The Mistral has its enthusiastic fans - who claim it is made of a ‘hi-tech polymer’ - not ‘plastic’ (like a despised Simplex). It is a genuine, high quality, precision, cycling product, not a fancy Italian type of orange sorbet.

This particular Mistral has an adjustable cable outer stop, 42mm long parallelogram arms (note the small space between the adjustment screws), an aluminium hanger bolt and sprung pivot cover and weighs 171g. This is my lightest Mistral.

The slightly alarming colour is supposedly a homage to the Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) worn by the leader of the Tour de France.

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1. •Brand: Ofmega
   

2. •Country: Italy
   

3. •Date of introduction: 1982
   

4. •Date of this example: unknown
   

5. •Model no: 0505?
   

6. •Weight: 171g
   

7. •Maximum cog: 28 teeth (Sutherland’s 4th edition)
   

8. •Total capacity: 24 teeth (Sutherland’s 4th edition)
   

9. •Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
   

10. •Index compatibility: friction
    

11. •Chain width: 3/32”
    

12. •Logic: top normal
    

13. •Pivots: two pivots, one sprung and one unsprung
    

14. •Material: plastic with an aluminium inner pulley cage plate
    

15. •My theme: A riot of colour
    

0234/H