There was some guy who lived in Santa Barbara whose name I forget that imported the Desiree's. I once had one. It had a wide range derailleur that was made out of a Campy Gran Sport parallelogram and a Simplex Rigidex cage. The crank was a Magistroni with something like 52 and 26 teeth. The story was that he equipped his bikes to go up and down Old San Marcos pass, but not on level ground.
Leonard Bulger
Ann Arbor, but formerly Santa Barbara