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 beautiful but useless design by the likes of Philippe Starck. This example has been heavily used, but is still in full working order.

This particular Mistral has a fixed 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 172g.

The blue colour would be perfectly at home in an artfully arranged collection of Alessi kitchen gadgets, but is supposedly a homage to the Squadra Azzurra (blue team) the popular name for the Italian national cycling team.

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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: 172g
   

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
    

0235/H