Anyone know about this derailleur? Sheldon brown said it was the strongest derailleur ever made and the best of it's era. It seems like it's well made, very solid construction, smooth shifting, etc. I have just never heard of it before. Anyone?

No, sorry - but my '80's Claud Butler Elan has a Shimano "Skylark" rear derailleur, which sounds like it could be in the same "bird" theme product range. It's similar to a Campag old Record/Gran Sport style arm, with a chromed sideplate and I'm told was designated as part of the 600 series group at that time.

There's an Eagle II on my wife's ROSS Compact. They're smooth shifters but all steel and heavy. These were very typical on low-end bikes from the '70s. They had a useless heavy steel guard that wrapped around the body. I've never tried to remove one but if you like to trim weight wherever possible, it might be an option.

The Eagle was a lower-end derailleur. It's strong because it's completely steel and built like a tank. You could probably even use it as a kickstand.

Hmmm, just took one off an old bike and it feels really well made. I was doing some searches on it and found all these quotes by Sheldon Brown about how they were the best derailleurs made in the 70's with "fabulous shifting", etc. He really gave a resounding endorsement to the Eagle stating that it is the strongest and smoothest shifter built in the 20th century. That's the only reason I posted the question. It is pretty heavy though, but hey I would rather have a heavier, rock solid component than something light and flimsy. Then again I'm not really a weight weenie. As for the guard It does protect the moving parts so it's not totally useless. I was impressed by how well it shifted on this old piece of crap bike. I really like it and it looks cool too. That's what made Sheldon Brown so great. The man had no bias and did'nt give a hoot about trends and brand names. I think it's so funny when you hear people talk about how great a product is only to find out it was made in China for all kinds of different brand names. People are suckers for marketing.

I see on this page that Sheldon Brown says the Eagle was one of the strongest derailleurs ever made, but where does he say it was one of the best?

Neal

He said it right here in this forum a couple of different times. Here's a quote from Sheldon Brown himself- "The Eagle is a mid 1970s unit. It's the same as the Lark, except for the addition of the extra bumper. By 1970s standards, these were FABULOUS shifting derailers, possibly the best available at that time"

..."The Lark/Eagle had a very cool feature of an overload spring on the cable anchor, so you could yank as hard as you wanted on the shifter even when stopped. Not only would it not hurt anything, the derailer would then shift down as soon as you started to pedal".

Sheldon "Lark/Eagle" Fan

Interesting. But I'll still take a Shimano Crane over an Eagle (bird wars!).

Neal

Wow. I just posted pics of an Eagle over in a Free Spirit thread. It's on my old mid-'70s Free Spirit ten-speed. Actually, here it is:

There was an outfit called "Two Wheel Travel", I think, that wrote guidebooks for cycle touring in the early '70's, including reviews of equipment and components. As I recall, they weren't exactly negative about the Eagle derailleur (and its cousin, the Lark), but they did note its relative mass, and suggested it was useful to have along, not only for shifting gears, but also as a device for pounding in tent pegs.

+1 for my endorsement of the ol' Eagle. A great 70s steel derailleur. The shifts were quite smooth and positive. It ran with the typical 14x28 'Alipine' freewheel of its day. I ended up swapping in a Suntour V-GT due to Aluminum lightening lust. I didn't notice a significant improvement.

My first ten-speed, a non-descript Royce Union, had the Lark derailleur, with a separate guard bolted onto the dropout, that completely protected the derailleur.