When Huret launched the Huret Rival in 1981 a confident salesman told me that it was a superior 'rival' to the contemporary Shimano 600. I didn't believe him.

On one of the many occasions on which Sachs relaunched their Rival and New Success components they confidently claimed that they were more than a match for Shimano Ultegra and Dura-Ace respectively. The assembled, quietly incredulous, bicycle dealers politely nodded, smiled and said nothing.

Then, in 2006, when SRAM launched their supremely competent, but slightly unglamourous, Rival and Force groupsets they priced them to aggressively compete with... you guessed it, Shimano Ultegra and Dura-Ace. Surely, we all silently thought to ourselves, they should be priced at (or even below) 105 and Ultegra.

The drivers of the Huret-Sachs-SRAM train did not seem to understand that 'good enough' was not good enough - and that to break, or even loosen, Shimano's stranglehold you had to do something truly exceptional.

Then, in 2007, I went down to London to watch the prologue of the Tour de France. Specialized had hired a rather extravagant venue right on The Mall, within sight of the finish line. The afternoon was warm, the vol-au-vents were disappearing as fast as Fabian Cancellara and everything was right with the world. And what was this, displayed unannounced, on the balcony? It was an S-Works road bike adorned with the, as yet unreleased, SRAM Red groupset.

The derailleur looked very small, quite plain and rather unassuming. It had a distinct lack of ostentatious 'carbon weave' petterns and quixotic design flourishes. But the claimed weight was a stunning 153g - at a time when a Shimano Dura-Ace (7800) derailleur displaced a full 182g and a Campagnolo Record (RD4-REXS) tipped the scales at 186g. Sure, SRAM Red was projected to be alarmingly expensive, but, for once, it was also a genuine attempt at going above and beyond the competition.

I am aware of three iterations of the SRAM Red (RED-A1) derailleur, all of which were functionally identical:

• The earliest models (2007 onwards) had silver anodised parallelogram plates and b-knuckle and had largely silver graphics on the outer pulley cage plate with a touch of red.
• In 2010 SRAM introduced a 'Limited Tour Edition' sometimes shortened to LTE. This has black parallelogram plates and b-knuckle. The graphics on the outer pulley cage plate were largely yellow with a touch of silver. Only a 'limited' number of these were made.
• In 2011 came the 'Black Edition'. This had the LTE's black parallelogram plates and b-knuckle, but the graphics on the outer pulley cage plate reverted to being largely silver with a touch of red.

This is a fine, well preserved, plain-vanilla SRAM Red (RED-A1) in silver. It weighs a miserly 146g. Incredible!

It also has wildly exotic ceramic ball bearings in its pulley wheels - but despite all this sophistication the tension pulley has cracked in that signature SRAM way.

• Derailleur brands: SRAM
• Categories: SRAM - the derailleur in Red
• Country: USA, manufactured in Taiwan (the serial number begins '52T8...')
• Date of introduction: 2007
• Date of this example: week 52 2008 (the serial number begins '52T8...')
• Model no.: RD-RED-A1
• Weight: 146g
• Maximum cog: 28 teeth
• Total capacity: 31 teeth
• Pulley centre to centre: 55mm
• Index compatibility: 10 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: aluminium b-knuckle and outer parallelogram plate, the rest is carbon composite.

Ref. 2237