This rusty, but proud, derailleur originally graced a rather elegant Tsunoda road bike with an aerodynamic tubeset and full Shimano Adamas AX groupset. This bike, in turn, is claimed to have been owned by the legendary Jack Bruce, some time bass player with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Manfred Mann (eh?) and, of course, Cream. Jack Bruce performed on all the tracks on Disraeli Gears and is credited with co-writing six of them. It is an honour to have an Adamas AX that he once owned on this site.

The story goes that Jack Bruce gave his rusty old Tsunoda to an organisation that recycled used bicycles for Africa. The bike was sold to raise money to support the bicycle reconditioning project and the buyer kindly donated this derailleur to this site.

I can’t think of a better combination of events, and I hope that somewhere in Africa there is a restored bike or two doing sterling service because of Jack Bruce’s generosity.

See also the page about the Shimano Adamas AX (AD10) for mere mortals.

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• Derailleur brands: Shimano
• Categories: Shimano - Positron indexing insanity, Shimano - the turbulent AX story
• Country: Japan
• Date of introduction: 1981
• Date of this example: 1982 (two letter date code GC stamped on the end of the hanger bolt)
• Model no.: AD10
• Weight: 274g
• Maximum cog: 28 teeth (Shimano)
• Total capacity: 28 teeth (Shimano)
• Pulley centre to centre: 58mm
• Index compatibility: 6 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely steel, with an aluminium rear knuckle