DISRAELI GEARS
The Favorit PWB is named for Praha, Warszawa and Berlin, the three capital cities that hosted the Peace Race, often referred to as the ‘Tour de France of the east’. I seem to remember Barum (a Czech tubular tyre manufacturer) having a model called PBW for Praha, Berlin and Warszawa, for a simlilar reason. Praha ,Warszawa, Berlin was the order in which the cities were visited in the Peace Races of 1960, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1982, but neither a Czech rider nor the Czech team won in any of these years.
The Favorit PWB is a solidly constructed (heavy) and quite well finished steel derailleur very distantly inspired by the Campagnolo Record. It has one sprung pivot and, in its racing form, the pulley cage pivot off-set from the axis of the pulley wheels. It was, however, designed by someone with a mind of their own. The adjustable cable outer stop is mounted on the inner parallelogram cage plate, as on a SunTour, the hanger bolt has a unique pin mechanism that limits the ‘swing’ of the unsprung pivot, and the adjusters are thumb-wheels of ingenious design, slightly reminiscent of the Simplex Juy Export 61, but actually slightly cleverer yet. The plain circular steel pulley wheels have rather smooth ball bearing races in them.
This example is the rarer ‘touring’ version, with the pulley cage pivot concentric with the guide pulley. I like the way the outer pulley cage plate is the same pressing as is used on the ‘racing’ version - with the tell-tale ‘lump’ where the ‘racing’ pivot would have been. I have left the hanger restrictor pin in the somewhat odd position in the photo, because this is how it was set on this example and on the only other ‘touring’ example I have ever seen.
The ideal derailleur for Alexander Dubcek to use on his long springtime tour from Prague to obscurity.
Browse associated documents.
Czech Patent # 116,453 - Favorit
Czech Patent # 116,453 - Favorit
