Campagnolo Valentino G. S. derailleur

After several years of searching around for a meaningful way to offer a more affordable derailleur, in 1964 Campagnolo released this model, the Campagnolo Valentino G. S.. It set the tone for Campagnolo's lowest priced range for the next two decades.

Its defining features included:

It was manufactured from pressed steel, with a notable absence of castings.
It was strongly made, and well finished, if somewhat heavy and out of date.
It bore the name 'Valentino', a name shared by both Tullio Campagnolo's father and son. The legend is that Tullio saw the Valentino range as a 'junior' range, suitable for younger riders, and named it after his 14 year old son. In 1964, when these derailleurs were still respectable designs and Valentino was a child, this seemed reasonable. By 1984 it had become an incomprehensible embarrassment.

This Valentino model, the first in a long sequence, is named 'G. S.' which is usually taken as a reference to the the words 'Gran Sport'. It uses a pulley cage that is not offset, much like the Campagnolo Gran Sport. This is slightly odd, as Campagnolo had already released two models, the 1963 Campagnolo Record (1020) and the 1961? Campagnolo Sportman, that had the much more effective offset pulley cages. Even stranger, the outer pulley cage plate has a flange clearly intended to be a stop to control rotation at the p-pivot - as on the Campagnolo Turismo. But this flange has no function on the Campagnolo Valentino G. S..