Various people have told me various different model names for this derailleur including ‘C’, ‘CC’ and ‘Profesional’. I have gone with ‘C’ as it so obviously seeks to ape the Campagnolo C-Record - but I have never seen this model listed anywhere under any name. I do remember it being fitted on various dead-beat French racers - a rather nasty Motobecane springs to mind - or was it a Gitane? You know the kind of thing - slippery steel drop bars, weird French frame dimensions and one of those rock-hard plastic saddles that Charles Graner and Lynndie England could have got some mileage out of in Abu Ghraib.

It shares the badly finished castings and horribly unfriendly adjustment screws of the Triplex CS, but I like it better - possibly because copying a derailleur as absurd as the C-Record shows a certain chutzpah. However, unlike the C-Record the Triplex C has only one sprung pivot.

I’ll bet that aerodynamic pulley cage makes all the difference - reminding me of all those calculations that ‘scientists’ made after the magnificent Laurent Fignon was beaten by 8 seconds by the tedious Greg Lemond. Would the professor have won if he had cut off his pony-tail? Maybe he should have used a Triplex C...

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1. •Brand: Triplex
   

2. •Country: Spain
   

3. •Date of introduction: 1985?
   

4. •Date of this example: unknown
   

5. •Model no: unknown
   

6. •Weight: 211g
   

7. •Maximum cog: 28 teeth?
   

8. •Total capacity: 28 teeth?
   

9. •Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
   

10. •Index compatibility: friction?
    

11. •Chain width: 3/32”
    

12. •Logic: top normal
    

13. •Pivots: two pivots, front sprung and rear unsprung
    

14. •Material: aluminium
    

0031/A