LOUIS PITARD, FRANCIE 1944 (System NIVEX)

NIVEX transfer system.

Bike in original condition, as time has left it. There are no signs of corrosion on the frame and its beautiful lining is fully preserved.

The NIVEX transfer system was patented in France in 1938 and perhaps only the war prevented its wider spread. It is the first parallelogram derailleur system, followed by Tullio Campagnolo with his derailleurs in 1951. A system that is still used today. Many people credit the Campagnolo Gran Sport with being the first parallelogram derailleur. A lot of people would be wrong.

While the Campagnolo Gran Sport was a breakthrough design, especially among racers, and was a design that spawned many copycats and imitators, another excellent parallelogram derailleur was introduced more than a decade earlier: the Nivex.

Nivex derailleur bikes are very rare, which was partly due to the war and the interruption of production. And secondly, that each derailleur had to have a frame with special feet and welds for the derailleur, for the Le Chat derailleur, also of French manufacture, and also for both levers of these derailleur systems.

More info: http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/