Throughout the 1950s the Campagnolo Gran Sport had enjoyed a monopoly of the parallelogram design - thanks to various, slightly obscure, patents.

By the early 1960s these patents were expiring and the derailleur market was hotting up. Simplex, Huret and Gian Robert all had parallelogram designs in production, and many of these designs gave a more precise shift than the ageing Campagnolo Gran Sport.

Ever cautious, Tullio Campagnolo's response was the slighly underwhelming Campagnolo Record of 1963. It is basically a Campagnolo Gran Sport updated with an improved pulley cage with offset pulley wheels to give better chain wrap and a more constant chain gap. This long-overdue improvement merely allowed Campagnolo to catch up with, rather than surpass, its competitors. Campagnolo had even used offset pulley wheels on its lower end Campagnolo Sportman derailleur a few years before (in 1961).

The 1963 Campagnolo Record may not have been a technical tour-de-force, but it is nonetheless historic - as it is the first derailleur to bear the iconic 'Record' sub-brand. The two words 'Campagnolo Record' are unquestionably the most respected in the pantheon of great bicycle components.

I am aware of four possible variants of this iconic product:

• The first variant (1963) has round steel pulley wheels with ball bearing races, and it has nothing at all stamped on the flange that acts on the low gear stop screw.
• The second variant (possibly 1965?) has 'C in a diamond' logo stamped on the flange that acts on the low gear stop screw, but retains the round steel pulley wheels with ball bearing races.
• The third variant (1966) also has a 'C in a diamond' logo stamped on the flange that acts on the low gear stop screw, but now has 9 toothed plastic pulley wheels.
• The fourth variant (1968) has 10 toothed plastic pulley wheels, with no writing on them, and it has nothing at all stamped on the flange that acts on the low gear stop screw.

The second version described in this list is the least well documented, hence my vagueness about its date.

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This, slightly ratty, example of a Campagnolo Record is of the 'first variant' described above. It features:

• nothing stamped on the flange that acts on the low gear stop screw
• round steel pulley wheels with ball bearing races.
• an outer pulley cage plate with raised ridges around the pulley mounting bolt holes to engage with the slots in the bearing cones of the pulley wheels.

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• Derailleur brands: Campagnolo
• Categories: Campagnolo - the good stuff
• Country: Italy
• Date of introduction: 1963
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: 1020
• Weight: 331g
• Maximum cog: 28 teeth (according to bike shop folklore). 36 teeth if you believe Campagnolo - which I don't.
• Total capacity: 24 teeth (according to bike shop folklore)
• Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: bronze knuckles, the rest is steel