Publisher: New Cycling

Country: Japan

Date: January 1964

Derailleur brands: Bridgestone, SunTour

Derailleurs: SunTour - pull-chain models

This is a rather stylish advert for a 10 speed Bridgestone bicycle. You can only marvel at the sheer panache of wearing a white felt cap, white shorts that would have looked petite on Kevin Keegan, long black socks and highly polished office shoes. Presumably that brushed aluminium object, attached to the seat tube, that is half drinking bottle and half futuristic space probe, is filled with hair tonic - for instant on-the-road repairs to your grooming.

The derailleur appears to be a SunTour 888 Wide pull-chain model. It appears to be handling a reasonably wide freewheel (14 to 26 or 14 to 28?) and a serious difference in the front chainwheels (40/52?). This would have been a very unusual set of ratios to find on a mass-produced European bike at the time. If you click on the area inside the dotted lines you can see a rather uninformative blow-up of the derailleur.