DISRAELI GEARS
Sometime around 1990, Sachs-Huret redesigned the venerable Sachs-Huret Rival ARIS as the Rival 6000 and Rival 7000 series. At the time, I hated the new designs.
Sure the new models had a concealed p-pivot - but they were late to the party - Shimano had introduced this feature with the Shimano Santé four years before.
Sure the new short cage models had an 'aerodynamic' outer pulley cage plate. Again Shimano had long introduced these with the 1986 Santé - and were just about to abandon the idea and reintroduce cut outs with the 1992 Shimano Ultegra 6401. And the Rival 6000 had a steel outer pulley cage plate which was, somehow, particularly naff. Low-end steel never sat happily with high-end aerodynamics.
To add insult to injury, the Rival 6000 and 7000 managed to weigh more than their predecessor, despite losing the rather pleasant 'light action' sprung cable clamp of the Rival ARIS, and despite having an aluminium, rather than steel, outer parallelogram plate. Seemingly impossible, but strangely true.
And finally, while the Rival ARIS was hardly a beauty, it managed to look serviceable, reliable and rugged. By aspiring to be suave and svelte, the Rival 6000 and 7000 looked merely pretentious, uncoordinated and ungainly. If you want to make jewellery you need the aesthetic skills of a jeweller - mere engineering won't do.
A low point.
This is a scrappy example of the short cage Rival 7000 model. It is interesting (at least to me) because it is branded 'Sachs' rather than 'Sachs-Huret'. To see this, you have to look hard for the tiny writing on the bottom right of the outer parallelogram plate. I think this dates it from 1992.
Apart from the logos, the differences between the Rival 6000 (53.01D) and the Rival 7000 (53.11D) appear to be:
