The Excel (XL020) is a rebranded Rino Crono. Excel were not coy about this, marketing the derailleur as part of 'Excel's Gruppo Rino', that is 'engineered in Italy'.

The Excel (XL020) uses an excellent slant-parallelogram layout ('borrowed' by Rino from SunTour) and is formed and finished to a respectable standard. Notably, it is fully demountable. There is a decent case to be made that these (and their Rino and Saavedra siblings) are among the best non-Japanese derailleurs available at the time.

The Excel marketing materials describe this derailleur as having Delrin pulley wheels with sealed bearings. Strangely I have never seen an example with these pulley wheels. I have, however, seen several instances of each of two other variations:

• A version with Rino's normal plastic pulley wheels.
• A version with glamorous, red, aluminium, sealed bearing, Bullseye pulley wheels.

Perhaps the the Delrin/sealed bearing units were problematic - either in terms of supply or performance - and Excel fitted one of these options as a substitute.

I am a little confused about the option with the Bullseyes. At the time Bullseye pulley wheels were super-high-end. I might even guess that the retail price of a pair was higher than that of a whole Rino Crono derailleur. Could it be that both Excel and Bullseye were conspicuously 'American' and maybe it was felt to be a wonderful marriage made in some kind of proto-MAGA heaven ("Let's make America great again" was, after all, a slogan used by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 presidential campaign)? Or am I being too cynical? Excel's marketing was heavily based around Lon Haldeman's amazing performances in the Great American Bike Race. Perhaps over 3,000 miles of Lon's aggressive riding was more than enough to shred any kind of plastic pulley wheel. Perhaps, the deluxe Bullseyes were genuinely required. It reminds me somewhat of the Gevenalle BURD CX - an inexpensive cyclo-cross derailleur that is available with high end pulley wheels that can resist all that mud that cyclo-crossers do so love.

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This Excel (XL020) has, plain-vanilla, Rino branded, plastic pulley wheels. It is worth noting that this derailleur weighs, a devastatingly light, 177g.

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• Derailleur brands: Excel, manufactured by Rino
• Themes: Ultra-lightweight - short cage models
• Country: USA, manufactured in Italy
• Date of introduction: 1982?
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 177g
• Maximum cog: 24 teeth?
• Total capacity: 24 teeth?
• Pulley centre to centre: 48mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely aluminium