Photo from the collection of Jeff Archer of First Flight Bicycles. If you think you know what this is, post your answer in the ‘comments’ section– the correct answer will be posted there on Tuesday!
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Its THE Whhite Industries rear dérailleur they had at interbike years ago. It used a grip shift style ALLOY shifter and it had two cables running to it. One pulled it up one down. Worked nicely. Very smooth when I saw it at their booth. Not sure how long or how many sold. But it was made in the states and very cool.
I know where one of those exists out in the real world. One of the guys at Fresh Bikes has it in his colection. The other half of the system is really cool as well. The shifter is full CNC’d and the runs cable and housing for each direction of movement. It was an ausome idea but I’m pretty sure production costs were way to high espesially when you consider how little there compeditors, Gripshift and Sachs (plastic shifters), crap and functional (in that order), were at the time that they were working on this idea. I got a nice yellow grunge guard at the philly interbike show the same day I saw this. Super cool day. I’ve been hooked ever since.
LMDS.
Linear Motion Derailleur System.
Geek out:
http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/White_Industries_LMDS_derailleur.html
Late 90’s White Industries rear derailleur. Used a a cool looking twist shifter that operated similar to a Rohloff, using two cables. The two guide rods (?) are stainless steel. If I recall it was pretty expensive, and it was pain to set up because of all the cables (the front derailleur used two cables as well).
As others have pointed out, it’s the White Industries read derailleur. The design wasn’t exactly new and was basically an update of the old Cyclo derailleur. However, unlike the Cyclo, the White design was neither simple nor reliable. It required a fairly specialized cable and cables tended to wear faster than regular derailleur cables. It was also an unholy nightmare to install. Add to that the high cost (more than XTR) and it’s no surprise these vanished almost as fast as they arrived. It was a really cool looking derailleur.
I remember when these came out and I read, as I recall, an extremely negative review by Lenard Zinn in Velonews. Soon after i was down at the Cactus Cup, saw Doug White and his new derailleur and in my most idiotic,lack of tact way blurted out to Doug how Velonews didn’t like his new product. Appropriately, he growled something back at me & I headed off with my tail between my legs!! I’ll never forget it!! I thought the product was neat, thought I never bought one. I spent all my money on Precision Billet CNC machined derailleurs and shifters that broke with regularity. I sent them back for repairs so often i became friendly with them!!
Answer from Jeff at First Flight Bicycles: White Industries LMDS rear derailleur (Linear Motion Derailleur System).
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