The Refinement of The Racing Bicycle 1953-1979

Looking back at the previous era, racing bicycle and component manufacture consisted of numerous small and medium sized firms with many design theories competing in the derailleur market. By the mid '50's many of these companies had vanished. In France, Simplex, Cyclo and Huret were the sole surviving derailleur makers. Huret equipped Stellas were ridden to victories in the 1953-1955 Tours de France by Louison Bobet and Simplex remained a fixture in bicycle racing, but their plunger spring, pull chain derailleurs were becoming outdated by this time. Simplex and Huret used a rod-actuated front derailleurs   known as "suicide shifters". Perhaps the awkward nature of the shift maneuver caused a crash or two in the peloton.

Louison Bobet

Simplex Competition derailleur

1954 Stella Tour de France                     equipped                                with Huret                             derailleurs

Bobet admiring Raphael Geminiani's Simplex equipped bike.

1950 Helyett Speciale equipped with Simplex derailleurs

Campagnolo Gran Sport rear derailleur

Jacques Anquetil on a 1962 Helyett Speciale

Anquetil's 1957 Helyett Speciale with all French components.

In 1963 Anquetil switched teams and would ride Campagnolo equipped Gitane bicycles to victories in the 1963 and 1964 Tours de France

Anquetil's 1963 Gitane. A   bicycle of French manufacture equipped with  Italian Campagnolo parts

Even 3 time TdF winner, frenchman Louison Bobet, a national hero for riding an all French bike, switched to Campagnolo                         equipment in 1956.

1958 was the first year Campagnolo offered a crankset, and introduced the  one piece alloy hubs as well. The Campagnolo gruppo also included pedals, seatpost, headset and bottom bracket, along with the front and rear derailleurs. A Campagnolo brakeset would make its appearance 10 years later.

1958 Legnano Roma Olimpiade

In Italy's national tour, the Giro d'Italia as well as every other professional race during the 1960's and beyond, it was a rare sight to see a racing bicycle equipped with anything but the pride of Italy, Campagnolo.

Felice Gimondi

1966 Giro d'Italia

1968 Pogliaghi in the powerhouse Faema team colors with the Universal 68 brakeset and the replacement for the Record derailleur, the Nuovo Record

Bernard Thevenet, victorious in the 1975 and 1977 Tours de France aboard an all French Peugeot. The Peugeot PX-10 proved to be one of the most popular racing bikes of the era to aspiring young racers because of it's moderate price and wide distributorship.

The legendary Eddy Merckx with another legend,  bicycle manufacturer Ugo DeRosa. During his professional career, Merckx raced on bicycles built by Superia, Peugeot, Masi, Marcel Van der Este, Pella, Colnago, Kessels, and DeRosa.

Campagnolo Timeline

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Simplex continued to find supporters in the ranks of the professional racers,
among them, Jacques Anquetil. Between 1957 and 1964 Jacques Anquetil
won the Tour de France five times and was one of the most charismatic
figures of his time. Riding a Simplex equipped Helyett Speciale for his first
three Tour victories, these bikes were essentially French, using Simplex
derailleurs, TA pedals, Mafac brakes, Atom hubs, TA and later
Stronglight cranksets.

In Italy, Tullio Campagnolo was searching for a replacement for the lever operated, sliding hub Cambio Corsa,
and it's refinement, the Paris-Roubaix. These derailleurs were awkward and slow shifting in race conditions,
were expensive to produce and required special frame dropouts. Consequently, a very small number of these
were sold in comparison to the Simplex derailleurs. In 1951, Campagnolo purchased the patent rights for a
parallelogram derailleur and within three months had developed the Gran Sport rear derailleur. Campagnolo
continued to refine the Gran Sport and it soon proved to be a significant improvement over any other shifting
mechanism. By 1953 it was the derailleur of choice for many professional racers.

Campagnolo history

Campagnolo catalog archive

                         rides a Bianchi Team bike
in 1968. Equipped with the newly
introduced Campagnolo Nuovo Record
derailleur, but with Universal 68 brakes.
Campagnolo's Record brakeset would be
introduced late in the year