Product Description
The near mythical Cambio Corsa was Campagnolo's first ever derailleur/shifter gruppo from the 1940's to mid 1950's. The derailleur was made famous by Gino Bartalli and team Legnano in the 1948 Tour De France. It was both a masterpiece of engineering and design for the era—as well as just a little silly because the cyclotourisme world in France had already developed several derailleurs with jockey wheels in the 1930's that shifted brilliantly (Nivex, Cyclo Standard...). The racers just couldn't get on board with the perceived drag jockey wheels created and the Tour De France outlawed them.
This derailleur worked by moving the top lever to literally undo the skewer allowing the toothed axle to move backwards in the special toothed dropouts to provide chain tension, and the lower lever moved the fork which pushed the chain up/down. The top lever again closed the skewer once the shift was complete.
Included in this mini gruppo is both the long top and short lower shift levers, their clamps and nuts, a rear skewer (missing one frankenstein bolt), and a set of dropouts
Quite a rare piece worthy of your antique show bike, TDF history showcase, or in your bike shop display.
Condition
Excellent to near mint shape! The shift levers and all their hardware are very clean. Just the slightest pitting and a bit of darkening of the chrome on the short lever's blade. Skewer is rough. Dropouts are NOS, but have moderate rust (I haven't tried removing this but it seems shallow enough that they'll clean up nicely)
Details
- Part number: #1001
