One description of a barbeque might involve taking perfectly respectable ingedients, lavishing an untold amount of loving attention on them... and producing a god-awful mess. So what can we make of this derailleur designed by Mauro Guizzardi - the son of Athos Guizzardi, the self proclaimed 'Barbeque King of Italy'?

Well, the ingredients look OK. The main body is competently cast aluminium. The steel pulley cage etc. is/are competently formed and respectably plated. Even the small parts are of reasonable enough quality. As for the loving attention, the design is totally original and innovative, and can only be the product of long hours spent fettling in a well-equipped workshop.

But the result? It's as perplexing as that charred lump of coal that was once an expertly marinaded, and terrifyingly expensive steak.

Let's try and figure out how it 'works':

• It's a sliding rod design, much in the style of the 1930s-1950s.
• The sliding rod, pulley cage pivot and guide pulley are concentric - much in the style of the 1930s-1950s.
• The first innovation is that it's a top-normal design with the main spring used in tension (not compression as in the low-normal designs of the 1930s-1950s).
• The second innovation is that the pulley cage is pushed inwards by an artfully curved rod that is pulled around a pivot by the operating cable.

I find it hard to imagine a clumsier, more fragile or less elegant design! It's almost brilliant in its idiocy.

Time to give up on the barbeque, order in fish and chips and break out the beer.

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This is the more sophisticated of my two examples. It has the following features:

• The curved rod is held in place by a bolt that threads into the main arm and has a locknut.
• The guide pulley is held in place by an Allen bolt.
• The sliding rod is attached to the main arm using a threaded sleeve and a 20mm nut.
• The cable clamp bolt has a 7mm head.
• The main arm has a plain aluminium finish.
• The outer pulley cage plate does not have a pressed ring at the guide pulley to police the curved rod.

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• Derailleur brands: Guizzardi
• Country: Italy
• Date of introduction: 1971?
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 280g
• Maximum cog: unknown
• Total capacity: unknown
• Pulley centre to centre: 52mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32"?
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: aluminium body, the rest is steel

Ref. 856