So what have we here? The SunTour Love (LV00) is one of the most radical designs ever produced by SunTour’s chief designer, the legendary Nobuo Ozaki. The derailleur geometry is a development of the Huret Allvit design, but with a single sprung pivot and the parallelogram angled to maintain an even chain gap. The cable routing is commendably straight, echoing the Sachs Super Sport. The overall aim is to produce a cheap, steel, derailleur for basic Japanese city and children’s bicycles that would index reliably over a three speed freewheel. In many ways the SunTour Love (LV00) is the immediate parent of the utilitarian but innovative Sugino VIC.

However, all this technical virtuosity is hidden behind the largest derailleur protector the world has ever seen. This appears to have been fashioned out of the bow section of the K-141 Kursk, not only adopting the form of a submarine, but also being made of steel thick enough to resist the prodigious pressures that you only find on the ocean floor.

If you live somewhere flat and happen to want your gears to survive a nuclear blast without needing even the slightest readjustment - then the SunTour Love (LV00) is the derailleur for you. Perfect for Greenpeace activists cycling around Moruroa Atoll.

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• Derailleur brands: SunTour
• Categories: SunTour - weirdness
• Themes: Small wheels on my wagon
• Country: Japan
• Date of introduction: 1986? (The instructions are printed in November 1986)
• Date of this example: unknown (no two letter date code)
• Model no.: LV00
• Weight: 474g including hanger plate and gear protector plate. Another safety plate weighing a further 23g was also supplied with this derailleur.
• Maximum cog: 26 teeth?
• Total capacity: 21 teeth?
• Pulley centre to centre: 41mm
• Index compatibility: 3 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: none
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: steel