC)
• Niger (NG)
• Nigeria (WAN)
• North Borneo
• Norway (N)
• Okinawa
• Pakistan (PAK)
• Papua New Guinea (PNG)
• Paraguay (PY)
• Participants Geneva Convention 2
• Peru (PE)
• Philippines (PI)
• Poland (PL)
• Portugal (P) all overseas provinces excluding Macau
• Principality of Andorra (AND)
• Republic of Korea (ROK)
• Romania (R)
• Russian Federation (SU)
• San Marino (RSM)
• Senegal (SN)
• Serbia (SRB)
• Seychelles (SY)
• Sierra Leone (WAL)
• Singapore (SGP)
• Slovakia (SK)
• South Africa (ZA)
• South West Africa
• Southern Rhodesia (RSR)
• Spain including African localities and provinces (E)
• Sri Lanka (CL)
• St. Lucia (WL)
• St. Vincent (WV)
• States of Jersey (GBJ)
• Surinam (SME)
• Swaziland (SD)
• Sweden (S)
• Switzerland (CH)
• Syrian Arab Republic (SYR)
• Tanganyika (EAT)
• Thailand (T)
• The Trust Territory of Western Samoa (WS)
• Togo (TG)
• Trinidad and Tobago ( TT)
• Trust Territory of Rwanda/ Urundi (RWA)
• Tunisia (TN)
• Turkey (TR)
• Uganda (EAU)
• Ukraine (UA)
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB)
• Uruguay (U)
• Venezuela (YV)
• Winward Islands
• Zambia (RNR)
• Zanzibar (EAZ)
• Zimbabwe (ZW)

Bibliography
The Vienna and Geneva Conventions on Road Traffic
Foreign Drivers coming to Ireland

Original content created by: The Inquisition