Finally Shimano gave in to the inevitability of having to sell its top-of-the-line groupset to fat middle-aged men who want low, low gears. The introduction of the Dura-Ace 7700 GS indicated that the portly wallets of portly gentlemen counted for more than the alluring image of speed, youth and fitness that Shimano had carefully cultured for Dura-Ace over two and a half decades. It was a triumph of beer-fueled reality over EPO-fueled fiction.

The Dura-Ace 7700 GS has all the qualities of the SS version such as sealed bearing pulley wheels, cold forged parts, some kind of fancy fluorine coating on the pivot pins and more ‘O’ rings than you can shake a stick at.

The huge, 13 tooth, pulley wheels do seem to give a large total capacity from a relatively short cage - recalling the ghost of SunTour’s three pulley wheel system.

This is a nine speed derailleur.

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1. •Brand: Shimano
   

2. •My category: Shimano - the Dura-Ace story
   

3. •Country: Japan
   

4. •Date of introduction: 2001 (Shimano model year 2002)
   

5. •Date of this example: 2002 (two letter date code is AI)
   

6. •Model no: 7700 GS
   

7. •Weight: 212g
   

8. •Maximum cog: 27 teeth
   

9. •Total capacity: 38 teeth
   

10. •Pulley centre to centre: 65mm
    

11. •Index compatibility: 9 speed
    

12. •Chain width: 3/32”
    

13. •Logic: top normal
    

14. •Pivots: two sprung pivots
    

15. •Material: aluminium
    

0242/H