Joe’s first design was pretty useless as a derailleur but totally functional as a piece of art.

This derailleur is Joe’s second design. It is most definitely functional as a piece of machinery, with its slant parallelogram and slightly offset pulley cage. But aesthetically... I find it a bit of a mess. It is an uncomfortable mix of sharp angles, rather odd curves and a CNC look. And I don't like some details, the sharp angles look alarmingly like stress-raisers, the parallelogram spring sticks out at one end in an ugly way and the b-pivot adjustment screw is, weirdly, much too large.

Technically it has a single sprung pivot, with the guide pulley offset from the sprung pivot by about 18mm. Both pulleys use sealed bearings. It looks as though you could completely disassemble it, but you would have fun playing with tiny circlips. It is light, but it is not earth-shatteringly so.

Beautifully made, but slightly underwhelming.

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I believe that this is a later example. It is blue and black anodised and has slightly angular pulley cage plates. The pulley cage plates now have sizeable pusher plates.

Finally I would note that there is a Joe’s sticker on the p-knuckle.

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• Derailleur brands: Joe’s
• Themes: A riot of colour
• Country: USA
• Date of introduction: 1996?
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 207g
• Maximum cog: 32 teeth
• Total capacity: 33 teeth
• Pulley centre to centre: 67mm
• Index compatibility: 8 speed?
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: aluminium

Ref. 253