Cyclo Benelux was launched as a brand name at the autumn bike shows in 1949. It was just of course a name used by Cyclo England - a separate company from Cyclo France by that time. There were a whole sequence of Cyclo Benelux racing derailleurs and a few touring ones too. And several varieties of front derailleur. Initially they launched one racing rear derailleur with a fairly straight aluminium arm - this what I have on sale on Ebay right now. It was replaced less than a year later by one with a cranked aluminium arm. In 1953 they replaced this with a cranked steel arm version - one of which I will be offering to CR members this afternoon. Slightly later (1955ish from memory) this was updated by the Mark VII and there was a Mark 12 which was adjustable for different freewheels. It is a myth to think that British riders raced only on hub gears - some time triallists used hub gears but that was it. Many time triallists used derailleurs. Road racers in Britain used derailleurs - Super Champion Osgears and Simplex Champion du Monde to start with mainly and then Simplex Tour de Frances. Campag Gran Sports were incredibly expensive and whilst tough and easy to set up did not change gear very well - a lot of overchanging on the lever was necessary. The Simplex TdF performed much better and was as i discovered this week capable of being indexed. A small British framebuilder made some indexed levers for the TdF which worked well. the Benelux whilst superficially similar to the Simplex was regarded less well, was more fragile and offered a poorer change due to not having a sprung top pivot in the main. A Benelux set up would be lighter than a Sturmey - how much would depend upon the hub. Remember a standard Benelux race gear will only cope with a 24T large cog on the freewheel as a max.
Hilary Stone in the warmest Autumn for 300 years in Bristol, England
doland cheung wrote;
> Anybody know anything about Benelux derailleurs?
>
> I'm trying to gather some info as to why or how Benelux derailleurs existed
> at the same time as SA internally geared hubs and why or why didn't club
> racers make a switch. I always thought derailleurs didn't become real
> popular until the Campy Gran Sport came out.
>
> I wanted to build a 50's style bike on a more easily obtainable (in my
> size) 70's frame that was in the British club racing style, with as many
> non-Italian parts as possible. I would think the Benelux setup would be a
> bit lighter, but the SA sturdier.