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Derailieurs, they hang down, right?
Mad moment after a beer or 2, but why could they not hang up, so to speak, and be out of harms way.
They need to be on the slack side of the chain, which is below the axle
https://www.nicolai-bicycles.com/nucleon-16-supre-bike-en
this is a neat take on derailleurs in terms of keeping them out of the way. Not sure I could be bothered maintaining that though.
Gravity. Same reason the wheels are at the bottom.
Somebody didn't do physics/basic mechanics at School. Or has been on Xmas beer
New bearings ?, that'll be £412 please, fitting not included.
On a handbike they point up, but as @sirromj says, it's a front mech on a front wheel drive.
to be able to get the chain move smoothly from sprocket to sprockets the derailleur need be at a point slightly ahead of where the chain links mesh with the teeth. this happens at the bottom of the cassette. if the derailleur pointed up at this point it would get tangled with the stays.
There was a French company, EGS, who tried to market an 'Upcage' Derailleur back in the late-90s, but that actually sat horizontally, parallel with the chain stay.
https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/egs_up_cage_derailleur.html
Disappointed, I was expecting an eBay special
Would work fine if you don't mind pedalling backwards. Or you could put a reverse loop in the chain and take a hit on chainline!/
Shame it didn't work out,that EGS mech is a thing of beauty
That site with all the derailleurs is an absolute time-sink, needs a NSFW just because if I keep looking at it, I'm not getting anything done today.
Thanks for sharing, amazing what t'internet throws up.
I saw the Upcage in the flesh at Bike99 in the NEC. I suspect the real problem was that it was sold as part of a system that used a very clever grip shift to sequentially shift both front and rear mechs in the appropriate order to get the smallest steps in ratio. I imagine that it must have been (a) very difficult to adjust, (b) quite sensitive to mud throwing it out of sync, (c) quite delicate. It was certainly eye-wateringly expensive. 😮
Shimano have a patent out on a design very similar to the upcage.