To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding, possibly in 1920, Huret decided to create the ultimate derailleur - and, given that this was the 1970s, that meant ultimate weight loss. The result was the 1972 Huret Jubilee - a masterpiece of minimalism unsurpassed to this day. Groove on the tiny adjustment screws, the pulley wheels with adjustable ball bearing races and the worlds lightest steel Allen key hanger bolt.
The standard, racing, Huret Jubilee was an exotic and wonderful creature. But Huret also released a long cage, touring, version - an even stranger, more exotic and more wonderful device. A super lightweight touring derailleur is not for the careless, and many of the long cage Jubilees met an untidy end knotted up in chain and spokes. But a touring derailleur that weighed around 150g, without a hint of titanium or carbon, was an heroic effort. It still has a fanatical following of devotees.
Brian Eno once confessed that he liked to explain to ‘young people’ that, back in the bad-old-low-tech-flared-trousered-analogue days things were so backward that you could fly from London to New York in three and a half hours and men regularly walked on the Moon. He might have added that you could buy an off-the-peg touring derailleur that weighed 150g.
Huret could never stop fiddling with their designs, so there is a plethora of slightly different versions of the Jubilee. I have tried to organise them, below, into some kind of chronology. It is reasonably easy to be clear and confident about the beginning of this series and also about the end of the series - but the middle years are just a tangled skein of complexity. But here goes anyway:
- In 1972 three long-cage Jubilee models were released, the 2240 for Huret fork ends, the 2253 - a 2240 with a Huret hanger and the 2254 with a cast on stop for Campagnolo ends. All three models had a short parallelogram spring, that engages with
- I believe that in 1973 all three models were improved with a new longer parallelogram spring. This spring engages with a pivot on the p-knuckle. There were no other changes to the designs.
...
- The Huret Jubilee was possibly not made in 1975. It is certainly missing from the 1975 catalogue.
- Possibly, sometime around 1974-1976, the b-knuckle was redesigned to accept an Allen bolt with an 11.5mm shaft and a distinct step at the point where it faced up against the dropout - removing the need for a locknut.
- Possibly in 1978, Huret stopped producing their distinctive dropouts and adopted a new design that copied Campagnolo.
...
- Certainly by 1979 the Jubilee was upgraded with a plate at the b-pivot that incorporated an adjustment screw, so that it was certainly compatible with a Campagnolo end, with the new Huret end. And possibly, if you removed the plate, also compatible with an old Huret end. From this point onwards the anodising on the derailleur gave a satin, rather than polished, finish.
- Probably in 1981 the Jubilee was again improved - this time with yet another change to the Allen bolt at the b-pivot - which now returns to a 10mm diameter shaft and has an expanding cone mechanism to lock it into the dropout thread.
- Finally, sometime around 1985, the Huret Jubilee got a new badge and became the Sachs-Huret Jubilee.
One problem with composing this chronology is that I cannot fully trust images in Huret's catalogues. In particular:
- As mentioned above, the Huret Jubilee does not appear in the 1975 catalogue at all.
- The 1976 catalogue shows two different versions on the same page.
- The Jubilee is generally pictured from an angle that makes it very hard to determine the details of the fitting to dropout.
- In the various parts explosions that feature in many of the catalogues, parts that are clearly different may have the same part number.
This is a, very nice, unused, example of a Sachs-Huret Jubilee (44.1T?). Some of its features are:
- It is designed to fit onto both a Huret and (more importantly) a Campagnolo dropout. There is also (finally) a b-pivot adjuster screw
- The logo has 'Sachs-Huret' in written in black.
- It has a long b-knuckle, with the centre line of the parallelogram pivots about 22mm from the centre line of the b-pivot Allen bolt
- The b-pivot Allen bolt is 19mm long, has a 10mm diameter shaft and has a funky internal locking mechanism that uses an expanding cone.
- It has a long parallelogram spring, which mounts into a reinforced hole in the b-knuckle.
In some of the photos, I have disengaged the pulley cage spring to allow the derailleur to adopt a more normal position.
- Derailleur brands: Sachs-Huret
- Categories: Sachs-Huret - the amazingly light Jubilee
- Country: Germany - Bundesrepublik Deutschland, manufactured in France
- Date of introduction: 1985?
- Date of this example: unknown
- Model no.: 44.1T?
- Weight: 159g
- Maximum cog: 28 or 24 teeth (Source: Huret quoted different figures at different times)
- Total capacity: 40, 38 or 32 teeth (Source: Huret quoted different figures at different times)
- Pulley centre to centre: 82mm
- Index compatibility: friction
- Chain width: 3/32”
- Logic: top normal
- B pivot: unsprung
- P pivot: sprung
- Materials: aluminium (with a curious lack of any titanium)
Ref. 2103
