lakeboy

I've built up my 70's vintage Motobecane Grand Record with a 46/30 TA crankset and a 13/26 rear, running a campy SR RD. This is a bit much gear range on the RD, and I am thinking of switching to a touring RD to give me more capacity. I've narrowed my search to a short list, and am interested in opinions/experiences with the following:

Campy Rally, first and second generation
Simplex SLJ 6600
Sachs Huret New Success

Also, if you have any suggestions on others, let me know. Thanks

KonAaron Snake 

I'm running a Huret ti Duopar and so far I like it a lot. Very smooth shifting and easy to adjust. The ecco is the same as the ti, except plastic cage and sells cheaper.

Road Fan

Plastic cage? I don't think so. Look at any one that's marked Eco or EcoDuoPar. I think the difference is steel parts versus a few titanium ones.

KonAaron Snake 

I could easily be wrong...and have never seen or used an ecco. I thought I had read here that the ecco used plastic.

Edit - Sorry about that...I had misread a post about the eco. It's steel.

purebikes 

I have a ti Duopar on my trek 720 and it shifts great. Also just happen to have one in the for sale thread also if you are interested

nwbikeman

I run a Campy NR with rally cage plates on my tandem 12-34 7 speed with a 28-44-48. I get a lot more life from the Campy than the Shimano Crane GS rear deraileur with this same combo.

Captain Blight

DuoPar would be an excellent choice. So would a Gen I Cyclone GT, though it'd be right at the outer limit of its capacity.

RFC

That is not a huge rear spread. Get yourself a cheap Shimano 600 and there are no worries.

NukeouT

I have four Suntour V-GT Luxe derailleurs. They can do just about 52-42 front to 36-14 back without problems. They were also marketed as low-end components since the 70's, so they're hella common. I am finding them very durable, almost to the renown of Kalashnikovs.

I got them installed on:
'84 Raleigh Olympian
'78 Raleigh Super Grand Prix
'80 Nishiki Sport
'82 Team Fuji

Sixty Fiver

With a < 29mm hangar the maximum cog for the Cyclone Gt is 32 and with a hangar of 32mm or more the Gt will handle a 34 tooth cog and has a 36 tooth capacity while the OP's set up rates a 29 and does not exceed the derailleurs maximum cog capacity.

jonwvara 

I like both of these, too. A Cyclone GT will handle a 34-tooth cog with ease in my experience. It will only be at the outer limits of its capacity with a 26 if you're determined to use the small chainring with the smallest cogs for some reason.

Road Fan

+1

Sixty Fiver

You should also consider the Suntour Vx GT.

jonwvara 

I never was good at math. Sixty fiver is correct--this setup is nowhere near the capacity of the derailleur, and would work even when cross-chained to the max. In my post above, I subtracted 43 from 72 and somehow came up with 35. Oops.
Given the total capacity of 29, I would consider going with a Suntour Vx-S, which is a mid-cage model and has a capacity of 30 teeth, if I remember correctly. This is more than enough. That would free up a Cyclone GT for someone else who needs all of its capacity. (That would be me--I tend to go for the lowest gearing I can get.)
The Suntours are also MUCH more durable than the Duopar, which again would be overkill for this application in terms of its capacity.

lakeboy

So does anyone have a Rally cage they want to part with? Does anyone have any experience w the 3 rd's I asked about initially?

Scooper

Schwinn used a Shimano Crane (early D-A) rebranded as Schwinn-Approved GT-300 Le Tour long cage RD on the seventies P15-9 Paramount which otherwise had an all Campy Record or Nuovo Record drivetrain (36-49-54t triple crank and 14-31t freewheel).

They went with Shimano because they weren't happy with the shifting of either the Campy Gran Turismo or Rally RD.

Baroudeur

I'm a big fan of the Shimano Golden Arrow (long cage) stuff that's on my Motobécane Super Touring.

Captain Blight

Did I do the math wrong? I bet I did. Thanks.

rhm

I would use a Cyclone GT. I would prefer the first generation one, but for reasons of practicality would use the Mark II one that I actually have.

ColonelJLloyd 

I've not owned any of those RDs. All three command pretty high prices on eBay. I've never heard anyone rave about the shifting performance of any Rally so, personally, I'd look to the other two on your list if you're dead-set on one of those three. The long cage Huret Jubilee could easily be added to your list, I'd think. Talk about a sexy mech.

What dropouts does your Grand Record have? How about some pics of that French machine?

DiegoFrogs

I'd look at the Suntour stuff others have suggested.

I have a very nice Cyclone GT that I use almost every day. My only gripe is one of practicality: it has no built in barrell adjuster. The lower-end stuff does, though, and works at least as well.

Road Fan

Sorry, it was redundant.

mparker326

I'm running a first generation Rally on my Grand Record. It shifts fine once I adjusted the tension spring on it. The original owner had it added at the bike shop along with a Triple Campy crank.

ColonelJLloyd 

^ Very nice!

Sixty Fiver

I run a VXs on my P20 touring bike and was running a 13 - 28 with a 40-52 which it handled flawlessly and have now swapped that to a 13-24 block and my primary touring bike runs a VXgt with an 11-34 and 28-48 and again, works beautifully.

I love the Cyclone GT Mk1 and the Mk2 is pretty much perfect mechanically although if given the choice between a Mk2 and a VX I would take the VX as it looks 10 times better, is more robust, and only weighs a few more grams (if you are counting) and have always loved their performance.

The earlier Suntour GT models are also nice but Suntour really hit their zenith with the Vx and Cyclone series... there is not a friction derailleur that will shift better.

The Cyclone Mk1 is one of the lightest derailleurs ever made and the GT model is lighter than most modern long cage derailleurs... only snobbery kept people from using these instead of Campagnolo on racing bikes and if you are looking for the ulitimate light weight touring derailleur with massive capacity this is it.

Huret Duopars work beautifully and have some nice features like an adjustable pivot but they are based on earlier slant parallelogram designs and are not as long lived as one would like them to be.