DISRAELI GEARS

Campagnolo Croce d'Aune? Graphite (?010)

Campagnolo Croce d'Aune? Graphite (?010) derailleur main image

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Campagnolo produced a bewildering array of derailleurs that all looked extremely similar. This poses the perfect puzzle for derailleur geeks who can endlessly debate exactly which is what.


This derailleur is a challenge to all Campagnolo archaeologists. What do we know about it?

  • It is clearly a road derailleur and not an ATB derailleur - as it has a double ~1.5mm parallelogram spring and a perforated outer pulley cage plate.
  • It has a steel rear parallelogram plate that tends to mean it is a Chorus level model.
  • But it has a hex cable clamp bolt and full ball-bearing pulley wheels that tend to indicate that it aspires to be Record level.
  • And finally, it combines a 'Graphite' outer parallelogram plate with polished knuckles - a look familiar from the Campagnolo Victory Graphite but unknown on any higher-end groupsets. I have never seen anything similar to it in any Campagnolo literature.

A correspondent, who knows much more about Campagnolo than I do, claims to recognise it as an early example of the Croce d'Aune version of this drop parallelogram design. This makes a kind of sense as the specification seems slightly superior to a Chorus (see the cable clamp nut and the pulley wheels), but slightly inferior to a Record (with the steel inner parallelogram plate).

However another, also knowledgeable, correspondent maintains that the Croce d'Aune of this era always had an aluminium rear parallelogram plate and pulley wheels with plain bearings - and I have certainly seen examples of Croce d'Aunes that prove that this was the case - at least for some Croce d'Aunes.

It's all deliciously fascinating but utterly unimportant - and I am going to plump for the idea that it is a Croce d'Aune.

A list of relevant details might include:

  • There is a spring adjuster on the p-pivot.
  • The cable adjuster is round and threads straight into the aluminium of the b-pivot.
  • It has a double parallelogram spring using ~1.5mm wire.
  • The inner parallelogram plate is a steel pressing.
  • The cable clamp nut is a hex nut.
  • The pulley wheels are Campagnolo's typical ball-bearing design, in black.
  • The inner pulley cage plate is aluminium and has no spoke deflector.


  • Derailleur brands: Campagnolo
  • Categories: Campagnolo - the locust years
  • Country: Italy
  • Date of introduction: late 1990?
  • Date of this example: unknown
  • Model no.: ?010
  • Weight: 261g
  • Maximum cog: 26 teeth (Sutherlands 6th edition)
  • Total capacity: 26 teeth (Sutherlands 6th edition)
  • Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
  • Index compatibility: 8 speed
  • Chain width: 3/32
  • Logic: top normal
  • B pivot: sprung
  • P pivot: sprung
  • Materials: aluminium
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