Interesting Prototype Campagnolo Record rear derailleur

[agentorange]

I found this quite interesting. Just got this Record rear mech from around 1991, looks pretty ordinary but you will see that it has what appears to be pre-production cage. It does have the word 'prototype' printed on the rear so I can only guess on it's history, would be good to know if anyone has any thoughts. I know that pre-production units were tested by pro riders prior to production but the cage assy doesn't appear to be remotely close to anything I've seen on production models.

As you can see the inner plate appears to have been stamped from raw ally plate but the outer plate is a totally alien casting more like a short cage version of the top end MTB groups rather than the road groups of the time. The outer plate is made from cast alloy with the 'stop' notch screwed to the plate as a separate piece rather than form part of the casting (see pic).

 

[agentorange]

Re: Interestin Prototype Campagnolo Record rear derailleur

Here is the standard production version of this model...

 

[tarloone]

Nice catch! This is most likely the prototype for the first generation of parallelogram rear mechs for the then upcoming 8 speed and ergo generation. I have the same as your production version for my new build.

 

[agentorange]

Nice catch! This is most likely the prototype for the first generation of parallelogram rear mechs for the then upcoming 8 speed and ergo generation. I have the same as your production version for my new build.

I thought that too but this model only appears in the 91 catalogue pared with non-Ergo 8sp set-ups. In 92 however the new Record Ergo group featured a different design for the r/mech and a variant of the above design was used for the Chorus and Athena Ergo 8sp groupsets.

 

[tarloone]

Nice catch! This is most likely the prototype for the first generation of parallelogram rear mechs for the then upcoming 8 speed and ergo generation. I have the same as your production version for my new build.

Good point, in fact this model does appear in the 91 catalogue pared with non-Ergo 8sp set-ups. In 92 however the new Record group featured a different design for the r/mech and a variant of the above design was used for the Chorus and Athena Ergo 8sp groupsets.

Correct, its funny really as I also had this rear mech model first time round when it first came out in early 91...it seemed to only exist for this one year. Considering its small time window of existence, it seems like the odds were stacked against me getting the same type 21 years later.

Hang on!!! Cue twilight zone de da de de sounds......perhaps it is actually the identical one I used to have over 20 years ago :shock:

 

[agentorange]

Nice catch! This is most likely the prototype for the first generation of parallelogram rear mechs for the then upcoming 8 speed and ergo generation. I have the same as your production version for my new build.

Good point, in fact this model does appear in the 91 catalogue pared with non-Ergo 8sp set-ups. In 92 however the new Record group featured a different design for the r/mech and a variant of the above design was used for the Chorus and Athena Ergo 8sp groupsets.

Correct, its funny really as I also had this rear mech model first time round when it first came out in early 91...it seemed to only exist for this one year. Considering its small time window of existence, it seems like the odds were stacked against me getting the same type 21 years later.

Hang on!!! Cue twilight zone de da de de sounds......perhaps it is actually the identical one I used to have over 20 years ago :shock:

Ha, I know what you mean, these don't show up very often. I often wonder if I've owned some of this stuff twice.

 

[agentorange]

Just to go back to this again. This actually appears to be a variant on the 89-91 Euclid unit rather than the Record unit of the time.