See also: Roto documents

Country: Italy

I know very little about Roto. I have a vague notion that Roto was the components brand of an Italian company called Rampinelli(?), which also owned a brand called REG, which sold literally tons of cheap, relatively nasty, bicycle accessories. I remember tacky chromed steel bottle cages, terrifyingly thin, squashy, plastic bottles, spot-welded steel rear carriers etc. etc.. This notion may, however come from the fact that Roto and REG were both imported to the UK by Ron Kitching, were found very close together in the Ron Kitching catalogue, and always seemed to be inexplicably displayed together on Ron Kitching stands at trade shows.

In terms of derailleurs, I have a very unreliable memory of seeing an early Roto model that was a copy of a Campagnolo Record. I think Roto may have manufactured this in the late 1960’s.

The most famous (infamous?) Roto derailleurs were the jazzed up copies of the Huret Svelto. The combination of these slightly ludicrous Roto derailleurs and the surreal tackiness of the REG products always made me think that the people at Rampinelli must have had a wicked sense of humour. More...