My take on Britain and derailleurs is that they were a lot more common tha n one supposes. Even a cursory glance at a copy of "Cycling" in the mid 19 30s shows myriad top-end lightweights offering a variety of British and foreign-made derailleurs as either stock fit or an option. Not just the small bespoke makers either, but the big guys like Rudge-Whitworth, BSA an d Hercules.
As I've surmised here before I think the hub gear was more a Raleigh "thing" than a British one. Of course Hercules and BSA had their own hub
gears, but I don't think they ever made a range for club or racing use. Sturmey-Archer did of course. But it's always useful to remember SA was part and parcel of Raleigh and I think this impacted on rivals offering their products on their bikes.
I also think there were probably more derailleur bikes on the road in Britain than any country in the world at any given time just based on the sheer number of bikes in Britain. And, unlike in France and Italy, sport s cycling was an "everyman" game and far more common. We Americans are so atuned to Lance and the TdF and classic European roadracing we tend to forget differing but far more widespread British practices that encouraged
lightweight cycling to a much larger degree: club riding and time trials.
Finally, I have given up trying to convince you lot that you can really have a super "lightweight racing" experience with a hub gear. Most of yo u hear Sturmey-Archer and think of a Raleigh Sports or a DL-1 roadster. A Sports with an AW hub has as much in common with an RRA with an FC hub as an AO-8 has with a PY-10. It's a distinction one enjoys demonstrating to
the spandex lads on their Litespeeds and Colnagos which an RRA with an FC can eat for breakfast.
But the folks that were not entirely convinced it seems were a lot of British club and racing lads, clad in wool not spandex, who were buying derailleurs and using them well before any of us. All the more surprisin g to me that Britain opted out of the derailleur making game just as came to
dominate all aspects of cycling.
Peter Kohler Washington DC USA
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