The Sprint has an incredibly important place in the history of the derailleur. When Schwinn, the leading opinion-former amongst US bicycle makers, rebranded the Huret Allvit with its own name it was the definitive sign to the world that derailleurs were ready for the mass market.

Despite its historic role, I always disliked the Huret Allvit and all its progeny. It weighed a ton, its adjustment screws were all over the place and most of all it had too many flat plates joined by too many dodgy pivot bolts. In British weather it either rapidly loosened off and became horribly imprecise or it rusted solid. Perhaps the good folk of Chicago put away their bikes for the winter.

This is a beautiful, unused 1964(?), Sprint. Some of its attributes are:

• On the logo on the main arm, the background behind the word 'Sprint' is gold.
• It has no hanger plate and a special tagged washer on the b-pivot bolt to allow it to be used with a Simplex dropout.
• The pulley cage spring is trapped by a set of 3 hooks rivetted onto the outer pulley cage plate.
• It has steel, ball-bearing pulley wheels.

Schwinn used Simplex pull-chain derailleurs in the early 1960s and then switched to Huret Allvits branded as 'Sprint'. This switch caused much bad blood between Schwinn and Simplex and between Simplex and Huret. This derailleur captures the moment of this change - it is a Huret derailleur with a small adapter plate to allow it to fit on Schwinn frames that were still being built with Simplex ends.

• Derailleur brands: Schwinn, manufactured by Huret
• Country: USA, manufactured in France
• Date of introduction: 1964?
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 297g
• Maximum cog: 32 teeth (Sutherland’s 4th edition)
• Total capacity: 32 teeth (Sutherland’s 4th edition)
• Pulley centre to centre: 44mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely steel with one bronze parallelogram arm

Ref. 507