DISRAELI GEARS
The 1983 Sachs-Huret Rival and 1985 Sachs-Huret New Success are usually regarded as the first of a new generation of designs that Sachs brought to Huret after their 1980 takeover. These derailleurs used Shimano’s Crane geometry with a dropped parallelogram and two sprung pivots and had a distinctly different look and a distinctly different feel of quality ‘German’ engineering.
This Huret Rival is, however, a kind of missing link. It is manufactured in 1982, after the Sachs takeover in 1980 - but it is clearly branded Huret (with no mention of Sachs anywhere). The parallelogram plates are extremely similar to those on my Huret Success (manufactured in 1979 before the takeover). The finish is more French Citroen-2CV-shabby-chic than German Mercedes-’S’-Class-polish-and-precision.
It quietly asks the question as to whether the Rival design originated with the old Huret design team, and was subsequently tidied up by Sachs designers, or whether the Rival design originated with the new Sachs team, but initially they had to cobble something together from the existing Huret parts bin.
Mildly interesting.
Ref. 122
Browse associated documents.
Huret Nouveau - New - 09/1982 scan 1 of 8
Huret Nouveau - New - 09/1982 scan 1 of 8
Huret Derailleurs - Speedometers - 06/1984
Huret Derailleurs - Speedometers - 06/1984