Designed to be a mass market indexed derailleur, the VIC is a steel monster vaguely reminiscent of the Huret Allvit. Unlike the Allvit, its parallelogram is made up of ‘three dimensional’ arms (like a SunTour Honor) rather than made up of flat plates (like a Huret Svelto), and the guide pulley moves forwards as it moves inwards. The basic geometry has many elements of a design of the SunTour Love (LV00) that SunTour patented (US patent # 4,789,379) in 1987. This geometry is quite interesting, promising the advantages of a slant parallelogram, without the torque across the parallelogram pivots. The VIC should have changed as well as a SunTour V and lasted as long as a Campagnolo Nuovo Record.

The price to pay for this sophistication is a lorra, lorra metal, as Cilla would say. Not a good way to keep down the weight on a low end steel gear. I believe it was a commercial disaster.

Finally the VIC is one of a select band of derailleurs which have the logo upside down for easy reading from low flying helicopters.

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• Derailleur brands: Sugino
• Country: Japan, manufactured in China
• Date of introduction: 1996
• Date of this example: unknown (stamped lot no E-3)
• Model no.: RD11
• Weight: 455g including hanger plate
• Maximum cog: 32 teeth
• Total capacity: 38 teeth
• Pulley centre to centre: 85mm
• Index compatibility: 6 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: steel

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