History of Sachs New Success

The true story of Sachs New Success, the last and best attempt of the Franco-German manufacturer to compete with Campagnolo and Shimano before the brand was acquired by SRAM (see below).

The online information is scarse on Sachs New Success. Moreover, it is not always correct.

Back in the nineties, I was a sponsored rider for the Belgian distributor of Sachs New Success, As a mountainbike racer I got to know the Sachs New Success groupset in 1993 and it didn’t take long before I upgraded my race bike to an all New Success gear set. Although I don”t have a documented history on every single component and variation ever produced, my collection of New Success components is pretty impressive according to some.

So after 25 years of riding and collecting Sachs New Success components, I guess it is about time to remove the dust from this part of cycling history with a new series of blog posts. In this first blog post, we’ll start with some background information and main highlights. The rest of the story will be revealed throughout time …

A brief history

In a few lines: Fichtel & Sachs was a German manufacturer named after the two inventors that founded the company in 1895 to produce innovative ball bearings and bicycle parts. Throughout the years, focus shifted to motors and motor components until the company aquired Huret, Maillard and Sedis.

1985-’86 Sachs-Huret ‘New Success’

This is where the New Success story starts in 1985. Nevertheless, this first generation of the New Success derailleur was not entirely new. It was merely a styling upgrade from the Huret Super Success derailleur which was no match for the contemporary Italian and Japanese components of that time.

First generation of Sachs Huret New Success rear derailleur

The mounting bolts, swivel design and spring mount was a faint copy of the Shimano layout of the late seventies. It was and still is a very decent derailleur, though outdated by the time it was released to the market.

1987: The first complete Sachs New Success branded groupset

In 1987, Sachs-Huret was acquired by the German engineering group Mannesmann which dropped Huret from the brand name, converting it to plain Sachs a few years later.
Earlier that year, Sachs introduced the reinvented New Success Aris rear derailleur and downtube shifters, one of the very best index shifting gear sets of that era, if not the best.

The new inclinated parallellogram design was inspired by the Suntour geometry that was already widely copied and used by other brands after the Suntour patent ended. But it was the perfect harmony of the spring-loaded cable-stopper, the razor sharp index shifting of the downtube shifters and the ‘Rapid Grip and Shift profile’ of the specially designed sprockets, that allowed for precise and quick gear shifts, even in harsh weather conditions.

Teamwork, made in Europe

By the end of the eighties most component brands developed complete groupsets. Sachs on its end, depended largely on other brands from within the Mannesmann family as well as outside the company to complete the groupset. This influenced the overall styling of the components, especially in the early years.

The New Success groupset combines newly developed Sachs components (ARIS shifters and derailleurs) with race-proven parts from the Mannesman Group, including a Sedisport chain and enhanced Maillard freewheels, as well as high-end components from some of Europe’s best OEM manufacturers (Modolo brake set, Thun cranks and SKF bottom bracket produced in Germany in the ball bearing division formerly owned by Fichtel & Sachs).

1987 Sachs New Success ARIS ad

1989: Second generation of the New Success Aris derailleur

In 1989 Sachs released an update with a closed cage and a slightly smoother styling. This design would withstand the test of time, with minor updates to facilitate the 8-speed Ergo levers in 1993.

3 versions af Sachs New Success Aris derailleurs

 

  1. 1987-1988: First generation Aris derailleur set with downtube shifters and rebranded Thun cranks
  2. 1989-1992: Second generation Aris derailleur with downtube shifters and rebranded Campagnolo cranks
  3. 1993-1995: Second generation Aris derailleur (8-speed) with ergo lever brifters and rebranded Campagnolo cranks

1991: Collaboration with Campagnolo

From 1987 through to 1995, Sachs changed the graphics of the New Success groupset about every 2 years. It is only when Sachs and Campagnolo started a close partnership to develop the Ergo lever shifters from 1991, that Sachs started using rebranded Campagnolo (Athena and later Chorus) cranksets rather than customized cranksets from Thun. In future blog posts you will see that the graphics on different components within one group were not always matching in the early years.

Sachs started using rebranded Campagnolo cranks from 1991 (3).

 1993: Ergo Power levers

Campagnolo enthusiasts tend to believe that Campagnolo invented the Ergo Power levers and that Sachs New Success levers are rebranded Campagnolo Chorus (or Athena) levers. I don’t have it written on paper, but as a sponsored athlete I was told a different story. Considering the history of Sachs with geared hubs, it sounds more likely however that the development was a joint effort in which the German engineers of Sachs played an important part. Campagnolo took care of manufacturing.

Hint: With the introduction of the instantly succesful Ergo Power brifters, the SACHS logotype was printed in blue to indicate which derailleurs were compatible with the Ergo Power levers.

1993-1995 Sachs New Success MTB second gen

It was when Sachs introduced the second generation of the New Success mountainbike groupset with astonishing grip shifters in 1993, that I finally fell in love with the brand.
Except from the brake levers, it looked amazing. But moreover, it was in the same weight category as Shimano XTR at half the price but performed better in extreme conditions and had a longer lifespan. As it turns out, it was in offroad cycling that Sachs made a difference which was noticed by the owners of SRAM, who acquired the brand a few years later.

1993 Sachs New Success longcage rear derailleur and triple front derailleur

In 1994, Sachs added the Power Disc and Hydro Pull to the mountainbike product line. Watch out for our special post on Sachs New Success mountainbike groupset to find out more about these cool parts.

1996: The end of the Success story

Ten years after the introduction of the New Success model, it was substituted by Quarz and the brand completely shifted focus from road cycling to mountainbike and touring. One year later, the Sachs Bicycle Components unit with its 600 employees was sold to the American company SRAM which completely dropped the Sachs brand name in 1999.

The 1996 Quarz derailleur was lighter but less durable as its predecessor.

Beyond Sachs: SRAM

The engineers of the former Sachs unit, however, continued developing new products for the SRAM brand which lead to the very first SRAM XO derailleur in 2002 with an innovative 1:1 actuation ratio that proved to be easier, faster and more accurate to shift than the Shimao XTR mountainbike derailleur at that time. And this way… history of the Sachs bicycle brand and engineering is continued.

Note that the Sachs cage design lived on in the early SRAM cages.

Tell us what else you want to know about the history of this fabulous groupset. Want to add something? We are always on the lookout for catalogues, parts and other attributes. Please drop us a comment below and we’ll get back to you asap.

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40 Comments

  1. Thomas Frank
    February 20, 2022
    Reply

    I have a complete New Success group set 2nd Gen with the last Thun crankset, the only part which will be missing is the bottom bracket, original they used a SKF type., because it is difficult to find.

    Could you please give to me the lenght of the axle I need for. Is it an ISO BB – I will not destroy the crank.

    Another questions refer to the rear derailleur of this 2nd New Success it looks a bit similar to a 8-speed MAVIC 840 – are both the same eventually

    Many thanks in advance
    Thomas .

    • Tony
      March 19, 2022
      Reply

      Hi Thomas, I have a 1994 SKF labeled Sachs New Success bottom bracket for a road double crankset. The spindle is ISO and measures 114.5mm. Hope this helps!

  2. Bruce Manchan
    September 10, 2021
    Reply

    Hi Stefan,

    Bruce. Would you happen to know if the 8sp. indexing long cage Mtn. RD. will work with the down tube 6sp. Aris indexing road shifters? Is the cable pull compatible between both and the spacing of the Aris 6 & 8 sp. Freewheels?

    Thanks.

  3. Bruce Manchan
    February 6, 2021
    Reply

    Hi Stephan,

    Bruce. I was wondering if you can use the Long Cage MTN Derailleur with the ARIS 6sp. Road shifters will the index shifting be spot on with the correct Sachs 6sp. freewheel? I do have the road front derailleur and the matching triple MTN derailleur and using Stronglight 107 triples 50-42-30,

    Thanks.
    Bruce.

    • Stefan
      February 7, 2021
      Reply

      Hi Bruce,
      For sure it works with the 7 and 8 speed shifters, I have used both.
      In Theory it should work for the 6-speed too but unfortunately I have never tested it.

      Br, Stefan

  4. stephane
    January 5, 2021
    Reply

    Hello
    I would like to know if it’s possible to put a shimano body ( if it exists) on a sachs new succes rear hub ?

    thank for your help

    • Stefan
      February 7, 2021
      Reply

      Hi Stephane, I am very sorry for the delayed reply, seems I missed this one.

      Actually, did you try to fit your Shimano cassette on the hub?
      The 8-speed Sachs body is Shimano compatible as far as I know. So no reason to change the body. I have always raced the 8-speed version with Shimano cassette.

      Br, Stefan

  5. Karel Danda
    June 2, 2020
    Reply

    Hallo,

    I can send to you scans of datasheets for New Succes and Rival.

    • Stefan
      June 3, 2020
      Reply

      Hi Karel, those are always welcome. We’ve sent you an e-mail.

  6. Alasdair
    April 11, 2020
    Reply

    On the triple front. The early ones the cable bolt went straight into the aluminium arm. These cracked so later were replaced with a steel sleeve the bolt went in. That later got changed to an embedded nut as the sleeve sometimes spun. Oddly I have all three examples.

  7. Bruce Manchan
    March 25, 2020
    Reply

    Thanks for the information! The long cage like you said is very hard to find in good condition. The rear drop outs are vertical and are Huret the derailleur stop at 7 o’clock and the short cage I have has the correct alignment with the B tension screw. I have not seen a long cage with this configuration. The bike has accomplished several P-B-P
    events I am assuming with this set up. with the original owner. Mr. Csuka built this for the original owner and were friends. This does have the Rival front derailleur 1989′ that will handle doubles and triples. Thanks again for putting me at ease. I would like to keep it as original as I can. This was a part of French History in cycling with these components. I have not seen to many Alex Singers with these components. I will keep me eye out for the correct long cage.

    Bruce.

  8. Bruce Manchan
    March 25, 2020
    Reply

    Hi Stefan,

    Bruce. I am going through an Alex Singer bike 1987′-89′ build date with the 2nd generation Sachs Huret Aris short cage derailleur and 6speed braze on shifters.
    The bike came with Stronglight 107 triples and a Sach Millard 6sp. freewheel with a chrome Sedis chain. I was trying to find out what the short cage derailleur can really handle on a freewheel as far as a 28 cog? The triple is a 48-42-36. I can not find a French thread 13-28, 14-28 Sachs Millard 6sp. freewheel, I have the original 13-24. I have a 5sp French thread Regina NOS on a pair of Super Champions #58 with Maxi-Car
    Hubs. Will this combination work with the 6sp. indexing? Any help would be gratefully
    appreciated.

    • Stefan
      March 25, 2020
      Reply

      Hi Bruce, it can indeed handle 28. Though with a triple crank, a long cage would be better. They hare really hard to find in this second generation though and the short cage should under normal conditions get enough tension on the chain. Ideally, the derailleur is used with the matching ARIS freewheel.
      The cog spacing should be the same on the 5 and 6 speed, so it should function pretty well.

  9. Benoit
    July 10, 2019
    Reply

    Bonjour,
    Super article!
    Je vais acquérir un vélo Peugeot “Professionnel 1000” de 1995 équipé en SACHS NEW SUCCESS.
    La roue libre d’origine est en 12-19 avec deux plateaux 52-42.
    J’ai dans l’idée de remplacer la roue libre de 12-19 par une roue libre de 13-28 pour rouler en montage.
    J’aimerai savoir si le filetage pour le montage de la roue libre est standard et si mon dérailleur va accepter la nouvelle roue libre de 13-28.
    Pour le plateau j’aimerai remplacer le petit plateau pour un 36 ou 34.
    Je ne sais pas si cela est possible?
    Benoît

  10. Donal
    June 30, 2019
    Reply

    Thanks for a really informative post about the history of the Sachs company. One of my first bikes was a Peugeot with Aris Rival shifters and derailleurs that worked great. I was intensely proud of being the only kid around with other-than-shimano gears. I upgraded the frame and parts over the years, but the Aris stuff stayed on for a long time.

    The first time I heard of SRAM was when I saw a Rival-equipped bike in a shop in San Diego. I was sure the Rival name couldn’t have just reappeared out of nowhere. I presume some of those lingering Sachs engineers have been part of keeping that connection, even as Red, Apex and Force seem to be the main focus of their sales efforts.

  11. Benjamin
    June 24, 2019
    Reply

    Bonjour Stefan
    Merci pour votre article super intéressant 🙂
    J’aimerais savoir si vous connaissez la série Sachs 5000 ?
    J’ai acquis un levier de dérailleur Arr Sachs 5000 7 vitesses. L’indexation ne fonctionne pas et n’a pas l’air simple à démonter. Je n’ai trouvé aucune doc sur internet sur ce modèle.
    Si vous avez quelques informations à me donner, je vous en serai reconnaissant.

    Cordialement
    Benjamin

    • Stefan
      July 1, 2019
      Reply

      Bonjour Benjamin,
      Désolé pour la réponse rétardé. Oui, je connais la série 5000. Est-ce que tu peux nous envoyer une photo du levier par e-mail? Alors je peux vérifier si nous avons un en collection afin de vérifier la problème. Bien à toi, Stefan

      • Benjamin
        July 2, 2019

        Bonjour Stefan
        Merci pour ton intérêt.
        Est-ce que je dois utiliser l’adresse quickrelease@lecycleur.com ?

  12. Taxi Rob
    March 6, 2019
    Reply

    Thank you for the informative post. I just picked up some Sachs Ergo levers, and mated them with a Shimano SIS rear derailleur, as most of my research pointed to Sachs having used the Shimano indexing standard. However, I’m finding that shifter moves the derailleur just a bit further than it should by the time I reach the two largest cogs. Did Sachs use Shimano, Campagnolo, or a third, proprietary standard for its 8 speed ergo levers? Velobase claims Campy (without much explanation,) but ARIS was Shimano compatible (based on all that I’ve read about it) so I assumed the Ergo levers would be as well.. Have I gotten a bum steer?

    • Bart Suykerbuyk
      March 14, 2019
      Reply

      hi rob, as far as we know the shifters are complete re-badged Campagnolo brifters. the Aris was 7 speed with down-tube shifters (as far as I know, Stefan is the expert on that but generally 8 speed is from 1990 and on) so yes those might work with Shimano shifters but later 8 speed campy has a different index. hope this helps

    • Stefan
      July 1, 2019
      Reply

      Hi Rob, did you work it out?
      I can confirm that the difference between the 8sp Campagnolo and Sachs indexing is minimal. They work together in either direction. I have raced with 8sp Sachs derailleurs controlled by Campagnolo brifters and have known riders doing the exact opposite: Campagnolo derailleurs controlled by 8sp Sachs brifters.

  13. February 21, 2019
    Reply

    Wonderful article! Nice memories.

  14. Doug
    November 10, 2018
    Reply

    Thank you so much for this post! If you can believe it, this morning I drove past an old black Trek road bike by the side of the road near my house with a “Free” sign on it. I grabbed it, though I was a bit reluctant to bring home another project. (Last year I converted the early 1970’s Raleigh Carlton of my youth to a single speed, using mostly Shimano 600 parts.) Anyway, the Trek has Sachs New Success brakes and derailleur and I had never heard of the brand before. Thank you for educating me! The pictures were great too, as they helped me narrow it to the 1992-95 Aris 8.

  15. Nels Cone
    November 3, 2018
    Reply

    I came to this site following up on the Sachs made Gipiemme (cronospecial) rear derailleur, that came on my 86 Faggin. Besides cosmetics, it looks exactly like a New Success model with the slant parallelogram design. At first I thought it might even have been made by Suntour. But in any case it works about 10X better with a Sedis chain than it does with a Regina, Campy made the shifters for this GPM Cronospecial/ Exploit grouppo and still has the campy logo on the backside of the levers. Again, all works well, just thought it was interesting to find a bit of history on it.

    • Stefan
      November 3, 2018
      Reply

      Hi Nels, you and I have been chatting about this through a facebook post last week. I am the one who asked you to send me the pictures of the Gipiemme rear derailleur. I look forward to see the pictures so that I can compare them to the different Sachs derailleur models we have in our collection. I would love to see it so if you want to share the pictures, please send them at quickrelease@lecycleur.com Thank, Stefan.

  16. yves le levier
    July 31, 2018
    Reply

    bonjour
    connaissez vous les références
    des roulements pour un moyeu avant new success de 1996/1997
    cordialement
    yves

    • Stefan
      September 2, 2018
      Reply

      Bonjour Yves, J’ai cherché mes archives mes je ne retrouve plus. En tous cas, tu pourrais trouver des remplacements de chez SKF. Il ne faut que mésuré les roulements et chercher dans la catalogue SKF en ligne. SKF fabriquait les boîtiers et les roulements pour Sachs. Dans l’époque j’ai acheté des remplacements de SKF pour mes moyeux New Success VTT.

  17. Bernard
    May 2, 2018
    Reply

    Thanks for this. I crashed last week and broke the right-hand ergo shifter of a mid-90s Chorus 8-speed set. A local shop in London happens to have an 8-speed right-hand shifter from the near-identical Sachs set! Lucky coincidence. Great to be able to read about it here as I’d never heard of them otherwise.

    • Stefan
      May 2, 2018
      Reply

      You are welcome Bernard. However… I would not use the Sachs shifter in combination with a Chorus derailleur. The indexing is slightly different which would make it very difficult to shift all gears fluently. If the derailleur is in new or nearly-new condition without play, it works reasonably but it will never work perfectly. Please keep that in mind if you would consider installing a Sachs shifter in combination with Campagnolo derailleurs.

  18. Mark S.
    October 15, 2017
    Reply

    Hi Stefan,
    I have the October 1991 issue of Bicycle Guide, which has a feature article on the new 8 speed New Success road group. As Steve S. mentioned, the crank was said to be made by Thun and was chrome plated and 130 mm BCD. The article states that it hadn’t been decided yet if production cranks would be polished or chrome plated. I have never seen a chrome plated crank other than on the MASI test bike in the article. It’s also worth noting that the shifters and derailleurs were branded Sachs Huret, the hubs and freewheel Sachs Maillard. The brake levers and calipers were branded Sachs on the main logos, but the hoods said Modolo, and a small Modolo logo appears on the back side of the calipers, next to a Sachs “S” logo and the brake reach specification. The graphics on the crank, shifters, derailleurs, and calipers are as shown on crankset #3 and rear derailleur #2 above, with print in black and a thin blue triangular stripe. The brake levers had a simple black Sachs logo similar to that shown on the Ergopower levers. I believe these graphics were used through 1992. Also worth noting are the other similar Sachs groups: 5000, Rival 6000 and 7000. Sachs also produced the America 1992 and Strada 1992 parts for Regina. I have some parts from all these other groups besides a couple of bikes equipped with New Success. I also have the 1995 and 1997 catalogs here. New Success and 5000 were still being produced as road groups in 1997, though the MTB groups had changed to Traxx, Centera, Neos, and Quarz. 5000 included downtube shifters or Ergopower with plastic shift levers while the New Success Ergopower had polished shift levers and carbon reinforced bodies (Carbon logo on body). Happy to photograph any parts that you don’t have. Thanks for putting this information out there.

    • Stefan
      October 15, 2017
      Reply

      Hi Mark,

      Thanks for the input! I would be really interested in receiving a scan of the article and the catalogs. We are preparing extra articles on the different Sachs New Success generations so any information is welcome to make the articles as accurate as possible.
      Indeed Sachs made the derailleurs for Regina America and Edco. Thanks for your input! Stefan

  19. Nicolas
    September 4, 2017
    Reply

    Bonsoir,
    Excellent article sur ces formidables composants et sur cet ultime tentative de création d’un groupe “Made in Europe”. Mais pourquoi le modèle 87-88 a-t-il duré aussi peu de temps ? C’est à mon avis le plus joli, le mieux fini.
    Nous attendons avec impatience les moyeux New Success.

    • Stefan
      October 12, 2017
      Reply

      Salut Nicolas, désolé pour la réponse retardée. Moi aussi, je préfères le dessin antérieur. Mais fin des années ’80 tous les marques changeaient le dessin des components après 2 années. Sur l’aspect technique, presque rien avais changer.

  20. Francesco Mazzucco
    September 2, 2017
    Reply

    Hi Stefan, I’m proudly owner of a great Bottecchia Columbus that fits the full set built by Sachs-Huret in 1991. I love to read your fantastic post about, and was my biggest resource of information… I own this bike from last month and it was the best deal of my life. However today I noticed two bad cracks in the hub of right cranck, between the small chainring and the frame. Both cracks are long and radial at 0° and 180°. I’m looking for a spare coming from the same set, to keep the bike intact as it born…. Can you give me some advice to identify the correct arm to fit…?
    Thank you for your great post!!!
    New Success still rules! Loving it!!!

    Francesco

    • Stefan
      October 12, 2017
      Reply

      Hi Francesco, thanks for your kind words and sorry to hear about the cracks. Did you find any replacement already? If nog, please send us some pictures on quickrelease@lecycleur.com so that I can give the right advise. Cheers, Stefan

      • Francesco Mazzucco
        October 12, 2017

        Hi Stefan, I found already an used replacement and it’s already fitted on my bike… I will send you some photo of the broken crank and also of the bike, if you wish… Consider that before the replacement I kept riding and the cracks growed pretty fast… When I replaced both
        cracks was long close to five centimeters.

  21. Herman
    June 8, 2017
    Reply

    Stefan,

    Thank you for the informative article. I had never heard of Sachs New Success until buying a well-maintained late 90s bicycle with much of the New Success group attached to it. Perfect timing for me to learn about this group.

    Herman

    • Stefan
      June 12, 2017
      Reply

      Hi Herman, you are most welcome. We would love to see pictures of your bike. You can always send them to quickrelease@lecycleur.com

  22. Steve S.
    May 24, 2017
    Reply

    The early Sachs New Success (and Rival for that matter) cranksets were not made by Stronglight, but they were made by the German company Thun. The New Success version was unusual in that it was aluminum but chrome plated. They were below the level of the rest of the components. They did have the excellent SKF bottom bracket which was retained when Sachs started to source cranks from Campagnolo.

    • Stefan
      May 24, 2017
      Reply

      Hi Steve, Thanks for your input. Great to see that there’s other Sachs New Success enthusiasts out there. Please tell us more about your experiences so that we can all together get the story right. Really appreciate it!

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