Anybody remember the Huret Jubilee?
March 21, 2008 11:54 PM Subscribe
Beautiful anaglyphs of 70's derailleurs show the art and engineering at the forefront 3 decades back. BYO3DG
Sure, as a bike shop mechanic in the 80s I remember these. The Jubilee was particularly notable for its light weight and how it would explode into a pile of springs and assorted mysterious parts if one should so much as look at it the wrong way. Their Duopar Eco was a much more interesting (and robust) design, with an articulated parallelogram mechanism to accommodate the big sprockets that were becoming popular around then. By far the best performing of the time was the Suntour Superbe, but that never stopped everyone wanting the over-priced and sloppy shifting Campagnolo stuff, because it was Campagnolo, or something.
Art, maybe. Engineering has come a long way in the bicycle universe since then. Functionally, none of these top-of-the-range parts from 20+ years ago are the slightest competition for a basic $30 derailleur of today from SRAM or Shimano, say (and even Campagnolo's technology eventually caught up, if not their pricing). Anyhow, surely someone will be fascinated to learn that Huret were eventually bought by a company that was bought by a company... that was eventually bought by SRAM, if I remember right.
posted by normy at 4:49 AM on March 22, 2008 [2 favorites]
Art, maybe. Engineering has come a long way in the bicycle universe since then. Functionally, none of these top-of-the-range parts from 20+ years ago are the slightest competition for a basic $30 derailleur of today from SRAM or Shimano, say (and even Campagnolo's technology eventually caught up, if not their pricing). Anyhow, surely someone will be fascinated to learn that Huret were eventually bought by a company that was bought by a company... that was eventually bought by SRAM, if I remember right.
posted by normy at 4:49 AM on March 22, 2008 [2 favorites]
Beautiful pics. Nice use of 3D.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:18 AM on March 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 5:18 AM on March 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
Excellent, this is why I come to MeFi. Now we just need some 3D René Herse porn.
posted by everichon at 5:27 AM on March 22, 2008
posted by everichon at 5:27 AM on March 22, 2008
I was just thinking, "This FPP sucks; who has a pair of 3-D glasses just lying around?" And then I remembered: this is MetaFilter. I'm probably the only one here who doesn't have a pair of those cellophane red/blues.
So I just smoke a lot of weed and squint and it looks really cool! Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 6:39 AM on March 22, 2008
So I just smoke a lot of weed and squint and it looks really cool! Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 6:39 AM on March 22, 2008
I'm probably the only one here who doesn't have a pair of those cellophane red/blues
My kids were just given these at a Skipjacks restaurant 3 weeks ago. They have the whole kids menu in 3D.
I can't even count how many times over the years I've pulled out my Nile Rodgers B-Movie Matinee CD just to fish out the mini 3D glasses that came with it, which I always keep stowed inside the jewel case. Nile Rodgers, jewel cases, CDs - Jeez, I am old
posted by Rafaelloello at 7:05 AM on March 22, 2008
My kids were just given these at a Skipjacks restaurant 3 weeks ago. They have the whole kids menu in 3D.
I can't even count how many times over the years I've pulled out my Nile Rodgers B-Movie Matinee CD just to fish out the mini 3D glasses that came with it, which I always keep stowed inside the jewel case. Nile Rodgers, jewel cases, CDs - Jeez, I am old
posted by Rafaelloello at 7:05 AM on March 22, 2008
Normy--
I think you're right about Huret > Sachs > SRAM. I had an old-when-I-bought-it Raleigh Competition with Huret Jubilee derailleurs. Beautiful little jewels.
And this post reminded me of Drillum (examples 1, 2)
posted by adamrice at 7:06 AM on March 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
I think you're right about Huret > Sachs > SRAM. I had an old-when-I-bought-it Raleigh Competition with Huret Jubilee derailleurs. Beautiful little jewels.
And this post reminded me of Drillum (examples 1, 2)
posted by adamrice at 7:06 AM on March 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
The Jubilee was particularly notable for its light weight
This was the primary reason I saved up my paper route money and bought a Raleigh Competition back in the mid-70's. Made for some pretty good bragging rights amongst my nerdy bike friends.
posted by Rafaelloello at 7:20 AM on March 22, 2008
This was the primary reason I saved up my paper route money and bought a Raleigh Competition back in the mid-70's. Made for some pretty good bragging rights amongst my nerdy bike friends.
posted by Rafaelloello at 7:20 AM on March 22, 2008
Great post, but my lack of depth perception means that these 3D things don't work for me.
posted by fixedgear at 8:17 AM on March 22, 2008
posted by fixedgear at 8:17 AM on March 22, 2008
This post ... on the very day I'm selling my 1987 Cannondale Black Lightning. Not exactly 70s swag, but covered in Suntour. It was an early index shifting bike, and i was a biy nervous about that weird new fangled click shift stuff. I was, after all, going out on a limb getting a non-steel bike.
Long beore that I remember saving up (we did that in the old days) to get a cool new Suntour deraileur to replace the simplex on my Gitaine. I knew I'd be so much cooler. And I was.
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting. God only knows why.
posted by cccorlew at 8:21 AM on March 22, 2008
Long beore that I remember saving up (we did that in the old days) to get a cool new Suntour deraileur to replace the simplex on my Gitaine. I knew I'd be so much cooler. And I was.
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting. God only knows why.
posted by cccorlew at 8:21 AM on March 22, 2008
That's mental.
posted by DenOfSizer at 8:56 AM on March 22, 2008
posted by DenOfSizer at 8:56 AM on March 22, 2008
Nice find. It's been a long time since I craved bike parts, but I still feel the same anxious churn when I'm reminded about derailleurs or hubs or cranksets or brake levers.
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting.
It's been a long, long time.
posted by notyou at 9:11 AM on March 22, 2008
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting.
It's been a long, long time.
posted by notyou at 9:11 AM on March 22, 2008
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting.
Campy has been working on an electric-shifting system as well.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:49 AM on March 22, 2008
Campy has been working on an electric-shifting system as well.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:49 AM on March 22, 2008
How much of a dork would I be for rushing out to find 3-D glasses just to view bicycle hardware? Let me know. Cuz I'm so doin' it!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 10:00 AM on March 22, 2008
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 10:00 AM on March 22, 2008
Fuzzy Skinner: A giant one, but since you're going out, can you pick me up a pair too?
posted by gofargogo at 12:39 PM on March 22, 2008
posted by gofargogo at 12:39 PM on March 22, 2008
Electronic shifting? So last century: Mavic Mektronic, Browning Smartshift.
oh, and ...
single speed
XTR Rapidfire
Sturmey-Archer
posted by scruss at 2:00 PM on March 22, 2008
oh, and ...
Sturmey-Archer
posted by scruss at 2:00 PM on March 22, 2008
Eponironic (hint: username of the earliest favouriter).
posted by hangashore at 2:12 PM on March 22, 2008
posted by hangashore at 2:12 PM on March 22, 2008
AAAAARGH! The Suntour Superbe has a frayed cable!!! Damn my eyes! ( I really shouldn't look at MORE bike stuff after work ).
On the new front:
Shimano has a more-than-prototype electronic shifting system that looks to be modeled on Dura-Ace. DA 2009 will probably see the shift cable routing being done like everyone else: along the bar. And SRAM may introduce carbon levers for the Rival road grouppo.
god I love my industry!
posted by Sam.Burdick at 6:50 PM on March 22, 2008
On the new front:
Shimano has a more-than-prototype electronic shifting system that looks to be modeled on Dura-Ace. DA 2009 will probably see the shift cable routing being done like everyone else: along the bar. And SRAM may introduce carbon levers for the Rival road grouppo.
god I love my industry!
posted by Sam.Burdick at 6:50 PM on March 22, 2008
Oh and even though lots of other companies have tried electronic shifting none of them have seen decent adoption. Mavic's ill-fated model being an example of a system being a failure. Probably because Mavic should have stuck with wheels.
posted by Sam.Burdick at 6:52 PM on March 22, 2008
posted by Sam.Burdick at 6:52 PM on March 22, 2008
Are the new shifters that great? I set up my '94 Shimano LX Rapidfire system with Gore Ride-On cables and some aftermarket pulleys and I literally have not had to touch them in 10 years. All 21 gears usable, shift up and down fast (including double and triple shifts "up" the cassette and rapid banging down) with no chain rub and the only thing I've had to replace was the chain a couple times and the middle chain-ring on the crank once. I've ridden the 9 speed systems out in Moab on the big trails circa 2000 and didn't really notice any difference in usable gears and certainly wasn't lusting after them when I returned home to my measly 7 speed. It certainly didn't seem like you could use extreme cross-chain gears on the 9 speeds like on "ancient" 7 speed systems. I also broke chains 3 or 4 times in one week in Moab on 9 speed cassettes and I've never had a single chain failure on the slightly beefier HyperGlide-70 7 speed chains.
posted by Rafaelloello at 9:24 PM on March 22, 2008
posted by Rafaelloello at 9:24 PM on March 22, 2008
AAAAARGH! The Suntour Superbe has a frayed cable!!!
I was re-looking at these my Mac today using the CTRL-Scroll Zoom feature and I noticed the same thing. Also, the Zeus Criterium is just being used as a chain tensioner on a single cog rear hub. Zooming in also reveals that none of the derailleurs are particularly clean. The Huret Jubilee is mounted on a frame with Campy dropouts too.
Still...there is a really cool feeling you get when you successfully shift both your front and rear derailleurs simultaneously and perfectly on downtube shifters with one hand in the same instant you stand out of your Brooks saddle and crest the long hill going away ahead of all your competitors/club mates. It's analogous to double-clutching a Formula Ford's Hewland non-synchro gearbox perfectly into first gear while rotating the chassis with no understeer through a 15mph hairpin turn on a tight road course.
posted by Rafaelloello at 9:51 PM on March 22, 2008
I was re-looking at these my Mac today using the CTRL-Scroll Zoom feature and I noticed the same thing. Also, the Zeus Criterium is just being used as a chain tensioner on a single cog rear hub. Zooming in also reveals that none of the derailleurs are particularly clean. The Huret Jubilee is mounted on a frame with Campy dropouts too.
Still...there is a really cool feeling you get when you successfully shift both your front and rear derailleurs simultaneously and perfectly on downtube shifters with one hand in the same instant you stand out of your Brooks saddle and crest the long hill going away ahead of all your competitors/club mates. It's analogous to double-clutching a Formula Ford's Hewland non-synchro gearbox perfectly into first gear while rotating the chassis with no understeer through a 15mph hairpin turn on a tight road course.
posted by Rafaelloello at 9:51 PM on March 22, 2008
This year, Shimano is supposed to be releasing a Dura Ace package with electronic shifting.
Who will be first to market with wireless shifting?
posted by notyou at 7:21 AM on March 23, 2008
Who will be first to market with wireless shifting?
posted by notyou at 7:21 AM on March 23, 2008
Notyou: Mavic had wireless shifting with the Zap (or was it the Mektronik?).
Rafaelloello: Are the new shifters that great? Are you suggesting '94 is not new? Sounds pretty new to me, especially in the context of this thread.
posted by adamrice at 7:32 AM on March 23, 2008
Rafaelloello: Are the new shifters that great? Are you suggesting '94 is not new? Sounds pretty new to me, especially in the context of this thread.
posted by adamrice at 7:32 AM on March 23, 2008
Rafaelloello: Are the new shifters that great? Are you suggesting '94 is not new? Sounds pretty new to me, especially in the context of this thread.
I meant that in the context of my own, probably decade-long, ignorance. I bought bikes in the 70's and bikes in the 90's and haven't bought in any other decade (unless you count my 6 year-old daughter's single speed Asian-manufactured (The Horror!) Raleigh. I've ridden the bikes of ~2000, was just wondering if the latest Rapid-fires really need to be a tad faster(electronic)? I wouldn't think so, but who knows.
posted by Rafaelloello at 5:22 PM on March 23, 2008
I meant that in the context of my own, probably decade-long, ignorance. I bought bikes in the 70's and bikes in the 90's and haven't bought in any other decade (unless you count my 6 year-old daughter's single speed Asian-manufactured (The Horror!) Raleigh. I've ridden the bikes of ~2000, was just wondering if the latest Rapid-fires really need to be a tad faster(electronic)? I wouldn't think so, but who knows.
posted by Rafaelloello at 5:22 PM on March 23, 2008
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