Mystery prototype rear derailleur seen on Molly Cameron’s Focus Mares. © Clifford Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
Molly Cameron came in second at the 2016 CrossVegas’ Wheelers and Dealers race, falling just short of defending the 2015 title. Cameron was racing her Shimano Ultegra 6800-equipped Focus Mares that looked similar to the model we reviewed in Issue 27. Her bike was equipped with TRP CX 8.5 mini-V brakes and Challenge Team Edition Grifo tires on Enve tubular wheels, but most intriguing was the drivetrain. Molly was running Shimano STI 11-speed shifters with a single chainring up front and an unmarked rear derailleur.
Mystery prototype rear derailleur is CNC machined, and reminds us of 90s mountain bike components from Paul Component and others. Seen on Molly Cameron’s Focus Mares. © Clifford Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
The mechanism is machined aluminum with a raw finish and bolted together. The bulky part of the B-knuckle is machined out, as is the front plate. It seems to use slant-parallelogram geometry with a medium length pulley cage.
The upper pulley is coincident with the upper return spring, housed within a black plastic cover. I swung the pulley cage forward and felt stiff spring tension with progressive resistance—likely a “clutch” mechanism of some sort for better chain retention for single chainring 1X drivetrains.
The prototype appears to use a slant parallelagram geometry (unlike SRAM’s 1X derailleurs) with a clutch-type mechanism coincident with the top pulley. Mystery prototype rear derailleur seen on Molly Cameron’s Focus Mares. © Clifford Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
It’s clear that this is a prototype derailleur, but made by which company? Cameron was sponsored by Shimano, Enve, and TRP in the past. Cameron was mum on the topic, but we’re guessing it’s either a prototype from TRP or perhaps Shimano, as the former has dabbled in drivetrain components, while Shimano has yet to offer a clutch derailleur for its road shifters (unless you pair an XTR Di2 rear derailleur with Di2 road shifters).
Mystery prototype rear derailleur seen on Molly Cameron’s Focus Mares. © Clifford Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
Using a Shimano clutch-based rear derailleur with a drop handlebar bike is already possible with some creative solutions. Gevenalle offers its GX shifters that pair nicely Shimano Dyna-Sys rear derailleurs, Wolf Tooth has its Tan Pan pulley that pairs Shimano road shifters with Shimano mountain bike derailleurs, and then of course there’s the tried-and-true method that Sven Nys used the last few seasons—a guard and watcher.
Add another option to that list, if you’re fortunate to have access to a manufacturer’s prototypes.
