dérailleur

plural dérailleurs

1. alternativeAlternative form of derailleur.

   Adjusting a dérailleur may look complicated, but the process is actually simple and can be done by anyone.

   1994, Steve M. Matthews, Improve Your Paragraphs, Glencoe, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 242

   3 more examples

   The chain is guided by dérailleurs from one sprocket to another, front and rear, until the gear ratio desired is reached. […] Generally the problems in this area will be with the dérailleurs or the chain. Still, it is possible that a bad chain will have worn the teeth on the freewheel or the front sprocket.

   1973, Ross R[obert] Olney, “Chains, Sprockets, and Pedals”, in Simple Bicycle Repair and Maintenance, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →ISBN, page 28

   To this effect, the subject of the invention is a control device for a dérailleur-gear for a bicycle, of the type as described previously, characterized in that the cable for actuation of the dérailleur-gear is connected to an actuation stud rotated by the operating hand-lever, and on which are provided the control mechanism and the means for attaching the moveable part of the device to the fixed part of the latter.

   1989 July 27, Günter Look, Régis Sinoquet, Control device for a derailleur-gear for a bicycle, US Patent 5,052,242

   By flicking the gear lever, you can flip the chain onto different pairs of gear wheels so, effectively, you're changing the relative size of the two gear wheels connected together. A cunning mechanical gear-shift called a dérailleur allows you to do this as you’re bicycling along, even while the gear wheels and the chain are spinning at speed. […] In a high gear, for racing down the straight, the back wheel will turn more quickly than the wheel you pedal (faster and with less force). In low great it's the opposite, with the back wheel turning more slowly but with a huge dollop of extra force for digging in and crawling up hills.

   2015, Chris Woodford, “The Beauty of Bikes”, in Atoms Under the Floorboards: The Surprising Science Hidden in Your Home, London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Sigma, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 67