In the 1970s Huret produced quirky derailleurs mixing folded sheet metal with exotic materials and a certain, crazy, French, creativity. By the 1990s Sachs was producing solidly engineered derailleurs manufactured using quality materials. But, in between, there were the 1980s - and the, slightly confused, in-between, brand called Sachs-Huret. And it produced some, slightly confused, in-between derailleurs - like this Sachs-Huret Rival.

It's dull not quirky - a relatively poor imitation of a, decade out-of-date, mid-1970s Shimano. It uses more aluminium parts than your average Huret, but more folded sheet steel than a mid-range Shimano. And it weighs a stonking 259g at a time when a mid 1980s Shimano 600 came in around 200g. And, and, and, it's almost deliberately ugly.

Even the logos are slightly confused. The 'Sachs-Huret' bit is cold, clean, modern and angular. The 'Rival' bit is florid, traditional and extravagant.

This example displays the following features:

• It has a short, 50mm, pulley cage.
• It has an inner pulley cage plate with a built in spoke protector. This is what makes it the 'second style' of 41.1D model.
• It is spectacularly white.

• Derailleur brands: Sachs-Huret
• Categories: Sachs-Huret - the Rival story
• Themes: A riot of colour
• Country: Germany, manufactured in France
• Date of introduction: 1986?
• Date of this example: 1986 (stamped 2886, week 28 1986)
• Model no.: 41.1D
• Weight: 259g
• Maximum cog: 28 teeth (Sutherlands 6th edition data for Pilot)
• Total capacity: 30 teeth (Sutherlands 6th edition data for Pilot)
• Pulley centre to centre: 50mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: sprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely steel with an aluminium b-knuckle and outer parallelogram plate