DISRAELI GEARS
If the Crane was symbolic of Shimano’s determination to mix it with the best, the Titlist was the gear that was actually designed to do the business. The Titlist shared the same parallelogram but had steel cage plates. Mysteriously, this small change meant the price was much, much lower.
The first style of Titlist had a cast outer cable stop, just like the first style of Crane (they both use the same casting).
This particular example shows a type of mutation that you occasionally see in the zoosphere of derailleurs. Like a postage stamp on which the Blackbird is missing its legs, this derailleur has the outer parallelogram plate of a Tilist GS, but the pulley cages plates of a plain Titlist. Had Yoshi been at the saké during his lunch break? Had Shimano run out of parallelogram plates for plain Titlists? Who can say?
Ref. 1
Browse associated documents.
US Trademark # 1,084,407 - Shimano
US Trademark # 1,084,407 - Shimano