DISRAELI GEARS
I have a soft spot for Charger derailleurs. They were, possibly, the first Taiwanese derailleurs that we were lucky enough to sell in our bike shop.
At the time (the early 1980s) Britain had a rich seam of bicycle manufacturers in financial distress. Once great brands got into financial trouble, were taken over by (alledgedly dodgy, certainly incompetent) businessmen, were resurrected (with much fanfare and hullabaloo) and (inevitably and almost immediately) got back into financial trouble etc. etc.... As these manufacturers ran out of cash, they failed to pay the importers of Shimano and had to move on to Huret. Then they failed to pay the importers of Huret and had to move on to Simplex. Then they failed to pay the importers of Simplex and had to move on to ... anything they could get their oily hands on. And so it came to pass that the occasional, brand new, bicycle fitted with a, then unknown, Charger derailleur arrived in our stock.
We were initially irritated and suspicious, but grudgingly came to grant them a modicum of respect. They were respectably made out of respectably substantial steel sheet. They were respectably finished with respectable chrome plating. And they were copies of the, extremely respectable, Shimano Skylark of the time - and so worked respectably well. In later years Taiwanese derailleur manufacturers competed by driving their prices down - and many of the products became less easy to like. But I have a certain, wistful, fondness for these early derailleurs.
I believe that this example is a, clean, early, long-cage Charger, perhaps from 1983. Some of its features are:
Ref. 2129
