This fine catalogue shows Gipiemme offering 4 groupsets:
- Bagarre (BA2000), a high-end road group.
- Azzurro (SB2000), an economy road group.
- Pista (AP2000), a track group.
- MTB K2 (MK2000), a low-end mountain bike group.
In terms of derailleurs, Simplex has left the building, and range includes:
- Gipiemme Exploit (BA801), this is also called Gipiemme Bagarre (BA801). The word 'Exploit' is machined into its outer parallelogram plate - so this is the name I usually use. I think that this derailleur was manufactured by Campagnolo. There are a number of different variants of the Gipiemme Exploit. The variant shown in this catalogue has a cable adjuster and has a, rather small, 'aero' outer pulley cage plate with no cutout at the guide pulley and an angled end at the tension pulley.
- Gipiemme Azzurro (SB801) - this derailleur was manufactured by SunRace and, in another life, I believe that it might have been called the SunRace 581.
- Gipiemme MT801 - this was also manufactured by SunRace and was called the SunRace 580.
As you will have gathered, even though Gipiemme had parted ways with Simplex, it fiercely maintained that company's tradition of using incomprehensible, inconsistent and utterly forgettable model names.
And people wonder why so much of the European cycle components industry died...
Many thanks to Fernando in Argentina for alerting me to the page on the Gipiemme web site that provides these fascinating scans!
