photogravity

This Duopar Titanium is awfully fine looking too, IF you're into derailleurs.


Duopar_2 by martin*james, on Flickr

Drummerboy1975

Best RD ever? The one you currently have on your bike thats working just fine.

Grand Bois

I believe that Frank Berto named the Shimano Deore as the best touring derailer in his 1986 book.

I agree with Drillium Dude about the long cage Ultegra 9 speed. That's a great shifting derailer. The best I've ever used.

It's a matter of taste, but I think the Duopar above is ugly and cheap looking with its painted stampings and plastic parts. That one appears to be tilted too far forward, probably because it has the wrong tabbed washer. It should be at 45 degrees to the ground.

photogravity

Mmmmm, titanium! I have to admit that is not a very flattering photo, but in the realm of friction derailleurs, it shifts exceedingly well based on personal experience.

ftwelder

You know what's up...

bikingshearer 

Best looking - Campy NR
Best working - Campy 10-speed Record or Chorus, mid-20002
Ugliest, Heaviest and Besgt Bet for Creating a Life Supporting artificial Reef - Campy Gran Turismo.

A Campy clean sweep!

Mercian Rider

I wonder what a thread like this would look like if it was restricted to opinions based on significant personal experience with a component as opposed to " I've heard . . ." or "I knew a guy who had one of those and . . ." or parroting what Frank Berto said.

mickey85

Of all of my bikes and such, the best, smoothest, easiest-to-be-precise derailer for me is my Campy NR. Smooth like butter.

Strange as it sounds, I kinda like the plastic fantastic Simplex, and wish I could trust them more.

That said, IMO, the best "daily driver" derailers are Suntour anything. Given the choice, I'd pick Suntour mechs over nearly anything. They're pretty, work well, and are bulletproof.

Dovetube

The Alvit makes more sense, almost, than the later slant parallelogram ones. The Superbe Pro accushift didn't exude less than complete competence, (someone posted it made user seem competent with fRicTion.) The Super record jockey cage allows a bigger cog than the nuovo record. Jubilee derailleurs aren't any good because you're afraid of messing them up; the front basically rides on a rail, if they're drillum they weigh the same unless you're willing to go over them with a toothpick. I think the guy who posted Sturmey Archer aw may be right. I rode a 4-speed for at least 10years without ever knowing how to operate it.

mapleleafs-13 

C-record derailleurs for the best looking

8 spd 7400 DA for best function and amazing style, these are underratted it works so amazing on my pinarello

suntour Arx derailleurs work awesome and look decent

Shimano light action derailleurs work amazing with the index. i can always get one to shift pretty crisp when i set it up on a bike, same with shimano 105 for 6/7/8 speed.

i'm sure there's a bunch of arebesque fans here, those always look pretty cool.

you guys must be on drugs if you guys put simplex derailleurs up here... the gold looks pretty but they break and seize up alot is what i've noticed.

Arrowana

I don't have a lot of experience with fancy rear derailleurs. Huret Jubile is beautiful, but not a great performer. I might actually go with the Shimano STX-RC. Works great, no reliability issues so far, and pretty sharp looking.

Never used them, but I'm definitely thinking of going with 1st gen Cyclone on my Sekai, or if I want indexing, Dura Ace 7400 would probably look the least out of place.

nlerner

That's BF heresy to ask for opinions based on actual experience. Next thing you know you're going to insist we actually ride our bikes!

ColonelJLloyd 

While it's probably the most modern derailleur I've used, that's also my experience with the RD-6500 GS. It performs great with friction shifting and with indexing from 6-10 cogs.

+1

jmccain

Best one for me was on my first - a Campy Valentino Extra. I rode it for thousands of miles and learned to never complain about any other RD.

Ever.

Mercian Rider

I have to agree and change my vote accordingly. But the Dura Ace 8-speed is the best I have at this time.

Italuminium

Can't say what's best since I haven't tried a lot, but here's my verdict for all the systems I've spend reasonable time on:

Great:
-Campy 9 speed triple Daytona: easy to set up, no weird bolts yet as they do now (FU campy, seriously). Quiet, smooth and huge gear range.
-campy centaur 10 speed. As others never fail to mention in this forum (hi, Grady!) it's the goldielocks ten speed group: all the great shifting and none of the super expensive ti/carbon doodads, but still a great alloy finish. Almost never misses a beat and quite easy to set up.
-Campagnolo SR: the gold standard for beauty and the krrrrPLUNK shifting is just so easy, smooth and positive it just becomes second nature. The only downside I found are the loosening DT shifters.
-Shimano Arabesque: never had any performance issues and looks pretty.
Ok
-Shimano STX 7 speed MTB. it just works, but doesn't thrill me. Just not pretty enough

Don't like so much:
-lower end simplex. Snapped on me. that's bad.
-Shimano exage. Works, but feels crappy to work with.
-Shimano SIS, just too low end

To be tested:
-Simplex tour de france - very beautiful and it gets some very nice reviews online, but I have yet to mount mine and try it.

puchfinnland

I can sort of agree, my first real roadbike had valentino deraileurs, still does and I will be riding it in December.

mike

gomango

Nine or 10 speed Chorus for sure.

I also think the nine speed Record titanium is a fantastic rear derailleur.

Still haven't bit on an eleven speed Campy system though.

Too many good deals to be had on older systems.

They just last and last.

Definitely thinking about one of the new Campy triples though......

Just holding out for alloy.

https://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/groupset/catid_8.jsp

Finally, I agree that Campy NR looks great, but for function, very hard to beat the DA 7400 I have on a couple of vintage racing bicycles.

jimmuller 

What they said.

Vx. Or Cyclone, the Mk1 being prettier. Or V-Luxe, VGT-Luxe, etc. They're all good.

Are still voting? I thought election was yesterday. I voted as often as they'd let me but not as early as they'd let me.

T-Mar

Agreed, they work well and appear to be a great value, but I'd have to disqualify from this list due to lack of durability. The notch cut in the rear parellelogram arm is a weak point. I've seen too many of them fail there.

repechage

I bought a Pinarello Montello a number of years ago and that was the upgrade the owner noted. The bike had clip less pedals and fortunately had the original black Campagnolos. I asked about the original rear mechanism, and he advised the bike shop kept it, Wonder Why?

The Suntour V-Lux from before the VX was the stealth perfect rear mechanism for its time. I won a Cyclone Mark I in a race long ago and it shifted well when I finally put it on a bike, but I did not like the cable attachment that did not pivot as the parallelogram moved. The V Lux or VX was better in that respect.

rhm

Sheesh, guys! No love for the Resilion?

aixaix 

Yeah, Rudi, the Resilion derailleur is fine for you: you have the legs for it as well as a Sturmey Archer lurking nearby.
Rootboy, watch what you say about the mighty Gran Turismo. I still haven't taken it off my Frejus.

And glad I was during our recent storm that its great weight served to keep the bike firmly anchored to the ground, along with the building where it resides. No telling what would have happened if I'd put on a Jubilee!

leaping_gnome

I was hoping for an shout out for the Simplex SLJ cause I want one but never tried one! I really have fun trying different power train combos because it gives me an excuse to build more bikes.

My personal experience with the voting leaders in my order of preference: Cyclone Mk 1 GT, Campy NR, Shimano 7400 (friction and SIS), Ultegra (SIS), Suntour Vx, Superbe Pro first gen, and Campy Record 10sp. My taste has gone to higher gear ranges as I get older! I can make a Campy NR shift 28-13 and ride all day and night. My Record 10 gets low vote because I have not debugged it yet. Superbe would get a higher vote if it had more range. I have a med cage Superbe (rare) that I like just fine.

Next experiment will be Suntour PowerFlo 8-sp both road and mtn

RaleighSport

Then someone like me would be forced to list their favorite vintage RD's.. like the cyclone GT, shimano 105 (1055 era), VGT-luxe, and mid 80's shimano 600...