During the 1980s and 1990s, EDCO, a Swiss company that made beautiful Swiss products with precision Swiss bearings - bottom brackets, headsets, hubs, all that good stuff - decided that it wanted to offer complete groupsets.
Its chosen approach was to buy in components like brakes and derailleurs. EDCO sold its high-end Swiss bicycle jewellery at high-end Swiss prices - so, coming from French-speaking Switzerland, it was looking for the very best derailleurs that the Francophone world could provide.
My knowledge is a touch sketchy, but I am aware of six generations of these EDCO derailleurs:
- The first EDCO derailleur that I remember, possibly from 1984, was a rebranded Simplex SLJ6600 T. This was, arguably, the top of Simplex's range at the time.
- Then, possibly in 1985, I think they used a rebranded Simplex SLJ5500 T. This was arguably a step down from the SLJ6600 T, but was marginally lighter, and possibly more 'racy'. Or they may have made the change because Simplex was in some chaos at the time.
- In 1986? they dropped Simplex and adopted a rebranded version of Sachs-Huret's top-of-the range New Success (47.1D). This had a cleaner, more modern, look that fitted better with the EDCO aesthetic. At the time Sachs-Huret also made a lot of noise about how they were determined to build a top-quality technically advanced brand. Finally, I think that EDCO may also have offered a version of the long cage Sachs-Huret New Success Touring (47.1T).
- In 1988? EDCO moved into the world of indexing with a rebranded Sachs-Huret New Success ARIS (47.2D). The EDCO version of this derailleur had something of a cult following, because it was anodised silver, rather than the grey colour of the Sachs-Huret original. Again, I think that EDCO may also have offered a version of the long cage Sachs-Huret New Success ARIS Touring (47.2T).
- For 1990? EDCO moved up to the 8-speed Sachs-Huret New Success Sport (54.01D). I don't know if EDCO offered a long cage version.
- And finally in 1994? moved on to the Sachs New Success Sport (RNS 00). This was offered in a choice of 'looks' - silver anodised for the 'racing' groupset and with a black & red outer parallelogram plate for the 'triathlon' groupset. EDCO additionally offered the long cage Sachs New Success MTB (MNS 00) derailleur both as part of a touring groupset and also as part of a mountain bike groupset.
- ...
And there is probably more that I have forgotten (or never even knew) about.
This is a fairly immaculate example of the second generation described above. It is a rebranded Simplex SLJ5500 T.
If you're interested in these things, it is a fairly late version of the Simplex SLJ5500 T with the inner parallelogram plate with an inset rectangular area.
- Derailleur brands: EDCO, manufactured by Simplex
- Country: Switzerland, manufactured in France
- Date of introduction: 1985?
- Date of this example: unknown ('R75' is stamped on outer pulley cage plate)
- Model no.: unknown
- Weight: 192g
- Maximum cog: 30 teeth (based on a Simplex SLJ5500T)
- Total capacity: 30 teeth (based on a Simplex SLJ5500T)
- Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
- Index compatibility: friction
- Chain width: 3/32”
- Logic: top normal
- B pivot: sprung
- P pivot: sprung
- Materials: aluminium, including the main b-pivot and p-pivot bolts and the pulley bolts
