Part 106 is the catalog of SANKOSHA PROCYON.

Sankosha was parts maker which had been mainly producing derailleur, hub, freewheel of sport bicycle, continued the business until the end of 1960s. The oldest bicycle magazine which I own is CYCLE issued April 1957. I could see the advertisement of Sankosha in it. So the company still existed at least 1950s. However, I don’t know foundation year and company history.

PROCYON was derailleur which was announced on 1966. The catalog of the maker said world’s first derailleur which was made of light alloy. The image of left side is the advertisement which published in NEW CYCLING issued November 1966. Aside from design, the mechanism was similar to early model of Simplex Prestige. Back in those day, Sankosha imported and sold products of Simplex. So Sankosha had to used Simplex design as reference.

Below is 10 pages catalog include front page. It was a reference book for installation and maintenance rather than products introduction. There were two kinds of PROCYON. The early model and late model. You can distinguish by the shape of spring which was mounted on pantograph. The catalog below seems to introduce the late model. I don’t know about announcement date of late model. I suppose it was 1967 which was next year of announcement of early model.

I have seen real PROCYON, but haven’t owned and used it. So I don’t put comment.