Right on, Tom. People reflexively run down NR derailleurs and I'm sick of it! And if they are going to quote or paraphrase Frank Berto, they should acknowledge the source! Talk about an underrated component!

What makes a decent derailleur is only partly its shift quality. The other quality is reliability. Within its range, the NR worked as well as the best derailleurs commonly available when it came out in 1968. Unlike its contemporaries, it would go huge miles and endure abuse without any ill effects. I've had one NR since 1971 and never did more to it than lube and pulley replacement. After 42 years and many, many thousands of miles, the pivots have developed enough slop to affect the cage alignment & shift quality. I recently replaced it with a newish Super Record, which also works fine.

Don't anyone take this personally. I guess I'm kind of touchy about these things right now. Another four inches of snow predicted for tonight isn't helping my mood any...