It is easy to consider a late 1970s Rino derailleur to be cheap Italian dross. There is something imprecise about the forms, there are too many casting lines, the surfaces are slightly pitted and the anodising is just too shiny.

But look more closely and you will see that, with its slant parallelogram and internal cable routing, this is the bastard child of a SunTour Cyclone and a SunTour V Luxe. So it will change gear with impressive speed and precision. It also weighs in at under 180g.

Even more unusually, the parallelogram pivots have screw threads and slotted heads - so it is fully demountable.

Fascinatingly competent in a horrible kind of way.

I would guess that this, virtually unused, example is my earliest Rino derailleur - largely because of the 'R' logo in a stippled square on the front of the p-knuckle. Some of its key features might be:

• The logo on the outer parallelogram plate is narrow at 23mm.
• The logo on the front of the p-knuckle is a raised letter 'R' set in a recessed, stippled square.
• The cable clamp bolt has a single groove around its head.
• The cable entry area on the b-knuckle is rectangular.

• Derailleur brands: Rino
• Themes: Ultra-lightweight - short cage models
• Country: Italy
• Date of introduction: 1978?
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 175g
• Maximum cog: 24 teeth
• Total capacity: 24 teeth
• Pulley centre to centre: 48mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: aluminium (including the hanger bolt and the allen key cap over the main pivot spring)